CA-COP-L Archives

Global Community of Practice on Conservation Agriculture

CA-Cop-L@LISTSERV.FAO.ORG

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show HTML Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 1 Feb 2017 23:37:44 +0000
Content-Type:
multipart/mixed
Parts/Attachments:
*Global CA-CoP* *CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE*

*for sustainable production intensification and land management*

Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow a message from Prof. John Baker, CEO & Chairman of
Baker of Baker No-Tillage in New Zealand, in response to the 4 per mille
article distributed some days ago.

*Amir Kassam *

*Moderator*

e-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: www.fao.org/ag/ca

[image: Inline image 1]
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Baker <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 10:33 PM
Subject: Forwarded article
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir



Thank you for continuing to forward interesting and relevant material to me
and others.



The *Budiman Minasny et al* article has particularly captured my interest
because (a) the author’s material was drawn, in part, from New Zealand
(amongst other countries), and (b) we commissioned a PhD study in 2012 at
New Zealand’s Massey University that adds weight to one of the observations
that *Budiman Minasny et al* made.



In their abstract, the authors said that:



“… As a strategy for climate change mitigation, soil carbon sequestration
buys time over the next ten to twenty years while other effective
sequestration and low carbon technologies become viable. The challenge for
cropping farmers is to find disruptive technologies that will further
improve soil condition and deliver increased soil carbon.”



A very relevant statement. But the interesting thing is that such
technologies already exist. The problem is that most cropping farmers (and
for that matter many scientists) do not yet fully understand the importance
of (a) virtually eliminating soil disturbance altogether at seeding time,
and (b) using cover crops to capture carbon from the atmosphere and
sequester it into the soil.



Our research and engineering teams have focused on “low-disturbance
no-tillage” as distinct from all other forms of so-called no-tillage. It is
important to recognise that so-called “no-tillage” undertaken with tined
seeding openers is not true “no-tillage” at all because such openers cause
far too much soil disturbance and are unable to handle the heavy residue
loads when drilling through sprayed-out cover crops in situ. Quite
correctly, tined openers operating in unploughed ground are now being
increasingly regarded as “strip tillage” rather than true “no-tillage”.



Because of these characteristics, “strip tillage” is unlikely to regularly
achieve net sequestration of soil carbon during any 12 month cropping
cycle. So “strip tillage” is unlikely to fulfil the astute “challenge for
cropping farmers” that is espoused by *Budiman Minasny et al *above.



The alternative to tined openers operating in unploughed ground is disc
openers. But these are not always the answer either because although many
designs are capable of causing little soil disruption and handling the
heavy residue loads of cover crops, most disc opener (although thankfully
not all) create sub-optimal soil environments for the sown seeds, are
unable to band fertilizer separately from the seed, and create “hairpins”
of folded residues in heavy residues that interfere with germination of the
sown crop.



Fortunately, there is at least one disc opener that, in fact, is a
combination of disc and tine that does not have any of the negative
characteristics of either pure disc or pure tined openers. It is one of
very few “low-disturbance no-tillage openers” in existence and has the
potential to do exactly what *Budiman Minasny et al* are  seeking.



Rather than go on a “sales pitch” for this device, I have attached a
submission made to the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the
Environment in 2016 that outlines how a 12 month cycle of double cropping
in New Zealand (establishing a summer arable cash crop of barley followed
by either a winter cover or forage crop) can result in a net annual gain of
soil carbon of approximately 500 kg per hectare compared with a net loss of
approximately 2,000 kg/ha of soil carbon when the same rotation is
undertaken by conventional tillage.



Please see the attached for details.



Hopefully it illustrates the wisdom of the *Budiman Minasny et al *
conclusions.



Kind regards



John Baker

Dr C John Baker, ONZM

Chief Executive Officer & Chairman

Baker No-Tillage Limited

P.O. Box 181

Feilding 4740

New Zealand

Ph. +64 6 323 1119 <+64%206-323%201119> (d.d. extn. 801)

Cell. +64 21 715 205 <+64%2021%20715%20205>





[image: CrossSlot_CMYKonWhite_2012_50px] <http://www.crossslot.com/>



*Securing Global Food Production*



[image: Twitter Logo 29px] <https://twitter.com/CrossSlot>       [image:
cid:image003.jpg@01D20763.A30C1340]
<https://www.linkedin.com/company/15081647>       [image: Facebook Logo
29px] <https://www.facebook.com/CrossSlot>       [image: YouTube Logo 29px]
<https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=CrossSlot>



*www.CrossSlot.com <http://www.CrossSlot.com>*

########################################################################

To unsubscribe from the CA-Cop-L list, click the following link:
https://listserv.fao.org/scripts/wa-fao.exe?SUBED1=CA-COP-L


ATOM RSS1 RSS2