ECONOMICAL EVALUATION OF REDUCED INTENSITY TILLAGE SYSTEMS, STRAW AND GREEN MANURE COMBINATIONS

Abstract

Since 1999, a long-term field experiment has been done at the Experimental Station of Vytautas Magnus University (former Aleksandras Stulginskis University) at 54º52′50 N latitude and 23º49′41 E longitude. The soil of the experiment site is Epieutric Endocalcaric Endogleyic Planosol (Endoclayic, Aric, Drainic, Humic, Episiltic) according to WRB (2014). The objective of our investigations was to assess the long-term impact of reduced intensity tillage systems, straw and green manure combinations on productivity and economical evaluation.

A short crop rotation was introduced: winter wheat, spring barley, spring rape. The results were obtained in 2000-2017. Sustainable agroecosystems are able to maintain their condition, productivity and biodiversity, as well as their integrity over time and in the context of human activity and use. The sustainability of agroecosystems is inseparable from the stability of their productivity. In order to illustrate this, we estimated crop productivity differences % from the year 2000 to 2017. In terms of crop productivity, all the tested long-term complex measures of different intensities were similar, both when comparing with average productivity that year and when estimating cumulative differences com-pared with deep ploughing.