Editorial

Excerpt

FEW topics spark as much discussion in conservation and agricultural circles these days as conservation tillage. Many conservationists and farmers look on conservation tillage as the most cost-effective means available to achieve soil and water conservation and other agricultural objectives.

It was this mushrooming interest in conservation tillage that prompted SCSA's Council last year to endorse publication of this special issue. Necessary financial support was obtained from four agribusiness firms: BASF-Wyandotte, Deere & Company, Pioneer Hi-bred International, and Monsanto. SCSA is indebted to these firms for their assistance, which also permitted distribution of the issue to the 3,000 conservation districts throughout the United States.

Our intent in putting the issue together was to present a state of the science and art of conservation tillage. We invited a number of overview articles in an attempt to assess the impacts of conservation tillage technology, both positive and negative, on soil and water resources and on environmental quality generally. We obtained a series of articles that look at the applicability of conservation tillage more from a regional point of view or from the perspective of certain crops. We included items on some of the imaginative extension efforts …