Reduced tillage can produce similar or better yields than more aggressive conventional tillage.

While reduced tillage has a range of key benefits including improving long-term soil health, lower fuel costs and lower labour requirements, there are also some practical challenges for growers to consider and overcome.

This fact sheet outlines the pros and cons of reducing the intensity of cultivation in vegetable production systems.

It is based on lessons learnt from three demonstration sites conducted as part of the Soil Wealth and Integrated Crop Protection (ICP) projects from 2014-16 in Gippsland and Werribee, Victoria, as well as Bathurst, New South Wales.