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UT soil scientists Neal Eash (left) and Forbes Walker observed some extreme tillage conditions on a recent trip to Thailand. Download this photo (1.1 MB)

The fourth Thursday in July - July 27 - marks the return of no-till time to Tennessee. That is the date of the Milan No Till Field Day, which is hosted at the UT Agricultural Experiment Station's research and education center in Milan.

Two of the featured speakers at this year's event are Drs. Neal Eash and Forbes Walker, soil scientists with the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science. The two recently traveled to Thailand and Vietnam in a collaborative effort with several Asian universities to spread the word about soil conservation and no-till agriculture to farmers in those nations. Growing conditions in Thailand are very similar to those found in much of Tennessee.

"The University of Tennessee has a history of understanding how to do no-till," says Dr. Eash. No-till agriculture is where you spare the plow to save the soil - planting one crop on the residue of a past field. Today more than two-thirds of Tennessee row crop land is planted with no-till techniques.

As for the rest of the globe, no-till is catching on. It's a common practice in North and South America and Australia, but many parts of Africa and Asia are still plowing fields heavily, and losing soil nutrients in the process. In Thailand, it's not uncommon to make seven or eight passes with a plow in raising a crop.

Many parts of Vietnam are mountainous, and growing crops on steep slopes creates severe erosion problems. "The government there has a policy to expand agricultural production," Walker says. "So people are moving to upland areas and forested areas, then clearing the forests and doing agriculture in an environmentally unsound manner."

The UT scientists plan to return to southeastern Asia to check on the progression of no-till agriculture. They believe if it works to prevent soil erosion and promote fuel conservation here, it will also work on the other side of the world.

For information about no-till in our part of the world or about UT's No Till Field Day, visit the Web site: http://milan.tennessee.edu

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Contact: Patty McDaniels, (865) 974-7141