Abstract:Compared with soil degradation of black soil of other areas in the world, which caused by conventional tillage regarding as ploughed with residue return, soil degradation in Northeast China caused by rotary-till and residue remove or burning is more serious. Conservation tillage with residue cover and no or reduced tillage is one of the most important techniques for the protection and utilization of black soil. This paper briefly presents the derivation and definition of conservation tillage, and its main techniques in the world, as well as the issue of application and extension in China. Over the past 15 years, the expert team from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), together with Jilin Province's agricultural sector, universities, local academies of science, and other related units, overcame the barrier of demonstration and extension of conservation tillage in black soil region in Northeast China. They developed high performance no-till planter and strip-tiller, and proposed the techniques of wide-narrow row no-till, strip-till, ridge-till in Northeast China. This innovative application of conservation tillage in Northeast China is called Lishu model, and the effects of its wide extension in Northeast China is prospected.