ABSTRACT

In the Brazilian cerrado, farmers have the choice of adopting conventional tillage (CA) technologies through Zero Tillage (ZT) and the Integration of ZT Cropping with Livestock Production (ICLZT) as a way of minimising the multi-faceted impacts of agriculture on the environment. This chapter shows that more can be done to mitigate deforestation and to minimise the negative off-farm impacts of CT systems, as well as to eliminate the generally poor management of the existing 60 million ha of planted pastures in the cerrado, by adopting ZT and ICLZT technologies. Agronomically, for tropical areas, the latter alternative is viable through the adoption of CA technologies. The first farmer ZT test in the tropics was carried out in the Brazilian Atlantic forest biome in Matao, Sao Paulo state in 1976. The best management practice with ZT involves integrating all the individual best management practices available to maximise erosion control and annual biomass generation in a sustainable and competitive manner.