Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF

for sustainable agriculture, land use and ecosystem management


Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the May 2022 CA Scoopit newsletter from Cornell.

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/


Conservation Agriculture (CA) 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 complementary good agricultural production and land management practices to generate and sustain optimum performance.

 

CA systems are present in all continents, involving rainfed and irrigated systems including annual cropland systems, perennial systems, orchards and plantation systems, agroforestry systems, crop-livestock systems, pasture and rangeland systems, organic production systems and rice-based systems. CA systems operate regeneratively at multiple levels to optimally harness a range of productivity, economic, environmental, and social benefits as well as address local and global concerns related to food and water security, climate change, land degradation, biodiversity and smallholder agricultural development.

 

Conservation Tillage, Reduced Tillage, Low tillage and Minimum Tillage are not CA, and nor is No-Till on its own. For a practice or a method to be referred to as a CA practice or method, it must be part of a CA system. If not, then it is what it is, a practice or a method similar to any other with its own name e.g., no-till seeding, or mulching, or crop diversification, etc. There is no such thing as partial CA.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 1 May 2022 at 22:26
Subject: May 2022 CA Scoopit newsletter
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: Here is our May 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 is another paper looking at mechanization and service providers but focused on empowering women farmers. The paper describes the many hurdles and drudgery women face farming their land with out-migration of male members of the household. For example, fewer rights over land make it more difficult for women to access subsidies, finance, or mechanization. The paper describes 3 ways that sustainable mechanization can empower women and respond to their predicament. The paper also provides a catalogue that highlights the potential for smallholder farmers, including women, to earn an income via mechanization hire service. The information for each machine or equipment is also included in this paper. The target audience includes extensionists, gender experts, agricultural engineers, government officials, donors, micro-finance institutions, and implementing partners.
This paper looks at and presents findings to better understand the challenges and find solutions to help farmers adopt better, more resilient farming practices. The information is based on participatory discussions with farmers in Michigan. They looked at policy, economic and structural barriers that inhibit adoption of conservation systems. The results were complex with barriers and opportunities, including markets, social networks, human capital, and conservation programs. Making it more difficult are many community constraints, market access and availability problems, climatic and environmental changes, and policies (governmental and corporate) that cross-pressure farmers when it comes to making conservation decisions. Better understanding these constraints will help with the adoption of CA.
This 3-year study was undertaken in northern Italy. Bulk density (BD), penetration resistance (PR), soil hydraulic saturated conductivity, and sorptivity were used to evaluate soil quality obtained by combining three tillage intensities (conventional tillage – CT; minimum tillage – MT; no tillage – NT) with three winter soil coverings (bare soil – BS; tillage radish cover crop – TR; winter wheat cover crop – WW). Reduced tillage coupled with WW improved soil physical properties even below the tilled layer, as evidenced by root-growth-limiting condition reductions. They conclude that, despite the increase in BD and PR due to reduced tillage, the strategy improved soil functioning and particularly soil hydraulic conductivity. In the short term, the WW cover crop moderately increased physical soil parameters, whereas TR had negligible effects. This study demonstrates that, to quantify CA, several soil physical parameters should be monitored.
This study from China looked at long-term straw mulching under a no-till system  on soil physicochemical and biological properties at different soil depths (0-30 cm in 10cm increments) in a no-till rice-wheat system. Straw was removed (CK) or mulched (SM) in this 12-year study. Organic carbon, nutrients, and bacterial abundance were reduced by depth, but pH increased. SM significantly increased total N, inorganic N, available P, available potassium, and soil water content at 0-5 cm, total organic C content at 0-10 cm, and dissolved organic C and N contents at 0-20 cm compared to CK. The study also reports data on the effect of SM vs CK on various bacterial groups. Overall, they conclude that the SM treatment is highly recommended under a no-till system because of its benefits to soil fertility and bacterial abundance.
This paper looks at adoption of agricultural technology rather than specifically CA, but their findings are relevant for CA as well. The contend that adoption of many seemingly beneficial technologies remain low. This study looks at various reasons that explain adoption from 367 regression models from published literature. They find that farmer education, household size, land size, access to credit, land tenure, access to extension services, and organization membership positively correlate with the adoption of many agricultural technologies. Improved varieties and chemical inputs are adopted more readily on larger farms, which casts doubt on the scale-neutrality of these technologies. Credit can positively influence adoption, but researchers should measure whether farmers are credit constrained, rather than simply whether or not they have access to credit. They conclude that efforts to promote agricultural technologies in the developing world must be adapted to suit local agricultural and cultural contexts. 




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