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From:
Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 2 Nov 2017 21:22:04 +0000
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*Gobal 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 from New Zealand in
response to the article 'Farmers are abandoning traditional ploughing in
the UK' distributed to CA-CoP on 16 October.

Thank you John for sharing your insights and some historical perspectives
about no-till in the UK with CA-CoP.

*Amir Kassam *

*Moderator*

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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Baker <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, Oct 15, 2017 at 9:33 PM
Subject: RE: Farmers are abandoning traditional ploughing - BBC News
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir



Congratulations on the perceptive observations in your latest Global
Community of Practice on Conservation Agriculture posting.



Please feel free to also post my supporting piece below.



In soil health regeneration, the UK is following a similar trend to New
Zealand. By 1998, the proportion of NZ’s 1 million seeded hectares (that
are not confined to arable alone, but also include forage and pasture
crops) undertaken by no-tillage had declined to about 40,000 hectares/year
or 4% of all annual seeding in that country. This was due mainly to the
high failure rates of the then no-tillage machines and techniques in use,
compared with more predictable conventional tillage. But following the
introduction of special low-disturbance no-tillage seed drills in 1998,
which proved to be even more fail-safe and cheaper than conventional
tillage, there was a marked improvement in the areas seeded by no-tillage
in that country. Many of the new machines had their origins in NZ.
Seventeen years later (by 2015) according to NZ Government statistics, the
total area that was no-tilled in NZ had increased to 370,000 hectares or
37% of all seeding. This amounted to an increase of some 825% compared with
1998 or an average increase of almost 50% per year for 17 years..



It is not difficult to see the same thing happening in the UK because many
of these same NZ-designed machines and techniques are now being used in the
UK and there is much greater emphasis in the UK on arable cropping than in
NZ. NZ’s emphasis on animal agriculture had masked much of the soil
degradation that had been taking place in that country. By contrast, the
UK’s greater emphasis on arable agriculture and it’s longer history of
cropping, makes it’s soils even more responsive to improved soil management
and environmentally friendly machines and seeding techniques than in NZ.



The keys in the UK will be: (1) using low-disturbance no-tillage
exclusively (minimum tillage and high-disturbance no-tillage just do not do
it), (b) retaining and drilling through all of the residues of previous
crops (to maximise the sequestration into the soil of new organic carbon
and nitrogen), (c) maintaining living crops growing in the soil for as much
of the time as possible (by maximising the use of cover crops), and varying
crop rotations (to maximise biodiversity and minimise disease and pest
carry-over).



Leading UK farmers already know these things and I therefore predict an
increase in the rate of uptake of low-disturbance no-tillage in the UK that
will eventually exceed the NZ experience and approach that which has
already happened in Latin America.



It is clear that UK farmers are realising that minimum tillage and even
high-disturbance no-tillage are just not enough to regenerate soil health
adequately.



The irony is that the UK invented no-tillage in the 1960s but was never
able to perfect it. So the UK and the rest of Europe resorted to minimum
tillage instead. Meantime, NZ refined no-tillage into low-disturbance
no-tillage and the UK is now seeing its benefits and adopting it. It has
been joint effort for which both countries should be congratulated.







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>





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*Securing Global Food Production*



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*From:* Global Community of Practice on Conservation Agriculture [mailto:
[log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Amir Kassam
*Sent:* Monday, 16 October 2017 6:34 a.m.
*To:* [log in to unmask]
*Subject:* Fwd: Farmers are abandoning traditional ploughing - BBC News



*Gobal CA-CoP* *CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE*

*for sustainable production intensification and land management*



Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the link to an article in the BBC News entitled *Farmers
are abandoning traditional ploughing *by David Gregory-Kumar,
<http://www.bbc.com/news/correspondents/davidgregorykumar> Science,
Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38332276

The article was published on 16 December 2016.



The CA area in the UK in 2016 is estimated to be about 400,000 hectares of
arable cropland, equivalent to some 10% of total arable land in the UK. In
2011, the CA area in the UK was estimated to be about 150,000 hectares.
Thus, there has been an increase in the CA area by some 167% since 2011.



One major reason for this substantial increase has been the availability of
good quality no-till drills and an increase in awareness by farmers of the
real opportunity and  possibility of sustainable production intensification
with the CA approach.



The increase in awareness is being brought about through organizations such
as Groundswell (www.groundswellag.com) and Conservation Agriculture
Association for the UK (CA-UK) (www.conservation-agriculture.co.uk), as
well as through more and more CA farmers themselves championing the need to
move away from the intensive tillage-based production systems which have
become sub-optimal in their performance in terms of productivity, economics
and environmental sustainability and services.



The CA area across Europe has also been increasing in recent years mainly
due to the advocacy and field work of the European CA Federation (ECAF) and
their National level farmer associations in 15 countries across Europe (
www.ecaf.org).



*Amir Kassam *

*Moderator*

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




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