Cover Crops

The conservation of water and soil is provided by the permanent soil cover i.e. by the maintenance of soil covered with a straw layer during the whole year which is one of the three pillars needed to accomplish an efficient no-tillage system complemented by the absence of soil revolving and by crop rotation. Unfortunately in most part of the areas with no-tillage system in Brazil not all of these practices are adopted. For this reason in order to keep the soil covered during the whole year usually is necessary to use cultures capable of forming the straw to the no-tillage system the so-called cover crops.