Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

for sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management


Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the November 2020 Conservation Agriculture Scoopit Research Update from Cornell.

Thank you Professor Peter Hobbs for sharing.

Apologies for any cross-posting.

Amir Kassam

Moderator

Global CA-CoP

e-mail: [log in to unmask]

URL: http://www.fao.org/conservation-agriculture

 

Conservation Agriculture is an ecological approach to regenerative sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management based on the practical application of context-specific and locally adapted three interlinked principles of: (i) Continuous no or minimum mechanical soil disturbance (no-till seeding/planting and weeding, and minimum soil disturbance with all other farm operations including harvesting);  (ii) permanent maintenance of soil mulch cover (crop biomass, stubble and cover crops); and (iii) diversification of cropping system (economically, environmentally and socially adapted rotations and/or sequences and/or associations involving annuals and/or perennials, including legumes and cover crops). These practices are complemented with other good agricultural production and land management practices. Conservation Agriculture systems are present in all continents.



---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2020 at 14:31
Subject: November Cornell CA newsletter
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: Here is our November 2020 Conservation Agriculture Scoopit Research Update. You can also view online at https://www.scoop.it/topic/conservation-agriculture-by-conservation-ag?curate=true&null  Can you send this out to people who get your list serve material? The hard copy is below. Many thanks for helping to distribute this. Peter

An easier link to see all of the research papers on CA is as follows:

See our full research database at:


Also, visit our main website at http://soilhealth.org for news and other CA information. Please use this link since we had to move our web site to a new server and this links takes you to the web site.

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This study reports on-farm trials from 5 countries over 7 years to assess the effects of different cropping systems on maize productivity. Cropping systems tested were conventional (CP) compared to various CA systems including ones with intercropping. The highest maize yield was from CA systems with groundnut (3609 kg ha−1) and common bean (3307−3576 kg ha−1) under rotation and intercropping practices, respectively. Maize-pigeon pea intercropping (35 %) and maize-groundnut rotation (31–43 %) under CA had the highest maize yield advantages over the conventional practices. The most stable maize yields were from the maize-common bean systems under CA. There is scope for promoting CA cropping systems integrated with grain and forage legumes to address maize productivity challenges on smallholder farms of ESA.
This study used a long-term continuous cotton experiment in southeastern USA to  analyze yield data from 1986 to 2018 from 32 management systems to identify how management duration controls the synergistic effect of applied mineral N rates (0, 34, 67, and 101 kg ha−1), cover crops (no cover [NC], hairy vetch [HV], crimson clover [CC], and winter wheat [WW]), and tillage practices (no tillage [NT] and conventional tillage [CT]) on cotton yield and yield stability.Their results suggest that after the initial phase, NT delivers the most consistent yield benefits while enhancing yield stability against unfavorable environmental conditions. Long-term integration of legume cover crops (particularly HV) to NT systems was effective in maintaining high yield and increasing yield stability while lowering N rates.
This paper looks at the potential of CA to enhance organic carbon quantity and quality and how this OC is stabilized in soils. They evaluated native vegetation (NV) vs. no-till from soils from 6 farms in southern Brazil. Their results showed smaller OC stocks (whole soil) under NT than under NV in four of the six sites. In addition, the OC stock differences between land-use types were larger in coarser textured soils and in those where conventional tillage was used before the adoption of NT. The OC build-up in no-till areas and the mechanisms of OC protection in soils are still uncertain. OC stocks under no-till are still smaller than under native vegetation. Soils under no-till showed untapped potential for OC sequestration. The association of labile compounds with soil minerals is the driving factor for OC protection.




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