Minimum tillage unpuddled transplanting: An alternative crop establishment strategy for rice in conservation agriculture cropping systems

Adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) has been hampered in puddled rice-based cropping systems. In this study, we developed a method for transplanting rice (Oryza sativa L.) with minimal soil disturbance (referred to as minimum tillage unpuddled transplanting) that can expand the range of situations where CA could be practiced in rice-based cropping systems. A field experiment was conducted over three years at two sites with unpuddled and puddled rice comparisons in each monsoon season. In addition, transplanted rice was grown in three seasons on unpuddled or fully puddled soils in a total of 27 farmers' plots in north-west Bangladesh. In each year and season, minimum tillage unpuddled conditions were established by strip tillage and compared with single pass shallow tillage…