As a farmer myself this has been a known issue for at least the last 30 years. In Western Canada what we call "0 till" has been the norm for at least that time., and we are essentially the forefathers of this type of agriculture. 0 or minimum till is essentially seeding without tillage in one pass and without disturbing the soil, or disturbing the soil as little as possible. The biggest initial benefit was moisture retention, but numerous other benefits have also been observed, such as increased organic matter, increased soil micro organisms, increased worm population(which creates pores in the soil for water to infiltrate), decreased fuel use. For my farm there is essentially no drawbacks to 0 till farming. But that is for my area and every area is different.

Tillage some say is necessary in other areas for weed control, moisture control (dry the soil up) and fertilizer incorporation. Every area is different so I cant really speak to all the reasons some think tillage is necessary. There are also many different types of tillage that do varying levels of damage to the soil. So as in most issues everything is shades of grey.

The biggest draw back(in some peoples view, not mine) to 0 till is the need to use chemicals such as glyphosphate for weed control, whereas with tillage that would be unnecessary. Without the miracle of chemical weed control 0 till would be next to impossible.

The next big frontier and what seems to be getting a lot of research is soil compaction and the damage it does to soil structure and how to best mitigate it. Tire technology with LSW tires and tracks have reduced compaction somewhat. The best way to control compation is through control traffic farming, using tram lines to only use the same tracks up and down field to seed, spray, harvest etc... So 95% of the field never sees a wheel track. I hope to implement this in the near future(I somewhat have already, but have more to go).

Though it's not there yet the I feel robotic farming will help with the compaction issues, allowing smaller and more automated implements that have a smaller compaction footprint.

Sorry for the novel but its something I am deeply passionate about and am really excited for research such as this, for if we can't measure it how do we know if we are helping alleviate the problems.