A literature search was conducted within Science direct, Scientia Agricola, and Google Scholar using search terms such as no-tillage effects on runoff, no-tillage effects on runoff coef fi cient, no-tillage effects on soil erosion, soil loss(es) and zero tillage, direct seeding and runoff to identify research articles that investigate the impact of tillage on soil erosion by water. Two thousand and fi ve hundred investigations were found. In recognition of the in fl uence of spatial scale on runoff and soil loss processes ( Chaplot and Poesen, 2012; Mutema et al., 2015 ) it was considered rational to limit the search to studies based on plot-scale measurements. We