Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF

for sustainable agriculture, land use and ecosystem management


Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the February 2022 Conservation Agriculture Scoopit Research Update from Cornell.

Thank you Professor Peter 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: Tue, 1 Feb 2022 at 14:26
Subject: February 2022 CA Scoopit Research Update.
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: Here is our February 2022 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

Powered by Scoop.it
This paper used two 6-year experiments on two soils, a sandy and a clay soil to better understand the drivers of maize yields comparing CT with CA. Soil chemical parameters, total plant nutrient uptake, rate of crop residue decomposition, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonization of maize roots were assessed. Soil chemical properties only differed at the sandy soil location with the mulched systems under no-tillage plus mulch (NT) resulting in increased soil organic carbon levels, total nitrogen, and soil available phosphorus as compared to conventional tillage with no mulch or rotation (CT). NT and rotation resulted in highest AM fungal root colonization rate of maize at the clay soil location. The authors recommend a more holistic approach to cropping system assessment that includes a higher number of abiotic and biotic determinants. 
This 3-year field study in Italy examined how selected cover crops affect yield performance in a maize - soybean under NT, and  assessed the effects of CCs on inputs to the soil carbon and nitrogen, soil organic C (SOC) and pools, as well as microarthropods and earthworms abundance and diversity. Grain yield during the initial 2-yr period was on average reduced with CCs by 1–23% in maize, and 1–33% in soybean. This effect was less evident with CC residues having low C:N ratio. Thereafter, CCs had no effect on maize yield in the third year. Soil organic C and pools over a 3-yr application were limited to the topmost 5 cm of soil, and the biomass input with CC residue and its C:N ratio are crucial for boosting soil C cycling. Results on soil fauna showed that different groups or species need different time for showing effects but many became effective after 3-years.
This discussion paper looks at the issue of land intensification or extensification through land sparing or or land sharing on biodiversity. The latter model and the issue of biodiversity is mainly driven by conservation ecologists, but this paper presents other issues overlooked by this simple either/or model from an agricultural scientist viewpoint who have practical experience of farming in many global farming systems. The authors raise two major limitations of this model above. that there are synergies between agriculture and biodiversity  that are often overlooked; and metrics that may be more important to farmers that are strongly associated with positive biodiversity outcomes. They conclude that what is needed is working together to identify viable solutions that increase yields and help with biodiversity conservation.
In the IGP rice-wheat system farmers are adopting NT wheat but there is limited data on the effect of CA on soil aggregation and enzyme activity. This paper investigated the effects of direct seeded rice (DSR)-NTW, DSR-NTW with brown manuring (BM) or mungbean (Vigna radiata) residue retention (MBR) with rice residue retention (RR) on soil aggregation, glomalin content and soil enzymatic activities after four years under an irrigated rice–wheat system. DSR + MBR-ZTW + RR-ZTMB treatment resulted in an improved soil microbial environment after four years of rice–wheat cropping in the IGP. The enhanced soil properties were mainly due to residue retention of crop residues, zero tillage (NT) in two crops (in the first three years) and triple ZT (in the fourth year), and growing of a legume crop in the conventional rice-wheat system in the IGP.





To unsubscribe from the CA-Cop-L list, click the following link:
&*TICKET_URL(CA-Cop-L,SIGNOFF);