No-Till: Brazil's Green Revolution

http://www.scidev.net/en/features/zero-tillage-brazils-own-green-revolution.html

razil's large farms have long pioneered a green cultivation technique that boosts growth. Now its small farmers — and possibly the rest of the world — are following suit.

Called direct drilling, no-tillage or zero tillage (ZT), the technique is in part praised for fixing carbon in the soil, thereby reducing the amount of carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — released into the air. It also prevents soil erosion and therefore demands less irrigation.

Brazil has been a major pioneer of the technique since the country adopted it in the 1970s. But its small farmers have been lagging behind, mainly hindered by the high costs of specialised planting machines needed for ZT. Now, thanks to cheaper seeding machines and efforts by farming organisations and individual agronomists, small farmers are spreading the word.