Economical Aspects of Conservation Agriculture (Zero Tillage-Direct Seeding) System in Turkey

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) is a valuable practice for managing agroecosystems for an improved and sustained productivity, increased profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the natural resource base, particularly in dry areas. It is potentially considered to be a promising system for sustainable crop production in the rain-fed areas of Turkey. However, bio-economically efficient crop rotations under CA need to be developed for successful practice of the system. Thus, in the current study, the cost of production and net profit in various crop rotation options in CA and conventional cropping system (CS) under rain-fed conditions were compared in Konya Province of Central Anatolian Region in Turkey for a period of three years. Crop rotations were designed around various combinations of bread wheat (W), chickpea (C), Hungarian vetch (HV) and safflower (S) crops. The total net profit of nine crop rotation systems in CA were 1.55 times greater than those in the CS system. In a 4-year-crop rotation, chickpea and Hungarian vetch in rotation with wheat and safflower provided a more efficient crop rotation option as compared to cereal fallow (F) rotations.