Sustainable agriculture by the Effects of Different Tillage Systems. Iranian researchers introduced new opportunities to improve agriculture.

PAZH | Conventional tillage can reduce infiltration and hydraulic conductivity by disrupting macrospore networks and increasing bulk density, porosity, water use efficiency, and soil organic matter. Conservation tillage is one of the practices of crop residue management on the soil surface.

Reduced tillage is one of the conservation systems that amount remain crop residues on the soil surface. Reduced tillage has some benefits, including higher soil organic matter, soil moisture maintenance by reducing evaporation, better penetration of water, and controlling water and soil erosion.

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers caused serious environmental issues globally, such as reduction of plant diversity, instability of economic yield, increased pest, and disease damages, and intensification of soil erosion.

These increasing concerns regarding the negative impacts of these systems on the environment and human health suggest that more effort is needed to develop sustainable agricultural systems.

Overall, the results of this experiment showed that there was a significant difference between tillage systems. The results can use for sustainable agriculture.

The highest number of pods per plant, plant height, number of lateral branches per plant, number of main branches per plant, biological yield, total pod weight, seed yield, and protein yield were achieved in reduced tillage that increased by 26.4, 16.8, 27.4, 28.6, 10.9 19.6 and 17.1 %, respectively when compared with conventional tillage. Also, the integrative application of AMF+ VC increased harvest index, 100 seed weight, biological yield, seed yield, and seed protein content by 16.7, 21.1, 19.7, 40.1, and 21.8%, respectively, when compared with the control.

The highest values of the seed yield and protein yield were obtained in reduced tillage with the integrative application of AMF+ VC. In contrast, based on the economic values, the maximum marginal rate of return was achieved in reduced tillage without fertilizer, conventional tillage without fertilizer, reduced tillage+ AMF, and conventional tillage+ AMF, respectively.