EN
This study presents the issues related to differentiated methods of soil cultivation on the basis of the latest literature review. Three cultivation systems functioning in agricultural practice (traditional cultivation, no-tillage system and direct sowing) were considered as well as their effects upon basic physical, chemical and biological features of the soil, weed infestation and yielding of crops were analysed with the energy-economic factor taken also into account. On the basis of collected data, it was shown that the simplifications in soil cultivation, and direct sowing in particular, influence the basic physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil (increase of soil compactness and moisture content, lowering pH, decrease of total bacteria amount at increased development of fungi) in different way than the classical tillage. Presented data showed that the classical tillage, as compared to no-tillage and direct sowing, is more effective in limiting weed infestation (in case of zero-tillage the actual and potential weed infestations increase). As concerns the yielding, it was established that certain crops (e.g. cereals, some legumes, rape, etc.) on good soils practically do not decrease their yields, no matter what simplifications were applied (no-tillage or direct sowing), however their yields decrease under poorer soil conditions. On the other hand, if comparing the energy-economic indices, the classical tillage cultivation (ploughing) was the most energy and cost consuming cultivation method.