This technology describes different methods on how to better prepare the area for planting crops and manage weeds so that they cannot interfere with crop development. In conservation agriculture systems, this management should facilitate the penetration of direct seeding equipment into the soil and into a favourable environment for seed germination, without obstructing the implement. Residue and cover crop management can be done either mechanically which can be done by using machetes, knives or sickles, knife rollers, crushers, mowers, etc, or chemically by spraying herbicides, to desiccate or "burn" the vegetative cover and thus facilitate the subsequent planting of the commercial crop. A combination of the two is also possible, depending on the possibilities of the farmer; the topography (sloping or flat land); the degree of weed infestation; and the stage of development of the cover crop. This technology is part of a series on conservation agriculture.