A New Zealand scientist who helped develop a system of sowing crops without first tilling the land was among those nominated for the prestigious World Food Prize, awarded last month to Israeli water and soil scientist Daniel Hillel.

Dr John Baker initiated the no-tillage project in at Massey University in 1967 and has led it ever since. He is a founder of the company Cross-Slot No-Tillage Systems which manufactures and sells no-tillage machinery and has offices in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Africa and Australia as well as New Zealand.

A 5m folding Cross Slot drill (150mm row spacing) in New Zealand. (Source www.crossslot.com/)

No-tillage is a system of farming in which seed planting is done in a narrow trench, without tillage, and weeds are controlled with herbicide.

John, whose nomination for the World Food Prize now carries over to 2013, has warned that continuing to use conventional tillage which releases carbon to the atmosphere risks declining soil fertility and ultimately famine in large parts of the world.

His work features in the book by the The Riddet Institute called Floreat Scientia which traces the development of the new drill opener concept that created horizontal (inverted-T-shaped) seed slots in the soil and became known as the `Baker boot'.

'Environmentalists and soil scientists quickly recognised that low-disturbance no-tillage (in which stubble and residues from the proceeding crop remain almost totally undisturbed on the soil surface to decompose and thereby add – sequester – carbon into the soil) had strong positive impacts on the environment, not the least of which was to greatly reduce soil erosion, which otherwise resulted from repetitive tillage and was threatening the very sustainability of world food supply,” the book says.

The new level of biological and engineering performance achieved by the machines John helped develop is credited with spearheading an increase in New Zealand's adoption rate of no-tillage from four per cent of all seeding in 1990 to 25 per cent by 2006, the book says. 'It has simultaneously created new standards of sustainability in some 15 countries and has already become the clear system of choice for several US soil conservation agencies.”

From 1989-91 John was President of a USA no-tillage company and was Director of the Massey University Agricultural Machinery Research Centre for 10 years before resigning to found Baker No-Tillage Ltd as Chairman and Chief Executive.

He created the initial vision, led the science and has played a leading role in all Cross Slot design and business matters, as well as co-authoring four books on the subject.

Today John continues to be the key-note speaker at international no-tillage conferences and addressed the US Senate on the topic in 1989. He is an acknowledged international authority in this area, which was recognised by the Royal Society of New Zealand with the award of a Science and Technology Medal in 1997.

The New Zealand Government recognised his achievements in the 2006 New Year's Honours by making John an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for "Services to agriculture".

# The 2012 World Food Prize laureate Daniel Hillel has revolutionized food production in some of the driest areas of the world in a way that saved water, increased crop yields and minimized environmental degradation.