Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

for sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management


Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the December CA Newsletter from Cornell.

Thank you Professor 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


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2020 at 16:30
Subject: December Cornell CA newsletter
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: 

Here is our December 2020 Conservation Agriculture Scoopit Research Update. 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

You can also view online at https://www.scoop.it/topic/conservation-agriculture-by-conservation-ag?curate=true&null  where there is a complete list of selected papers

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

Also, visit our main website at http://soilhealth.org for news and other CA information.

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This is the last chapter in this newly published book Scooped in last December 15th newsletter. It summarizes 6 key themes from previous chapters looking at sustainable and responsible agricultural food systems. Inclusive responsibility reflects a move toward an alternative ethical framework based on the core values of inclusion, interdependence, pluralism, justice, equity, and care, and encompasses the six covered themes. Inclusive responsibility can be integrated and applied at every level of the food and agriculture system, from local to global, from production to consumption, and from individual to community and society. The chapter concludes by offering a possible vision for an inclusively responsible food and agriculture system built on the agriculture paradigm of “Conservation Agriculture-Based Veganic Agroecology.”
The objective of this study was to assess the changes in soil physicochemical and microbiological parameters between four different agricultural practices from a 7-year experiment using two seasons with contrasting soil water content. They compared conventional tillage with maize (CTM); no-till with maize (NTM); no-till with maize and soybean rotated (NTM/S); no-till with annual rotation of maize intercropped with Brachiaria rhuziziensis and soybean monoculture (NTMB/S) compared to a long-term fallow (>40 years secondary forest) in both winter (rainy) and summer (dry) seasons. In sum, they show that the benefits of conservation agriculture for soil quality in this region were most obvious in the summer and depended on the agricultural practices, with NTMB/S showing the greatest conservation of soil physicochemical quality.
Climate smart agriculture can offer economic and food security for women farmers but uptake of these technologies are limited by gendered constraints. This study uses 344 women and men survey respondents involved in conservation agriculture (CA) and small-scale irrigation schemes (SSIS) as data sources for examining the effect of gendered constraints for adopting climate-smart agriculture amongst women in three areas in Ethiopia. The findings show that women smallholders uptake is affected by limited access to credit, extension, restricted membership in cooperatives and water user associations, lack of access or user rights to land, skill training, information, and restricted mobility. Expanding off-farm diversification and rural employment opportunities through changing the land tenure system, which is currently state-owned, are essential to enhance women smallholders’ access to land and other agricultural inputs.
This 5-year study looked at rice-wheat in NW India. The goal was to identify management options for further improving productivity and profitability and reducing environmental externalities by drawing on the principles of diversification, precision management, and conservation agriculture. There were four systems. 1. Business as usual transplanted rice followed by tilled wheat; 2. TP rice fb ZT wheat and ZT mungbean; 3. ZT for all 3 crops including ZTDS rice; ZT for a maize-wheat-mungbean system. Results showed that compared to business as usual, the other 3 systems were more productive. These latter 3 systems were more productive and profitable while using less water, energy, labor and lower global warming potential. They conclude these SI entry points need to be placed in the context of the major drivers of change in the region, including market conditions, risks, and declining labor availability, and matching with the needs and interests of different types of farmers.
This study, in Central Malawi considered to have a relatively high uptake of CA, uses analyses of satellite images, field observations, interviews with farmers, extension workers and other people involved in CA promotion, as well as a household survey, to investigate how CA has been adapted. They found that continuous minimum tillage (no ridging), ground cover and crop rotation/intercropping were not practiced as intended. One-third of non-ridged land was tilled during the growing season, and half was again ridged in the following season. Unless crop residues were added, the soil’s surface of non-ridged plots was usually bare at planting, causing weed control problems, and an increased risk of erosion. Most farmers added large volumes of crop residues to their non-ridged plots. They collected these from the surrounding fields, but this practice severely restricted the size of these plots. Crop rotation/intercropping was practiced less when farmers stopped ridging. Very few farmers practiced all three CA principles simultaneously. CA promotion appeared to only increase yields on plots where mulch was added. What was not discussed were suggestions for alternate ways than CA to address the issue of soil degradation -- nutrient mining, erosion and compaction.  Also, in this area where ridging is common, CA can be applied to these beds by keeping the beds permanent (just reforming each season) and applying residue available in-situ or from other sources on top of the beds. The last sentence of this paper also suggested growing groundnuts. This is unlikely to address issues of land degradation but would be a important as an intercrop with maize on permanent beds.
Challenges that have arisen with the adoption of NT include soil compaction, weed management, and stratification of organic matter and nutrients. As an attempt to overcome these challenges, occasional tillage (OT) has been used as a soil management practice in NT systems. The objectives of this meta-analysis were: 1) to summarize the effects of OT on crop productivity, soil physical, chemical and biological properties, soil erosion and weed control; 2) to discuss the main aspects of NT management to optimize the use of OT; 3) to point out shortcomings in the diagnosis of soil compaction in NT systems, which may lead to erroneous decision-making processes regarding the use of OT. They conclude that proper NT implementation and management, with the correct application of NT principles, will overcome problems associated with NT. As soil compaction is the main justification for the use of OT, methods of diagnosis and monitoring of soil compaction should be improved to assist in decision-making.




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