Global CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF

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Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow the August 2022 Cornell CA research newsletter from Professor Peter Hobbs.

Thank you Professor Hobbs for sharing.

 

Amir Kassam

Moderator

Global CA-CoP

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

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URL: http://caapas.org/


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Peter Hobbs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2022 at 19:18
Subject: August 2022 Cornell CA research newsletter
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Amir: Here is our August 2022 Cornell 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

Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - August 2022
Powered by Scoop.it
Surface seeding (SS) is the purest form of no-till with seeds placed on the soil surface with no soil disturbance. This paper conducted a systematic literature review on SS of wheat reported in the IGP, with the aim to cover the concept of SS, its impact on wheat yield, soil properties, and the environment, with the potential benefits and constraints. Their review showed that SS-based rice-wheat systems improve productivity (~10%) and profitability (20-30%), while employing less irrigation water (15-30%) and energy input (20-25%) compared to a conventional system. In relation to soil properties the SS approach enhanced soil health by virtue of increased soil organic carbon and improved soil aggregation, as well as soil, water, and energy conservation.  SS consisting of no-tillage with substantial crop residue retention offered an alternative to crop residue burning. 
This survey in Bangladesh interviewed 320wheat farmers to assess their willingness to pay (WTP) to adopt conservation tillage using individual and cooperative payment systems. The results showed that farmers perceived that conservation tillage would help by reducing costs, timely land preparation, seed sowing and planting, appropriate positioning of seed and fertilizers, and higher soil moisture. They wanted to adopt but 79% would like to pay for it and were interested in cooperative systems that had CT machinery. Farmers also wanted to expand their wheat  acreage after adopting CT. The main farmer factor limiting WTP was due to low-quality spare parts, technical understanding, and not knowing the technology. The authors suggest that training among farmers and operators, credit support, and making machines and spare parts available in the nearest markets would help adopt CT.
This paper looks at the issues of sustainable nitrogen management using no-till practices using a Global Meta-analysis. They used 2,268 pairs of data points from 327 peer-reviewed articles. Increases of 21 and 16% in total N concentration and N stock, respectively, were noted under NT compared to conventional tillage (CT) in the surface soil layer (0–10 cm) but little change below this surface soil. Continental and temperate climates recorded significant gains in total N in NT while the effect was negligible in tropical and dry climates. An incremental rise in soil-N was found with an increase in the duration of NT. No-tillage favoured the soil N and as a consequence, fertilizer-N use under no-till condition, must take into account of the potential N release from SOM for achieving higher N-use efficiency.
This paper investigated how much tillage reduces weed infestation and yield loss, and which systems and weed species are the most affected by tillage suppression. Data was collected from 395 arable cropping systems mainly in France. They used the data and simulated them over 30 years with 10 weather repetitions using the FLORSYS model. Three series were simulated, (1) using the recorded systems, (2) eliminating tillage without any other changes, (3) eliminating herbicides without any other changes. Among the recorded systems, herbicide treatment frequency index (HTFI) averaged over rotation increased when tillage frequency decreased. No recorded no-till system was herbicide-free. The simulations indicated that two CA pillars (diverse crop rotations, cover cropping) were essential to manage weeds while reducing (or eliminating) both tillage and herbicide use. More no-till cropping systems must be investigated to determine whether sustainable no-till herbicide-free systems are possible.
This paper addresses issues of transplanted rice, by incorporating conservation agriculture (CA) based crop establishment practices in combination with suitable weed management options to sustain rice productivity. Their experiment had four planting techniques; farmer’s practice (Conventional Transplanting), zero-till direct seeded rice (ZT-DSR), reduced-till direct seeded rice (RT-DSR) (Rotavator single pass) and conventional-till direct seeded rice (CT-DSR) plus five weed management practices using various herbicides, plus hand weeding 20 and 40 DAS and a weedy check. Among various crop establishment methods CT-DSR recorded significantly higher N, P and K uptake by both grain and straw over the rest of the treatments except ZT-DSR during both the years. Based on the results application of pendimethalin pre-emergent followed by chlorimuron + metsulfuron at 20 DAS to the CT-DSR treatment gave the maximum N, P and K uptake by both grain and straw of rice.
This review discusses the potential of soil and crop management practices such as minimum/reduced/no-tillage, use of organic manure, balanced and integrated plant nutrient application, precision land leveling, precision water and pest management, residue management, and cropping system optimization to maintain the C-equilibrium between soil and atmosphere and to enhance the C-sequestration in the long run. Results of meta-analysis show a potential 36% increase in soil organic C stock in the top 0–15 cm layer in this region. The authors conclude that there is an urgent need for scaling up and accelerated adoption climate resilient technologies to increase soil C-sequestration. Policies and programs need to be devised for incentivizing farmers to adopt more C-neutral or C-positive agricultural practices.
This report looks at the potential and opportunities for sustainable development in the high rainfall, hilly areas of NE India where erosion and soil degradation is rampant. It looks at CA as a possible management system to address the issues in this area if India and result in better food and environmental security, reduced cost of cultivation, enhanced cropping intensity, crop diversification and improved soil properties. In this area residue burning/removal, repeated soil tilling, monocropping, low to very low use of organic manure and fertilizers result in soil loss, poor soil properties, low productivity and income. They conclude that large scale research, demonstration and capacity building programs along with adequate policy support is required to promote CA in the region with an ultimate objective of achieving sustainable the Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger, conserve natural resources, biodiversity and climate resilient agriculture.




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