Which practice involves only lightly tilling the soil a few times a year?

Minimum tillage is a farming practice that focuses on reducing the amount of soil disturbance during land preparation. This approach involves lightly tilling the soil just a few times each year, which can help maintain soil structure, reduce erosion, and improve moisture retention. By minimizing soil disturbance, beneficial soil organisms and structures can thrive, leading to healthier soils and potentially increased crop yields.

Furthermore, minimum tillage can be a compromise between traditional plowing and practices that involve no tilling at all, like zero-tillage. This method allows farmers to incorporate some tilling to manage weeds and incorporate crop residues while still protecting the soil's integrity to some extent.

Other options such as zero-tillage involve no tilling at all, continuous cropping refers to growing crops without leaving the land fallow, and summer fallow involves leaving land unplanted during the summer to conserve soil moisture for future crops. These terms describe practices that differ significantly from the light, occasional tillage characterized by minimum tillage.