Showing results for: agriculture soil News
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Haiti’s Young Agronomists
In this past fiscal year, SOIL hosted six interns in the agricultural department. The interns were all agriculture students at local universities who come to SOIL to fulfill their internship requirement during their last year of schooling. In SOIL’s agricultural intern program, students gain practical hands-on experience in lab work, research and compost production, and then design and ...
By SOIL Haiti
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Effects of chemical fertiliser and animal manure on soil health compared
Fertilising crops with cattle manure can lead to better soil quality than when synthetic fertiliser is used, recent research indicates. The use of cattle manure in the study led to greater soil fertility by encouraging higher microbial activity, and the researchers suggest that it could potentially improve soil’s ability to cope with periods of difficult growing conditions. The complex ...
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How much water is used for irrigation in European agriculture?
Agriculture plays a large role in the management of water in the EU. However, there is little consistent information on water use in irrigation. New EU supported research has estimated how much water is used for irrigation in European countries, providing a framework to analyse agricultural pressures on water quantity. Water scarcity is an increasing problem in the EU and the situation is ...
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Climate change and agriculture: food and farming in a changing climate
Climate change is already affecting the Earth’s temperature, precipitation, and hydrological cycles, with detrimental impacts on U.S. and global agricultural systems. The interaction of these dynamic factors can lead to a decrease in plant productivity, increasing the price for many important agricultural crops. On Wednesday, June 16, 2010, between 10:30-11:30am, in Room 328A of the Senate ...
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Study by ARS microbiologist in Texas shows farming practices’ benefits to soil quality
The first evaluation of alternative farming practices—based on changes in soil microbes—in the Texas High Plains has been done by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist. Soil microbiologist Veronica Acosta-Martinez has also done a similar analysis for land in USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a first nationally. Changes in microbes can give a relatively early indication as to ...
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Kansas senator honored with soil stewardship award
A long-time champion for agriculture, research, and the United States’ soil resources, Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, will be presented today (Mar. 18) with the 2013 Excellence in Soil Stewardship Award by the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). The award recognizes policy makers whose exemplary leadership has strengthened the U.S. agricultural enterprise and the natural ...
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Plant and soil science conference emphasizes food, energy and environmental security
A conference is coming to Long Beach Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 that presents the latest research in plant and soil science, emphasizing the security of food, energy and the environment in the next green revolution. More than 3,000 international scientists, professionals, educators, and students will present new technologies and discuss emerging trends in food security, bioenergy, climate change, soil ...
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Meet Marckindy, SOIL’s Composting Supervisor
A couple of months ago we sat down with Marckindy Etienne, SOIL’s Composting Supervisor, to talk about his work, his connection to SOIL, and his thoughts on the role sanitation and compost can play in Haiti’s future. Marckindy has been a part of the SOIL family since his first internship in 2012, and he’s known of SOIL for even longer through his brother, Job (SOIL’s ...
By SOIL Haiti
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Africa, India to boost agricultural technology cooperation
[CHENNAI] Africa and India will boost cooperation in agricultural technologies for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a view to achieving food security by 2015. The Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the European Market Research Centre (EMRC) this month, to facilitate ICRISAT's ...
By SciDev.Net
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UN report confirms organic farming can protect soils
Organic agriculture can contribute to delivering global food security, help tackle climate change, protect soils and conserve wildlife. So recognises a four year study involving 400 scientists from around the world as well as 30 governments and the same number of NGOs. The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report criticises industrial ...
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Artificial wetlands on farmland help to prevent soil loss and recapture agricultural by-products
Small field wetlands are a simple and effective way to reduce soil erosion and nutrient pollution, recent research suggests. The authors adapted Norwegian designs for the UK environment and created a series of small rectangular lakes on the edges of agricultural fields. After three years, the wetlands had prevented tonnes of soil from leaving the land, and helped alleviate some of the nutrient ...
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Fertiliser trees prove a hit in southern Africa
Hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers in southern Africa are adopting fast-growing trees and shrubs to fertilise their fields naturally, for improved yields and incomes, according to a study. Scientists at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), a non-profit research organisation in Kenya, analysed two decades-worth of efforts to bring 'fertiliser trees' to African farms and announced ...
By SciDev.Net
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Why I turned from GM opponent to advocate
Just under 20 years ago, when the issue of GMOs was first hitting the news, I was a dedicated anti-biotech activist. I believed that genetic modification was a dangerous technology that would harm the environment and dispossess farmers around the world. Accordingly, I joined with others in organising protests and even crop vandalism — I personally destroyed GMO field trials on multiple ...
By SciDev.Net
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OSU Extension Conferences to Help Small Farm Owners March 7-8 and March 21-22
Small farmers wanting to expand or make their farms work more efficiently, or landowners who are new to agriculture and are looking for ways to utilize acreage, can learn entrepreneurial tips from agricultural experts with Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences during a series of small farms conferences in March. The “Opening Doors to ...
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Black Worm Castings/VermaPlex Can Replace Harmful Chemical Fertilizers
Whether you have a farm or home garden, the health of the soil directly correlates to the quality of the fruit and vegetables. The healthy soil movement is centered around bringing attention to the fact that fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are killing our soil and seeping into our food supply. Our soil is depleted of essential nutrients, fungi and bacteria due to decades of agricultural ...
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A burning issue in winter wheat production
Some Pacific Northwest winter wheat producers burn fields to remove straw left after harvest before reseeding. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have shown that with careful management, this practice does not result in any more soil erosion than other postharvest practices. Continuous winter wheat cropping systems are used in some parts of the Pacific Northwest ...
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Dutch university uses PlantCare technology
Dutch university Wageningen UR uses PlantCare equipment for soil moisture research in their greenhouse horticulture facilities in Bleiswijk, The Netherlands. 6 PlantCare wireless sensors, for recording soil moisture and soil temperature, and a PlantControl CX wireless data logger with modem, for sending the data to an email address, are being used. PlantCare’s worldwide patented sensor ...
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Self-seeding: an innovative management system
US researchers have investigated the potential for rye and wheat cover crops to perpetuate themselves, saving time and money for farmers while providing environmental benefits Winter cover crops provide important ecological functions that include nutrient cycling and soil cover. Although cover crop benefits to agroecosystems are well documented, cover crop use in agronomic farming systems ...
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World Food Day – CSIRO rising to the challenges
'There needs to be another ‘agricultural revolution’ where we see an increase in productivity, but with more efficient water, energy and nutrient use and without sending more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,' says the Director of CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, Dr Brian Keating. Taking into account population growth, economic development and food consumption growth in developing ...
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Agronomists, crop and soil scientists convene in Long Beach
What would be the impact of the next green revolution on global food security? How can soil help lessen the impacts of climate change? To what extent can biofuels help make America energy independent? These topics and others of public interest will be discussed at the International Annual Meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science ...
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