Chisel machine (National Research and Development Institute for Soil Science, Agrochemistry and Environment (ICPA) - Romania)
The technology is applied in Braila region and is located in north-eastern part of Romanian Plain. It has an agricultural area of 387,646 ha (of which 350,001 ha are arable land), and has specific geomorphologic, hydrological and climatic conditions which need to use ameliorative agricultural systems. Within Braila County are distinguished the following relief units: Calmatui Plain, part of the Braila Plain (51% from County area) and the Floodplains of Danube (Big Island of Braila), Siret, Buzau and Calmatui rivers (49% from County area).
Braila Plain is characterized by a specific micro-relief of Baragan type with large floodplains, poorly fragmented, with altitudes ranging between 20-25 m in the east part and 35-40 m to the west part, with soils mainly of chernozem type, formed on loess and loess deposits and which shows numerous small depression areas. Floodplains, areas adjacent to Danube, Siret, Buzau and Calmatui rivers are located at lower altitudes, ranging between 2-4 m and 13-15 m and are characterized by the presence of alluvial soils formed on river-limnic and alluvial deposits, with alternating of layers with different textures. According to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Braila County is located in arid region with an average annual temperature of 10.9°C, long-term average annual precipitations (P) of 447 mm, potential evapotranspiration (ETP) of 705 mm (750-800 mm in dry years) and an average climatic water deficit of 258 mm (350-400 mm in dry years). The biophysical aridity index (P/ETP = 0.50-0.65) places the Braila region in area with moderate risk to desertification. Both intensive and extensive farming systems are practiced within Braila County. Intensive agriculture, characterized by high inputs and yield levels, is realized on large vegetal farms. On the other hand, extensive agriculture, with low input and yield levels, is practiced by farmers on small vegetal farms, and is so-called the semi-subsistent agriculture.
The chisel tillage technology is an agronomic measure, that is practiced on medium to large farms (from 50 ha to more than 1000 ha in size) within the North-Eastern part of the Romanian Plain. Over the past years some farmers have changed the farming system from conventional to reduced or conservation tillage. The most important characteristic of the technology is that the farmers do not invert the furrow during the main soil tillage operation. Also the soils are covered by plant residues (cereals straw and maize stalk chopped) on 30% of soil surface. In this way, in the long term, the soils remain protected from destructive factors, as e.g. erosive rainfalls, increases soil water retention capacity, and with this water availability and infiltration rate increase. The technology is applied on arable land with annual crops. The advantage of the tillage by chisel is that it leaves a higher surface roughness and is less destructive to soil aggregates.
The technology is applied on flat Fluvisols and Chernozems. The soil depth is very deep, the texture is in the medium class within the whole profile and the organic matter content is in medium range (1-3 %). The technology was firstly applied within a research project by the Agricultural Research and Development Station of Braila (ARDS Braila) and later was adopted by some land users within the area. The chisel equipment is usually bought by land users which have big vegetal farms. However, the equipment may be borrowed/leased by other land users from neighborhood.
In the land user's view, the strengths of the technology are as follows: positive effects on soil structure, biodiversity and soil water conservation, is a simple agricultural technique. In addition, the weaknesses of the technology reported by the land user might be: high investment costs for buying new agricultural machinery which can be met by renting from other farmers/agricultural contractors, new technology requires greater skill of the farmer which can be countered by further education and training, and sometimes soil surface neuniformity which can be prevented by additional tillage.
Localização: Braila, Braila, Romênia
Nº de sites de tecnologia analisados: 2-10 locais
Difusão da tecnologia: Uniformemente difundida numa área (approx. < 0,1 km2 (10 ha))
Em uma área permanentemente protegida?:
Data da implementação: 10-50 anos atrás
Tipo de introdução
| Especifique a entrada | Unidade | Quantidade | Custos por unidade (USD) | Custos totais por entrada (USD) | % dos custos arcados pelos usuários da terra |
| Mão-de-obra | |||||
| driving tractor with chisel implement | person-days | 0,5 | 17,6 | 8,8 | 100,0 |
| Equipamento | |||||
| chisel plough machinery | machine-hours | 3,0 | 20,2 | 60,6 | 100,0 |
| Custos totais para a manutenção da tecnologia | 69.4 | ||||
| Custos totais de manutenção da Tecnologia em USD | 16.84 | ||||
The main advantage of the soil tillage by chisel is that the energy consumption is reduced, especially the fuel and labour are reduced.
The chisel equipments are expensive.
Knowledge about this technology can be also obtained by farmers from the Agricultural Research and Development Station of Braila .
The plant residues from soil surface prevent the soil water loss by evaporation.
Leaving the plant residues from the previous crop at the soil surface can improve the soil organic matter content.
Leaving the plant residues from the previous crop at the soil surface has beneficial impact on soil fauna.
