Modern agricultural production system aims to focus on developing such a technology which is environment friendly, profit oriented and socially accepted for which various agricultural technologies are innovated. Among them, a shift from the conventional tillage based production system ( which includes repeated ploughing, cultivation, planking and pulverizing) to zero tillage system ( i.e. direct drilling of crop seeds with minimal disturbance of soil to open silts and place seed and fertilizer) has gained significant importance in crop production. Zero tillage technology help on timely sowing of crop, which in turn also affects the crop yield. As the delay in harvesting of preceding rice crop results in late sowing of wheat seed, this increases the possibility of lower wheat yield due to terminal heat. The time of sowing of crops also delayed due to the intensive tillage requirements, soil moisture problems, and non- availability of traction power. Zero tillage technology helps in achieving higher benefits from both economic and environmental point of view.

 The zero-tillage or no tillage system is a system of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. This technology save the cost of land preparation, uses less irrigation water, reduce turn round period and facilitates the timely sowing without scarifying yield. In recent years, the use of no-tillage or reduced tillage systems has increased in several parts of the world.   It is desirable for farmers to select a profitable option that will ensure the high level of production with the use of low level of inputs.  The zero tillage technology can be the best way to achieve such goal. Reductions in cereal prices have led to further investigation on how to reduce costs. Using no tillage or reduced tillage can help reduce the cost of machinery and labor, whereas the use of, e.g., pesticide can go up. The use of zero tillage systems can especially benefit to large farms and help to promote a further increase of farm sizes. From the perspective of the society, reduced tillage might provide some additional environmental benefits. These effects might be reduced nitrogen leaching, lower CO2 emission, and reductions in soil erosions. This is important as soil degradation due to erosion and compaction is one of the major problems affecting around 16% of the agricultural area in Europe (ECAF, 2003).  Zero tillage is increasingly popular farming technology in many parts of the world. The benefits from zero tillage are less labor use and lower machinery cost per unit area, but there are also environmental benefits as e.g. reduced phosphorous losses and co2 emission(J. Tripathi, 2010). Degradation of the natural resource-base resulting from inappropriate land and input use is widely documented as one of the root causes (along with other factors) of this situation, which has compelled many agricultural scientists and policy makers to look toward a more sustainable path of cereal production, viz. conservation agriculture (CA) and RCTs While the CA technology ensemble is based on the principles of minimal soil disturbance, residue retention, rational crop rotation, and controlled traffic, RCTs cover all farming practices/technologies that facilitate the conservation and enhancement of resource use efficiency in farming ( FAO 2010;).

Reference: J Tripathi .Evaluation and promotion of resource conservation technologies in low land rice-wheat ecosystem  Agronomy Journal of Nepal

Agronomy Journal of Nepal (Agron JN) Vol. 3, IFPRI Discussion Paper 00916