Study looks at tillage effect on crop yield, sustainability

Researchers from the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center at the University of Illinois can detect soil tillage practices from space, weaving together data from ground images, airborne sensors and satellites.

Now, with a grant from the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, they will expand on that work to produce more accurate estimates of tillage effects on corn and soybean yield, greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen loss, and changes in soil organic carbon, according to a university news release.

Leading the project is Bin Peng, senior research scientist at ASC and research assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois. He says although no-till and other conservation tillage practices are on the rise throughout the U.S. Midwest, small-scale studies on tillage effects have produced contradictory results. Furthermore, no integrated high-resolution study has been done at large spatial scales.