Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF

for sustainable agriculture, land use and ecosystem management

 

Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the latest CA Scoopit newsletter 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

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 Mar 2022 at 14:09
Subject: March 2022 CA Scoopit newsletter
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: Here is our March 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

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This study includes research soil-water studies on maize-wheat system where maize is used instead of rice. They use CA and sub-surface drip irrigation (SSDI) as key strategies to address water scarcity in South Asia. The field study used a process-based model (HYDRUS 2D) to understand water transport, root water uptake and components of soil water balance in maize grown in rotation with wheat after five years of continuous adoption of conservation agriculture. The study included CA, SSDI, permanent beds, with and without residues and different N-rates and compared with CA on beds with furrow irrigation and conventional tillage on beds without residue. In CA+ based plots (CA + SSDI) significantly had higher biomass production and radiation use efficiency with reduced water use than CA (furrow irrigation) and CT.
This paper presents an approach that integrates long-term field experimental data and modeling to quantify resilience of NT at a watershed scale in Michigan. Recharge, groundwater table, soil moisture, yield, and net return were used as resilience metrics. The DSSAT sequence crop model was developed for a corn-soybean-wheat rotation and calibrated using the yield and soil moisture data from a long-term (1993–2019) experiment for the conventional and the no-till treatment conducted within the study area. Their results show evidence of higher recharge and net return under the no-till treatment, which were statistically significant for all crops at the watershed scale. The NT treatment also retained more soil moisture that helped mitigate drought impacts. The groundwater table also rose in NT treatments.
This article advocates for integrated weed management rather than relying on herbicides. This study assessed the effects of four IWM systems with contrasting objectives and practices (S2: transition from superficial tillage to conservation agriculture; S3: no-mechanical weeding; S4: mixed mechanical and chemical weeding; S5: herbicide-free; all with 6 year rotations) compared to a conventional reference (S1: herbicide-based with systematic plowing and a 3 year rotation) on taxonomic and functional weed community composition and structure after 17 years of continuous implementation in a winter wheat crop. They found that resulting weed communities in IWM systems were more species rich (species richness from 1.1 to 2.6 times greater) and more abundant (total density from 3.3 to 25 times greater) than those observed in the reference system, and differed in term of taxonomic and functional composition. 
NT and stubble retention is common in Australia to protect soils from erosion. This 10-year (2008–2017) field experiment with 4 combinations of tillage (no-till vs cultivation) and stubble management (retention or burning) were applied annually from 2008 to 2011. In 2012, all plots were returned to no-till and stubble retention to determine the recovery of crop performance and soil properties from stubble burning and/or cultivation. Changes to ground cover, soil water repellency, soil water content, soil carbon and crop performance during a 6-year period (2012–2017) were compared with plots where no-tillage and stubble retention had been practiced for several decades. Average grain yields where stubble had always been retained were significantly (P < 0.001) greater by 22–33% than where stubbles had previously been burned.
This article assesses the effect of rotation in Northern European spring wheat (SW) cropping systems yield, pest and soil health using different tillage methods in a 12-year experiment in Finland. 3 crop rotations were used -- monoculture SW; a two year rotation with SW-rape-SW-barley; and a 4 year rotation SW-rape-barley-pea. Results show a diversified crop rotation improved SW yield by up to 30% in no-tillage and by 13% under plowing compared with monoculture. The yield quantity and quality differences between crop rotations were higher in no-tillage plots than in plowed plots. Weed species in SW before herbicide control was highest in the four-year crop rotation and lowest in the wheat monoculture. For plant diseases, wheat leaf blotch disease severity was lowest in the most diverse crop rotation when wheat was grown every 4th year.. Stem and root diseases became apparent after 6 years of rotation and the disease index was lowest in the most diverse crop rotation. Neither rotation nor tillage affected the control need of wheat midge. Based on our results, diverse crop rotations including cereals, oilseed crops, and legumes increase yield and reduce plant disease severity of spring wheat in Finland, with the magnitude being larger in no-tillage system







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