Soil degradation and climate change are the most destructive (human- and/or naturally induced) processes, making agricultural production more challenging than ever before. Traditional tillage methods, characterized by intensive mechanical soil disturbance (dominantly using a plow), have come under question for their role in exacerbating soil erosion, depleting organic matter, and contributing to the decline in soil biodiversity and other soil devastating processes. These practices, while effective in the short term for crop production, undermine the sustainability of agricultural systems, posing a threat to food security and environmental stability. This review examines the adoption and implementation of Conservation Soil Tillage (CST) across six European countries: Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Poland. The main objective is to analyze the historical development, current status, and future prospects of CST in these countries, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in transitioning from conventional tillage methods. Conservation Soil Tillage (CST) emerges as a promising alternative platform to still dominant conventional plowing tillage approach. By reducing the intensity and frequency of tillage, CST practices aim to maintain adequate soil cover, minimize erosion, and encourage biological activity and organic matter accumulation, thus, ensuring soil productivity and resilience against additional degradation and climate variation. Efforts made by scientists and the government to go over it sometimes are not sufficient. Farmers’ expectations of benefits are the final keystone for the integration of CST as a dominant sustainable practice. Analyses from six European countries pointed to a high level of diversity in readiness and willingness to accept, as well as different levels of knowledge about the adoption of CST. Our study suggested that the adoption of CST is increasing, and it represents a key strategy for soil degradation prevention and climate change mitigation.

A stationary field experiment of a reduced soil tillage was implemented at a Hypogley (Hypogleyic soils A–Gso–Gr soil horizon sequence) soil type of Eastern Croatia during three seasons and set up as a split-plot randomized block...

At present there is little information available concerning the relationship between the tillage system applied and the soil moisture tension, penetration resistance, soil moisture content, and temperature responses to the temporal variability of precipitation under the semi-arid Mediterranean...

As conservation tillage becomes one of the foundations of sustainable crop production, important questions arise about its value, which needs to be defined and evaluated. One of the most important indicators of soil compaction is penetration resistance (PR), which comes as a short-term response to the state of soil physics. The objective of this work is to compare different tillage treatments (TT) on soil compaction on silty clay loam Stagnosol and silt Gleysol in the continental part of Croatia. The research included three tillage treatments: ST—conventional tillage, CTD—deep conservation tillage, and CTS—shallow conservation tillage. PR was determined on each soil depth of 5 cm up to 80 cm, and measuring was provided on two measuring dates. The obtained results showed a higher influence of the year factor than TT. In the upper layers (up to 35 cm), PR values between TT were with significant differences, but in most cases below root-limiting critical values, while in deeper soil layers (35–80 cm), we found that penetration values on each tillage treatment begin to stabilize and smooth out in most cases, with similar dynamics on both soil types and measurement dates. In most of the cases, the highest PR was measured for conservation treatments in wetter soil conditions.

Biochar, a carbon-rich material, is highlighted to improve soil fertility, simultaneously mitigating climate change by carbon sequestration. Combined with mineral fertilizer, it can increase weediness, the major source of yield loss in agricultural production. Research with biochar was conducted in Eastern Croatia in 2016, with the aim to investigate the influence of biochar and mineral fertilizer on weed infestation and winter wheat yield. Field experiments were set up as a split-plot where biochar (B) was the main factor and fertilization was the sub factor. The main treatments were: B0 (control without biochar), B1-5 t ha⁻¹, B2-10 t ha⁻¹ and B3-15 t ha⁻¹. Fertilization sublevels were F0) without fertilizer and F1) optimal dose of fertilizer. Weediness was determined by counting and measuring aboveground biomass. The treatments with the greatest effect on weediness were B3 and F1 in the winter wheat tillering stage. In the winter wheat ripening stage, treatment B3 obtained the highest weediness and F1 significantly reduced weed density. Biochar treatment B3 increased winter wheat yield by 77% in relation to the control. The application of biochar combined with fertilization affected the level of weediness depending on agroecological conditions, but with a significant increase in yield.