Improvement of the carbon balance with No Tillage and Guide Assistance in rainfed and irrigated arable crops

One of the most important key points for agriculture in the next years is to reduce its impact over the climate change (CC). This work try to demonstrate which crops, soil and water management systems are more profitable in order to reduce the contribution of agriculture to CC. This work developed with the Life + Climagri, shows the results of two seasons carried out in Southern Spain. Different crops were studied in rainfed and irrigated conditions. Two soil management systems were compared: Tillage (T) versus No Till (NT) & Guide Assistance (GA). The parameters on mechanized operations were logged using a remotely data acquisition system. Irrigated yields in corn doubled the production of cereals and were nearly 7 - 10 times bigger than beans and sunflower. There were no differences between T and NT & GA, except for wheat. The CO2 emitted in T always were more than a 20 % higher than NT & GA. This situation caused that NT & GA always provided best results of the carbon balance. Irrigated crops, despite being the most productive, were not the most efficient in the carbon used, owing to the high inputs consume. Although, this situation attenuated in those treatments in which the use of inputs was more adapted to the real necessities of the plants. The crops with a low use of fertilizers, despite being less productive, showed the best carbon balance due to the lower energy used.