What is/are the advantage/advantages of zero tillage in agriculture?
- 1.Sowing of wheat is possible without burning the residue of previous crop.
- 2.Without the need for nursery of rice saplings, direct planting of paddy seeds in the wet soil is possible.
- 3.Carbon sequestration in the soil is possible.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3
Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (d). Statement 3 says carbon sequestration 'is possible', which is the standard claim for no-till with residue retention — FAO's own account is that such systems accumulate more carbon in the soil and turn it into a net sink; the IPCC's caution that the evidence for net sequestration from no-till alone is not compelling qualifies the size of the gain, not the possibility. Statements 1 and 2 describe zero-till wheat sown through paddy stubble and no-till direct-seeded rice, both established practices. In the exam, read 'is possible' as a soft claim: one documented mechanism is enough.
Zero tillage means sowing the next crop directly into undisturbed soil without ploughing. All three are its advantages: wheat can be sown straight through paddy stubble without burning it, paddy can be direct-seeded without raising a nursery, and the undisturbed, residue-covered soil accumulates organic carbon.
- ✓ 1. Zero-till drills such as the Happy Seeder sow wheat straight through paddy stubble, so the residue need not be burnt; the Government promotes them for in-situ crop residue management in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
- ✓ 2. Direct seeding of rice into unpuddled, untilled soil skips the nursery and transplanting; trials in the Indo-Gangetic Plains found yields equal to puddled transplanting with 35–40 per cent less irrigation water.
- ✓ 3. Leaving the soil unploughed with residue on the surface slows the breakdown of organic matter; FAO notes that systems based on high residue addition and no tillage accumulate more carbon in the soil than plough-based tillage, turning the soil into a net carbon sink. It also cuts erosion and nutrient loss.
Remember · Zero tillage means sowing without ploughing: it lets farmers skip stubble burning and the rice nursery, cuts soil erosion, and builds up carbon in the soil.
Sources
- Economic Survey 2019-20 (Vol 2), Ch 7: Agriculture and Food Management ↗ “Government has given massive thrust to promoting latest agricultural machineries, like laser leveller, happy seeder technology, combine harvesters and small equipment like power weeders.”
- ICAR, Indian Farming 71(12), 'Happy seeder – A game changer technology' ↗ · reference work “It allows farmers to sow wheat immediately after their paddy is harvested without burning paddy residue for land preparation.”
- Dhaliwal et al., Plants 2021, 'Removal of Biomass and Nutrients by Weeds and Direct-Seeded Rice under Conservation Agriculture' (PMC) ↗ “Crop establishment steps include preparation of nursery bed, rice seedling raising and uprooting followed by the transplantation into the main field … Under DSR-ZT, rice was sown in a single operation using zero-till-fertilizer cum seed drill at 20-cm row spacing.”
- Modern Concepts of Tillage, TNAU Agritech Portal (Tamil Nadu Agricultural University) ↗ · reference work “Zero tillage is an extreme form of minimum tillage. Primary tillage is completely avoided and secondary tillage is restricted to seedbed preparation in the row zone only.”
- IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, Chapter 4: Land Degradation ↗ “Reduced tillage (or no-tillage) is an important strategy for reducing soil erosion and nutrient loss by wind and water”
- FAO, Conservation Agriculture: Benefits of CA ↗ “Systems, based on high crop residue addition and no tillage, accumulate more carbon in the soil, compared to the loss into the atmosphere resulting from plough-based tillage.”
- FAO AGRIS record: Bhushan, Ladha et al. (2007), Saving of Water and Labor in a Rice–Wheat System with No-Tillage and Direct Seeding Technologies ↗ “The yields of rice in the conventional puddled transplanting and direct-seeding on puddled or nonpuddled (no-tillage) flat bed systems were equal.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·