tillage cover News
-
No-tillage management of olive groves can improve soil structure while maintaining yield
Non-conservative tillage techniques, such as milling and harrowing, are the most common way to manage soil in Mediterranean olive orchards. A new study confirms the value of alternative methods based on the use of spontaneous cover crops which can significantly improve soil structure and reduce erosion whilst maintaining yields. The olive tree is one of the most widespread crops in the ...
-
4R Research Fund Issues Proposal Requests for Research on Nutrients in the Environment
This week, the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Research Fund announced the release of requests for proposals (RFP) to solicit literature reviews and syntheses on nutrient stewardship on a national, regional, or cropping system basis, and to solicit field research and demonstration projects. The 4R Research Fund was established by the fertilizer industry to help establish sustainability indicators and ...
-
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 ...
-
Transitioning to organic farming
As the organic food trend continues to grow; more farmers are converting from conventional agriculture to organic production. One of the fastest growing markets in the U.S. is the production of organic milk. The growth of this industry has prompted many farmers to transition their land to organic feed grain production. With transition on the rise, it is necessary for these farmers to have ...
-
Integrated weed management can reduce need for herbicides
The use of herbicides on crops causes environmental concerns. A new French study assesses the performance of cropping systems to manage weeds and finds that these techniques could control arable weeds in the long-term and reduce reliance on herbicides. In Europe, herbicides provide the conventional means of managing weeds on farmland. Although effective, herbicides are expensive and can build up ...
-
Cover crops reduce erosion, runoff
Cover crops may be more effective at reducing soil erosion and runoff after maize harvest than rough tillage, according to scientists from the Université Catholique de Louvain, in collaboration with the Independent Center for the Promotion of Forage (CIPF). The three-year study, supervised by Charles Bielders and conducted by Eric Laloy, measured erosion and runoff losses from silt loam ...
-
Paying farmers to protect the environment?
Carefully targeted payments to farmers could serve as an approach to protect the environment and to address growing concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss and water supply, FAO said today in its annual publication The State of Food and Agriculture. The report however cautions that payments for environmental services are not the best solution in all situations, and that significant ...
-
New Tool Offers Growers Easy Option to Measure Soil Organic Matter Content
Researchers with Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences have developed a new tool that allows farmers to easily predict soil organic matter content and can help them make decisions about whether or not to sell crop residue. The tool can benefit growers by providing information for more timely planting and harvesting, reducing operating costs, increasing ...
-
Farmers struggle to adopt climate-smart methods
Preliminary results from a project aimed at helping Malawi, Vietnam and Zambia make the transition to a "climate-smart" approach to agriculture show that some farmers are struggling to adopt the new methods, while others are finding ways to cope well with climate-change problems like late rains. "To broaden the options available to farmers, we believe that increased investment, coming from both ...
-
Scaling up conservation agriculture in Zambia
The European Union (EU), FAO and the Government of Zambia launched a four-year, €11 million programme to increase crop production and productivity of over 300 000 small-scale farmers by promoting practices based on conservation agriculture. The agricultural production of smallholder farmers in Zambia is most affected by soil degradation, high-input prices, poor produce markets and poor ...
-
Record-breaking $17.3 billion in crop losses last year; significant portion potentially avoidable
Report shows county-by-county analysis of impacts in the ten states with highest crop insurance losses due to extreme weather: Extreme weather forced the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) to pay out a record-breaking $17.3 billion in crop losses last year, much of which could have been prevented using water-smart strategies, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Payments made ...
-
Farming must change to feed the world
The world's farmers must quickly switch to more sustainable and productive farming systems to grow the food needed by a swelling world population and respond to climate change, FAO's top crops expert told an international farm congress here today. In a keynote speech to 1,000 participants at the IVth World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (CA) in New Delhi, Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO's ...
-
Sustainable mechanization has much to offer in sub-Saharan Africa
Feeding the burgeoning world population will require significant improvements in agricultural productivity, above all in Africa, and mechanization and appropriate mechanization strategies have a large role to play, according to a new report from FAO. The opportunity must be guided in a way that meets smallholder farmers' needs and that does not require a Green-Revolution type of approach with ...
-
Climate-smart farming takes root in Kenya
Like most African countries, Kenya is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. There is growing concern about potential stress on fragile ecosystems and rural communities, especially in the arid and semi-arid agro-ecological zones and some humid highland areas of the country. In keeping with the Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA) of Kenya 2010-2015 and Kenya's vision 2030, ...
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you