Research on Conservation Tillage Technology and Bionic Intelligent Agricultural Equipment

Dear Colleagues,

Conservation tillage refers to tillage systems that minimize mechanical operations, thus reducing soil disturbance, preserving more surface residues than conventional tillage, and achieving the effective conservation of soil, water and energy resources. Conservation tillage involves the planting, growing and harvesting of crops with limited disturbance to the soil surface. The implementation of conservation tillage technology, which is involved in straw returning, no tillage, reduced tillage, etc., relies on specialized agricultural equipment; however, excessive surface residues in the field pose a momentous challenge to the safe, reliable and smooth operation of such equipment. By applying bionic technology and intelligence to agricultural equipment, the operational performance, accuracy and efficiency of such equipment could be greatly improved, and energy consumption and production costs could be significantly reduced. Bionic intelligent agricultural equipment plays a vital role in conservation tillage. Its successful progress depends on the continuous upgrade of advanced techniques. However, practical issues must be dealt with during this development. Therefore, the formation of bionic intelligent agricultural equipment that is suitable for conservation tillage in the future is a crucial development direction for sustainable agriculture.

This Special Issue aims to cover conservation tillage and all the various advanced bionic intelligent agricultural equipment that is required for it; this also includes their matching technologies and methods, which are involved in no tillage, reduced tillage, straw-returning tillage, sowing, harvesting and other tillage modes and agricultural production links. This Special Issue will focus on the contribution of conservation tillage to more sustainable global agriculture through the collaborative lens of a diverse group of experts and scholars. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Qi Wang
Dr. Yi-Jia Wang
Guest Editors

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• conservation tillage
• agricultural equipment
• bionic design
• intelligent agricultural equipment
• cover crops
• agricultural technology implement
• life cycle analysis
• soil quality
• water quality
• sustainable agriculture