Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

for sustainable agriculture and land management


Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the latest, April, 2018 CA Research Updates.

Thank you Peter Hobbs for sharing.
 

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: Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 8:20 PM
Subject: FW: Latest Scoops on Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2018
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: This is the latest, April, 2018 CA Research Updates. Can you send out to all your members of your listserve? Thanks Peter

 

You can also review on-line at http://www.scoop.it/t/conservation-agriculture-by-conservation-ag 

The hard copy is below.

 

 

From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, March 26, 2018 at 3:16 PM
To: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fwd: Latest Scoops on Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2018

 

 

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Date: Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 3:15 PM
Subject: Latest Scoops on Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2018
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Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2018

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This study measured SOC in the top 15cm over 12 years in two agronomic long-term trials in Western Kenya. These trials include various levels – from absence to full adoption – of two widely promoted sustainable agricultural management practices: Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM; i.e. improved varieties, mineral fertilizer and organic matter/manure incorporation) and Conservation Agriculture (CA; improved varieties, mineral fertilizer, zero-tillage and crop residues retention). None of the tested ISFM and CA treatments turned out successful in sequestering SOC long-term. Adopting zero-tillage and residue retention alone (as part of CA) could avoid SOC losses of on average 0.13tCha−1 yr−1, while this was 0.26tCha−1 yr−1 in response to mere inclusion of manure as part of ISFM.

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This study for the sub-tropics and tropics, used meta-regression, in combination with global soil and climate datasets, to test four hypotheses: (1) that relative yield performance of conservation agriculture improves with increasing drought and temperature stress; (2) that the effects of moisture and temperature stress exposure interact; (3) that the effects of moisture and temperature stress are modified by soil texture; and (4) that crop diversification, fertilizer application rate, or the time since no-till implementation will enhance conservation agriculture performance under climate stress. The results show through meta-regression that conservation agriculture enhances the adaptive capacity of maize production in sub-Saharan Africa under drought and/or heat stress. However, in very wet seasons and on clay-rich soils, conservation agriculture yields less compared to conventional practices.

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This study evaluated SOC sequestration for several long-term rainfed cropping systems for CA and conservation tillage (CT) in Cambodia using the EPIC model. In all CA treatments, forage or legume cover crops were prior planted and intercropped with the primary crops to maintain full soil cover. Crop residue was found to highly influence SOC sequestration. Sediment loss in the CT treatments was found to be four times greater than CA treatments due to the CT tillage effects. The 20-year future simulations, using historical weather and automatically generated by EPIC, showed a decrease trend in SOC stocks in all CT treatments and an increase trend in most CA treatments. The CA treatments in combination with the maize rotation were demonstrated to be more efficient to manage SOC sequestration over CA with one continuous primary crop.

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This paper looks at whether tillage should be an evaluation factor in breeding programs. 26 bread and durum wheat genotypes created from 1964-2009 were tested for yield and agronomic performance over 6 years in Mexico using conventional (CT) tillage and permanent raised beds with full and reduced irrigation. Breeding progress was achieved irrespective of agronomic treatment. Tillage influenced plant growth and number of grains per m2 in both wheat types. In bread wheat, genotype by tillage interaction was significant for yield, test weight, and growth parameters. However, no cross-over effects were detected and rank changes were small. In durum wheat, genotype by tillage interaction was only significant for plant growth. The results do not indicate the need for separate breeding programs. However, the question of a need for selection under zero tillage to increase breeding progress is yet to be answered.

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This is another paper that looks at inclusion of maize instead of rice in the RW systems of NW India. This paper also looks at the impacts of CA management on MW systems in a three year experiment to look at crop and water productivity, profitability and soil organic carbon accumulation. Results showed that the plots under permanent broad bed with residue (PBB+R) and without residue (PBB) resulted in 29 and 26% higher maize grain yield, respectively than conventional tillage (CT) (2.6tha−1), but wheat grain yields were comparable in all the treatments in first year. The PBB+R was superior to other practices. This also saves water through higher water-use efficiency, and lead to accumulation of more carbon in soil with higher sequestration potential, besides giving sustainable production of maize and wheat over the years. It also gave higher net returns compared to CT.

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Low input rice-maize systems in the hills of Madagascar suffer from erratic rainfall, poor soils, soil erosion and infestation with Striga. They looked at CA (ZT plus permanent soil cover by intercropping of legumes and residue mulches) to remedy these problems. In all CA practices S. asiatica infection was significantly reduced. Best results were obtained with Stylosanthes guianensis (CAST). This species also suppressed ordinary weeds much better than other cover crops. With CAST, average parasite emergence was delayed by 7.5 days (in rice) and 6.3 days (in maize) and infection levels were reduced by 79% (in rice) and 92% (in maize) compared to the conventional farmer practice (CONV). They did conclude, though, that even the combination of zero-tillage, crop residue mulching, cover crops and resistant rice varieties does not entirely prevent S. asiatica parasitism and seed bank increase. Additional measures, targeted to escaping weeds, would be required for fully effective and long-term control.

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This paper looks at the effect of shifted planting dates of wheat on mitigating the potential increase in food insecurity resulting from temperature rise due to climate change. A diverse set of twenty-one genotypes was evaluated over three years (2012–2014) under ten levels of crop management practices (ten different dates of sowing: D01-D10) across three agro-ecological regions (BR (Bihar), MP (Madhya Prdesh) and PB (Punjab)) of India in replicated trials. Results revealed that the impact of shifted sowing dates on yield stability was unevenly spread across management practices. Across locations, the genotype ‘CSW 18’ (G03), ‘DPW 621-50’ (G05), and ‘BAZ’ (G01) were the best performers and highly stable in early, normal and later sowing dates, respectively. This would be important for ZT systems where earlier planting is more feasible than with CT.

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This paper uses soil organic carbon and soil enzymes as indicators of short term impacts of soil management. It looks at the impact of tillage and crop rotations with diverse residue inputs on these two indicators in rice-, soybean-, and cassava-based cropping systems in Cambodia. After 5 years experiment period, greater hot-water extractable organic C (HWEO-C) stocks of 61%, 55% and 53%, and permanganate oxidizable C (POX-C) stocks of 23%, 21% and 32% were attributed to NT than those in CT soils under RcCS, SbCS and CsCS, respectively, at 0–5 cm soil layer. They conclude that short-term NT crop rotations with permanent soil cover significantly increased the storage of HWEO-C and POX-C and enhanced β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase activities at the surface soil layer as a result of higher biomass-C input and the absence of soil disturbance.

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