Tillage

Among the activities crops, tillage plays an important role in ensuring sufficient food and fiber to various populations. The removal and control of natural vegetation with tillage operations are essential for farmland. For centuries, the animals were harnessed to the plow to break up the ground and prepare the soil by removing the natural vegetation and undesirable plants. 

Indeed, the removal and control of weeds benefit cultures and are part of tillage objectives.

However, by breaking the ground, changing its structure. Research in the early twentieth century in Europe show that the structural changes of the soil and weeding are the main consequences of tillage. Two schools of thought then emerged: the English school emphasizing weeding main consequence of tillage and the German school, for which the soil structure and its maintenance are the result and purpose of tillage.