CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

for sustainable production intensification


Dear Subscribers,

Here is the Cornell Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2015

Apologies for cross-posting.

Amir Kassam

Moderator

e-mail: [log in to unmask]

URL: www.fao.org/ag/ca


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 5:14 PM
Subject: Cornell Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2015
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Lucy Hill Fisher <[log in to unmask]>


Below is our April CA newsletter. Click on the title to link to the web site. Can you send out to people on your list serve? Thanks Peter


For more information on CA go to the Cornell CA web site at http://conservationagriculture.mannlib.cornell.edu




Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2015
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Thierfelder, C., M. Mutenje, A. Mujeyi, W. Mupangwa. 2015. Where is the limit? lessons learned from long-term conservation agriculture research in Zimuto Communal Area, Zimbabwe. Food Security. 7:15-31. doi:10.1007/s12571-014-0404-y

This paper presents results of long-term on-farm trials in Zimbabwe to explain the reasons for dwindling maize yields and test the feasibility of CA under low fertility and erratic rainfall. Systems based on animal traction more than doubled maize and improved legume yields with CA. Water infiltration and soil carbon also improved with CA. CA systems were also more economically viable. Weeds were highlighted as problems by farmers. Results are promising even in areas with low soil fertility and risk of drought. However, the adoption of CA was low amongst members of the rural farming community due to the perceived risk of crop failure, lack of appropriate and accessible inputs and markets for farm produce, and lack of appropriate information and knowledge about alternative agricultural methods.
Piggin, Colin, Atef Haddad, Yaseen Khalil, Stephen Loss, Mustafa Pala. 2015. Effects of tillage and time of sowing on bread wheat, chickpea, barely and lentil grown in rotation in rainfed systems in Syria. Field Crops Research. 173: 57-67. doi:/10.1016/j.fcr.2014.12.014.

This paper looks at dryland areas of West Asia where soil erosion and degradation limit yields. The data is from long-term field experiments under rainfed conditions at ICARDA and compares conventional tillage with zero-tillage (ZT) in combination with early and late planting of various dryland crops.Results were variable with tillage and date of planting showing no differences in some years but improved yields for ZT and early planting in others. The increased grain yields achieved in this study, in combination with lower costs and greater profits, suggest ZT plus early sowing should be evaluated and promoted more widely as an attractive cropping technology for farmers in the Middle East.
Pedzisa, T., L. Rugube, A. Winter-Nelson, K. Baylis, and K. Mazvimavi. 2015. Abandonment of conservation agriculture by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. Journal of Sustainable Development. 8: 69-82. doi:10.5539/jsd.v8n1p69

The analysis uses four rounds of a balanced panel from a survey aimed at monitoring CA adoption among farmers who participated in CA promotion projects. Findings indicate that a large share of farmers who had adopted CA during the period of active promotion eventually abandoned the practice in the absence of support from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Households with more farming experience, bigger household sizes and a greater number of cultivated plots were less likely to stop using CA. In turn, wealthy households and farmers in the drier areas were more likely to stop using CA. The finding that persistent adoption is more prevalent among the poor, supports claims that CA is a pro-poor technology. The paper suggests that improved support institutions are necessary to ensure that farmers continue to use CA as a productivity-boosting and sustainable farming method.
Mhlanga, Blessing, Stephanie Cheesman, Barbara Maasdorp, Tarirai Muoni, Stanford Mabasa, Eunice Mangosho, and Christian Thierfelder. 2015. Weed community responses to rotations with cover crops in maize-based consevation agriculture systems of Zimbabwe. Crop Protection.69: 1-8. doi: /10.1016/j.cropro.2014.11.010.

Weed management is a challenge in smallholder agricultural production in SSA. However, when weeds are controlled by herbicides or rotations under CA, weed shifts occur and need to be addressed. The paper studies the effect of rotations on weed shifts. The results suggest that rotations with cover crops such as velvet bean may reduce weed numbers and dominance of problematic weeds over time. This can potentially lead to a less intense weeding schedule, which is more cost effective and affordable for smallholder farmers.
Singh, Balwinder, E. Humphreys, D.S. Gaydon, Sudhir Yadav. 2015.Options for increasing the productivity of the rice–wheat system of north west India while reducing groundwater depletion. Part 2. Is conservation agriculture the answer? Field Crops Research. 173: 81-94. doi: 10.1016/j.fcr.2014.11.019


The irrigated rice–wheat system of north west India is not sustainable, as currently practiced, due to over-exploitation of groundwater, soil degradation, labor scarcity, high fuel and labor costs, and air pollution from stubble burning. Labor and water scarcity are driving farmers to change from puddling and manual transplanting of rice to mechanized dry seeding.This paper looks at the introduction of dry seeded rice to the R-W system and using CA. The authors used the APSIM cropping system model to examine whether conversion from recommended farmer practice (rFP, comprising puddled transplanted rice, alternate wetting and drying rice water management, rice straw removal, tillage for wheat) to a CA rice–wheat system would reduce evapotranspiration and improve water use efficiency in Punjab, north west India.
Ramirez-Villanueva, Daniel A., Juan Manuel Bello-López, Yendi E. Navarro-Noya, Marco Luna-Guido, Nele Verhulst, Bram Govaerts, and Luc Dendooven. 2015. Bacterial community structure in maize residue amended soil with contrasting management practices. Applied Soil Ecology.90: 49-59. doi:/10.1016/j.apsoil.2015.01.010.

An interesting paper that looks at the affect agricultural practices -- flat and bed planting, with tillage and without (CA) on soil bacterial populations. Soil from these four treatments was amended in the laboratory with maize residue (Zea mays L.) or its neutral detergent fibre (NDF) fraction, mostly consisting of (hemi) cellulose, and incubated aerobically for 14 days. It was found that application of organic material favored the same bacterial groups that were more abundant in the soil cultivated conventionally while it reduced those that were favored in conservation agriculture.
Pelosi, Céline, Michel Bertrand, Jodie Thénard, and Christian Mougin. 2015. Earthworms in a 15 years agriculture trail. Applied Soil Ecology. 88: 1-8. doi:/10.1016/j.apsoil.2014.12.004.

This study looks at the effect of alternative cropping systems on soil biodiversity -- in this case earthworms, indicators of soil health. It compares conventional, organic and CA based systems and samples earthworm incidence in a wheat crop in France. While earthworm abundance and biomass increased slightly in the conventional system between the two periods, they at least tripled in the other two systems but earthworm species differed in the organic and CA systems. After at least 14 years, organic and living mulch cropping systems contained between 1.5 and 2.3 times more earthworms than the conventional system.
Mishra, Amit Kumar, Pramila Aggarwal, Ranjan Bhattacharyya, , T.K. Das, A.R. Sharma, and Ravender Singh. 2015. Least limiting water range for two conservation agriculture cropping systems in India. Soil and Tillage Research. 150: 43-56. doi:/10.1016/j.still.2015.01.003.


The authors suggest deterioration of soil physical properties is a major reason for loss of productivity of rice-wheat and cotton-wheat in India. They compared conventional rice-wheat with direct seeded rice - ZT wheat systems on beds and flat. Overall, among the treatments, permanent beds + Residue and Direct seeded rice + brownmanuring (use of a GM Sesbania crop) + ZT Wheat were the best management practices for improved soil physical environment under cotton–wheat and rice–wheat systems, respectively, and therefore could be recommended.
Gathala, Mahesh, K., Jagadish Timsina, Md. Saiful Islam, Md. Mahbubur Rahman, Md. Israil Hossain, Harun Ar Rashid, Anup K Ghosh, Timothy J Krupnik, Thakur P. Tiwari, and Andrew McDonald. 2015. Conservation agriculture based tillage and crop establishment options can maintain farmers' yields and increase profits in South Asia's rice-maize systems: Evidence from Bangladesh. Field Crops Research. 172: 85-92.
doi:/10.1016/j.fcr.2014.12.003

Compares rice-maize and rice-rice systems in Bangladesh since maize is more profitable as the poultry industry grows. The objective of this study was to evaluate the productivity and profitability of R–M systems under CA-based tillage and crop establishment options across a gradient of 69 farmers’ fields in Northwest Bangladesh. They evaluated four tillage and crop establishment options: reduced tillage; strip tillage; fresh beds; and permanent beds. Conventional-tilled (puddled) transplanted rice on flat followed by conventional-tilled maize on flat was included as a current practice. They conclude that both rice and maize planted sequentially on permanent beds and strip tillage can result in higher net income and benefit-cost ratio compared to conventional tillage practice.
Araya,Tesfay, Jan Nyssen, Bram Govaerts, Jozef Deckers, and Wim M. Cornelis. 2015. Impacts of conservation agriculture-based farming systems on optimizing seasonal rainfall partitioning and productivity on vertisols in the Ethiopian drylands. Soil and Tillage Research.148: 1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.still.2014.11.009 Field water conservation practices are a way to build resilience against drought by increasing productive green water through reducing runoff and evaporation and thereby boosting crop yield.This study was managed on rainfed plots to compare CA systems with conventional in terms of soil moisture, runoff, water loss (drainage and evapotranspiration together), water productivity and crop yield. The paper concludes that field water conservation tillage practices that incorporate CA principles are effectively increasing green water in the root zone available for crops and thus, improve crop productivity and yields substantially on vertisols in drylands without other inputs.




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