An Assessment of Conventional and Conservation Tillage Systems in Terms of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Corn Production

The objectives of this study were to investigate the fuel consumption with the adoption of reduced tillage and the effect in crop yield and to evaluate carbon dioxide emissions for the different tillage systems in corn cultivation. Minimum tillage with stubble (MTS), minimum tillage without stubble (MT), conventional tillage with stubble (CTS) and conventional tillage without stubble (CT) were tested for seed bed preparation. The fuel consumption of CTS was 21.5 L higher per hectares than that of CT. The total CO2 emissions were 69.59 kgCO(2)/ha, 64.81 kgCO(2)/ha, 140.63 kgCO(2)/ha and 82.17 kgCO(2)/ha for MTS, MT, CTS and CT, respectively. The total energy consumptions for MTS, MT, CTS and CT were 0.95 GJ/ha, 0.89 GJ/ha, 1.91 GJ/ha and 1.13 GJ/ha, respectively. The values of specific fuel consumption were 3.44 L/t, 2.85 L/t and 6.25 L/t and 3.37 L/t for the for MTS, MT, CTS and CT, respectively. The values of specific CO2 emissions were 9.66 kgCO(2)/t, 8.03 kgCO(2)/t, 17.37 kgCO(2)/t and 9.59 kgCO(2)/t for MTS, MT, CTS and CT, respectively.