Results of a tillage experiment in a semiarid area of the Ebro River basin having shallow soils are presented. The substitution of plowing for chiselling as primary tillage operation had not significant effects on the growth and yield or a barley crop. On the contrary, the direct drilling reduced yield by more than 50%. Yield decrease was partially due to a low seed rate, but mainly to a lower early growth of barley under no tillage. All the measured traits, with the exception of thousand kernel weight of main tiller were negatively affected. Poor early growth was probably due to a low available water content in the profile al sowing, as a result of insufficient weed control during the fallow period. However, a lower growth rate under no‑tillage during the whole growing period, would indicate that other factors, mainly related to root development, could have adversely affected the crop response under this treatment.