Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

for sustainable agriculture, land use and ecosystem management


Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the September Cornell CA Scoopit newsletter.

Thank you Professor Hobbs for sharing.

Amir Kassam

Moderator

Global CA-CoP

e-mail: [log in to unmask]

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

URL: http://www.act-africa.org/

URL: https://ecaf.org/
URL:
http://www.caa-ap.org/


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 1 Sept 2021 at 16:09
Subject: September Cornell CA Scoopit newsletter
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: Here is our September 2021 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 listserv material? The hard copy is below.

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. Please use this link since we had to move our web site to a new server and this links takes you to the CA web site.

Many thanks for helping to distribute this. Peter

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This is a preview of the third volume of this book series on the topic of advances in Conservation Agriculture that looks at the effectiveness of CA in differing countries and contexts. The following are 6 major sections. 1.Global adoption and spread of Conservation Agriculture; 2.Conservation Agriculture in west and central Canada; 3.Conservation Agriculture in the USA; 4.Conservation Agriculture in Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico; 5.Conservation Agriculture in South America; 6.Conservation Agriculture in Europe; This book provides an authoritative review from an array of international experts on the adoption of CA principles in different regions around the world. The final volume in this collection reviews the effectiveness of CA in differing contexts (e.g. in drier conditions where water conservation is important or in areas with poor soil) and refers to the wealth of research and experiential evidence currently available.
This paper looks at the impact of no-till and surface mulch (also cover crops) on wireworm populations in soil and damage to crops like maize on 3 farms in Italy compared to conventional tillage. The four-year cropping rotation consisted of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum), oilseed rape (Brassica napus), maize (Zea mays), and soybean (Glycine max) under both tillage treatments. No differences were observed between tillage treatments in wireworm feeding maize damage scores (P > 0.17; means for no-till and conventional tillage maize were 3.82 and 4.14 percent damage, respectively). These results suggest that switching from a conventional tillage system to a no-till maize production may not cause an increase of wireworm damage to maize, even though no-till conditions have been historically associated with increased wireworm damage risk. 
This document from FAO is relevant to sustainable agricultural mechanization for Africa. The publication is based on case studies of hire service providers from two regional workshops: the first held in Grand Lahou, Côte d’Ivoire, with the participation of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal and the second in Kampala, Uganda, with the participation of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. Based on the analysis of the main characteristics of the enterprises encountered in the workshops combined with documentary analysis, five business models were identified. This document discusses each one. Value propositions, customer relationships and partnership development are all examples of business model building blocks that the new generations of hire service providers should explore in the coming years.
This article applies an endogenous switching regression model to a case study of 2296 wheat fields in Morocco, to provide evidence on the socio-economic impacts of residue retention. 30% and 60% plus of crop residues were retained respectively on 35% and 14% of wheat fields. These levels of residue retention led to 22% and 29% more yields, 25% and 32% higher gross margins and 22% and 25% more consumption of wheat, respectively. Residue retention is economically and biophysically beneficial even for owners of livestock as the monetary value of the additional grain yield more than offsets the cost of purchasing an equivalent amount of feed from the market—all providing good economic justification for residue retention. Development and/or import of alternative feed sources, introducing crop insurance, and raising the awareness of the economic, biophysical and environmental benefits of residue retention among farmers are needed.
This study investigated the response of soil chemical, biological and bacterial community properties to 11 years of different mulch and tillage practices in a sandy soil in a continuous maize cropping system in China. Treatments included: no-till + residue (ZT+R), rotary tillage + residue (RT+R), and normal tillage (CT). Compared to CT, ZT+R and RT+R significantly increased total organic carbon (TOC) content, C:N ratio, available nitrogen (AN) content, and acid phosphatase (ACP) and urease activities, while decreasing soil pH in topsoil and subsoil. ZT+R increased bacterial richness and diversity; dominant phyla of Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria were found in topsoil and Gemmatimonadetes in subsoil and deep soil. However, RT+R showed negative effects on soil bacterial diversity and bacterial community because of severe soil disturbance. ZT+R was the best treatment for chemical and biological properties in these sandy soils.
This paper looks at the problem of soil erosion in the mountains of Guatemala. It looks at the effectiveness of CA to reduce soil erosion in maize cultivation. The study was conducted over a three-year period, from 2017 to 2019, on three experimental plots managed under conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT). The general-to-specific (GETS) method, based on reduction theory, was used to generate explanatory models of the erosion-affected surface. The results showed different rates of eroded soil surface between the three management systems: 73.2% under CT, 41.3% under RT and 20.4% under NT. Three conclusions are derived and discussed in this paper. Litter layer was the key explanatory factor for erosion that was highly influenced by the agricultural management system. The paper recommended for the area of this study that soil management under NT with a dense and well distributed litter cover is best to control erosion.
This article was chosen since it studies tillage systems and liming in a sugarcane system in Brazil. Infiltration tests and soil sampling down to 0.10 m were performed in order to determine saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, soil bulk density, soil total porosity, macroporosity, microporosity, and soil resistance to penetration. Treatments included no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) with 0 and 4 t/ha lime and an adjacent native forest (NF) as a check. The lowest bulk density and highest soil total porosity, macroporosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity were found in the NF. The bulk density in CT4 and NT0 was higher than in other systems, indicating the need for amelioration. NT4 is suggested as the most viable system for conservation agriculture in sugarcane fields, combining the benefits of no-tillage and liming to enhance soil hydrophysical functions.
This 8-year study in India looked at the shift in weed species and diversity with different CA scenarios. The scenarios were Sc1, conventional tillage (CT)-based rice–wheat system with flood irrigation (farmers’ practice); Sc2, CT-rice, zero tillage (ZT)-wheat–mungbean with flood irrigation (partial CA-based); Sc3, ZT rice–wheat–mungbean with flood irrigation (partial CSA-based rice); Sc4, ZT maize–wheat–mungbean with flood irrigation (partial CSA-based maize); Sc5, ZT rice–wheat–mungbean with subsurface drip irrigation (full CSA-based rice); and Sc6, ZT maize–wheat–mungbean with subsurface drip irrigation (full CSA-based maize). Weed density, biomass and diversity remained almost the same across years. Observed shifts in weed species were therefore attributed to different CA scenarios that are discussed in this paper.
This article looks at the understanding and decoding of site-specific complexities of CA systems using a multidisciplinary approach. It is more of a discussion rather than a research paper. They make the following comments. CA typically improves soil quality and water conservation; however, its effect on crop productivity is highly variable and dependent on local conditions/management. Crop residue retention plays a crucial role in CA and can help to improve overall soil health and ultimately crop productivity and sustainability. However, weed control, herbicide resistance, and weed shift under residue retained fields is a challenge. CA can also increase water infiltration and reduce soil loss and runoff. This reduces the surface transport of nitrate and phosphorus from agricultural fields and the eutrophication of water bodies, although leaching of nitrate to groundwater can potentially increase. In addition, CA has been proposed as one of the components in climate-smart agriculture, owing to its reduced period to seed/plant next crop, reduced soil disturbance and low consumption of fossil fuels.






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