A 1.9 million-acre increase in conservation tillage was reported in the 1988 National Survey of Conservation Tillage Practices released by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC).

More than 88 million acres nationwide are now farmed using conservation tillage, according to CTIC, an Indiana-based organization formed to provide information on cropland soil and waterconservation systems. Through CTI C's efforts, many of the nation's farmers have adopted no till, mulch tillage, or other conservation-tillage systems.

CTIC's most recent annual survey includes data on no till, mulch-tillage, ridge-tillage, strip tillage, and reduced-tillage acreage, and surveys of five primary crops: corn, cotton, soybeans, small grains, and grain sorghum. Some 3000 responses were tallied nationwide on a county-by-county basis. National, state, and field offices of the USDA Soil Conservation Service, Extension specialists, and others were instrumental in compiling the information.

Demonstrating once again that acceptance of conservation tillage is not evenly distributed nationwide, the Pacific region stood in sharp contrast to the Corn Belt, with less than 13 percent of its acreage (about 1.7 million acres) devoted to Conservation tillage, compared with 45.4 percent (32.5 million acres) in the Corn Belt. Also trailing the other regions were the Delta states, with nearly 14.5 percent, or close to 2.3 million acres, in conservation tillage. Those with the highest percentage of acreage devoted to conservation tillage were the aforementioned Corn Belt, the Northeast (42.3 percent), and the Appalachian region (39.2 percent).

The data for 1988 showed a "dramatic" acreage increase in no-till, full-season soybeans, reported Dan McCain, SCS field specialist and CTIC liaison. "This category jumped 270,677 acres, which is nearly 17 percent higher than the 1987 figure. That moves full-season, no-till beans ahead of double-crop, no-till beans." CTIC attributes at least part of the increase to the emergence of new technology that has made no-till more cost-effective and popular with farmers.

In 1988, mulch tillage accounted for 70 percent of all conservation tillage; nearly 30 percent of full-season corn and soybeans were mulch-tillage planted. The two crops led the other categories in terms of all types of conservation tillage as well, with more than 30 million acres of full-season corn and nearly 19 million acres of full-season soybeans using the practice.

The survey also shows steady growth in ridge tillage over the past six years. In 1988, this tillage practice accounted for 2.7 percent of all conservation-tillage acreage. Nebraska led in ridge tillage with more than 500,000 acres under cultivation. Nearly 10 million acres of mulch-tilled crops placed Iowa at the top of that category, while Illinois, with nearly 1.6 million no-till acres, ranked first in overall use of that tillage practice.

Three new categories were added to the survey: information on Conservation Reserve Program acreage, highly erodible land (HEL), and the percentage of HEL currently being farmed using conservation practices. These data were compiled separately.