No-till agriculture helps saving inputs in agriculture and is improves soils and biodiversity.

Caroline Hébert began a continuous education project in southwest France three years ago, bringing together local leaders in agricultural innovation to encourage the exchange of best practices and knowledge sharing. Her organisation runs workshops, debates and farm visits with a particular focus on no-till agriculture, providing a valuable resource for farmers who often work in isolation with little input from outside. No-till agriculture is a practice that does away with the conventional farming practice of deep ploughing of soils with high horsepower machinery and leaving fields bare for extended periods. By retaining the beneficial qualities of undisturbed soil and its endemic plant and animal life, farmers save themselves significant capital outlays on equipment, diesel and farm chemicals. The technique is particularly relevant for the Gers department, where heavy clay soils, sloping fields, and decades of increasingly mechanised farming have eroded soils, polluted waterways and wiped out much of the local biodiversity.