Club of bologna proceedings

SESSION 1 
 
Soil cultivation: new methods and new technologies 
 
 
Chairman :
Prof. R. O. Hegg, U.S.A
. 
 

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Richard O. HEGG 
USA 
We are thankful again for the sponsorship 
and support of UNACOMA, and certainly this 
session, dealing with cultivation methods and 
new technologies, is very appropriate for this 
Club of Bologna and its members. It is 
obviously a universal topic that applies to all 
countries - both developing and developed, 
with varying levels of technology - relevant in 
all circumstances and in all situations for 
agricultural production. Soil tillage is 
required for almost all crops. So as we have 
proceeded over the years, and have seen new 
technologies develop, and be adopted and 
changed to meet various conditions, we have 
shared this information across international 
lines, and countries, to provide equipment to 
do the tillage in the most environmentally 
friendly and economically sustainable way. 
Sometimes we’ve seen there’s a bit of a 
contrast or conflict between those. Because in 
certain cases you can take the short view to 
develop cultivation technologies that will 
provide more immediate profit and return, 
but environmentally there might be some 
suffering that takes place. So there are many 
factors that drive the technology and the 
equipment. And hopefully we will see that 
today. In this morning’s session we’re going 
to hear speakers from organisations or 
institutes or universities, and then this 
afternoon’s session will be devoted to the 
industry view and focus of cultivation 
methods.
And leading up to some of these driving 
forces for change in our cultivation methods, 
in some cases the stimulus is regulatory. In 
the United States we’ve had examples of 
regulations put in place to encourage 
conservation of the soil, thereby requiring 
that farmers put in certain types of 
techniques. I would now like to put up one 
overhead showing some of the effects of these 
regulatory requirements for what we call 
conservation tillage techniques.