Nutrient Management and Edge Conference Day 1

Nutrient Management and Edge Conference Day 1

Agriculture farm politics soil health

I am in Memphis attending the Nutrient Management and Edge of Field Conference. The conference kicked off with a symposium on healthy soils and healthy waters.  The morn started with academic research reports.  The afternoon moved to much more interesting topics as farmers and other discussed healthy soils from a more practical standpoint.  lames Moseley of Agree a food and agriculture policy group summed up the afternoon discussing policy and summing things up.  Mosey speculated that 25% of the yield increase needed to feed 9 million people would come from improving soil quality.  The farmer presentations were very compelling with the notion that such an increase is possible.  He also asked who would lead.  He thinks that government leadership is a bad idea.  He suggested that individuals will need to step forward.  Moseley discussed regulation and the idea that farmers need to avoid regulation by implementing god management on their own.  I would add that the reason we need to avoid regulation is that regulations limit our ability to manage a dynamic system. We need the flexibility to address issues as they present themselves. Andrew Sharply of Arkansas pointed out that they are no cookie cutter methods to solve every soil quality and water quality issue.

Crop Rotation and its Importance in Agriculture

Crop Rotation and its Importance in Agriculture

crop rotations organic farmers soil health soil structure

Crop rotations are at the heart of organic farming, and help organic systems to protect our environment.  They involve changing the type of crop grown in one area on a regular basis. While using crop rotations might sound old fashioned, it is a much more effective and sophisticated system than relying on chemicals. Using chemicals to fertilize the soil often only provides crops with the three basic elements (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) that they need to grow, rather than providing them with all the nutrients they need.

As well as ensuring soil nutrients don’t get depleted, crop rotations also prevent the build up of pests and diseases, which help organic farmers to avoid the use of pesticides. When a farmer plants the same crop in one field year after year (known as a mono-culture), the pests and diseases that attack the crop establish and increase in numbers year-on-year – non-organic farmers then rely on pesticides to deal with this. In contrast organic farmers avoid the problem by alternating crops that are vulnerable to different pests and diseases each year, preventing any from getting established in the same location.

Crop rotations therefore have many important functions:

• Helps to control pests and diseases
• Helps to maintain soil fertility
• Helps to maintain soil organic matter levels and soil structure
• Ensures that enough nutrients are available to different crops each year

The overall result of these techniques is that organic farming reduces environmental pollution and the release of greenhouse gases from food production.

 See also :

Types of agricultural subsidies available in India

Different methods of Irrigation

Greenhouse Farming and its Advantages

Difference between Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers

International Websites for Information Related to Agriculture

International Websites for Information Related to Agriculture

agriculture websites agroforestry composting 101 global organics homestead israel agriculture soil health

S. No	Name	Website
1	Agricultures Network, Netherlands	www.agriculturesnetwork.org
2	Agroforestry	www.agroforestry.net
3	Appropriate Technology, UK	http://www.researchinformation.co.uk/apte.php
4	Bamobooweb.info	www.bambooweb.info
5	Banana	www.banana.com
6	Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association	www.biodynamics.com
7	Bioversity International, Italy	www.bioversityinternational.org
8	COMPAS  Endogenous Development	www.compasnet.org
9	Composting101.com	www.composting101.com
10	Department of Agriculture, Philippines	http://www.da.gov.ph/
11	Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO), USA	www.echotech.org
12	Farmily : E -marketing site	https://farmily.com/en/
13	Food and Agricultural Organization	www.fao.org
14	Free Rice	www.freerice.com
15	Global Organics	www.globalorganicsgroup.com
16	Grain, Spain	www.grain.org
17	Hawaii Fruits	www.hawaiifruit.net
18	Heifer International, USA	www.heifer.org
19	Holistic Agriculture, Spain	www.holisticdecisions.com
20	Homestead.org	www.homestead.org
21	International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Hyderabad	www.icrisat.org
22	International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Germany	www.ifoam.org
23	International Rice Research Institute, Philippines	www.irri.org
24	Israel Agriculture	http://www.israelagri.com/
25	Itinerant Permaculture, USA	www.ipermaculture.org
26	Mango	www.mango.org
27	Morigna News	www.moringanews.org
28	National Tropical Botanical Garden, Breadfruit Institute	http://ntbg.org/breadfruit/
29	Natural Resource Conservation Services, USDA	http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/
30	New Mexico Humates	www.humates.com
31	One man, one cow, one planet, New Zealand	www.onemanonecow.com
32	Organic.org	http://organic.org
33	Pine Island Nursery, USA	www.tropicalfruitnursery.com
34	ProMusa: banana science	www.promusa.org
35	Rodale Institute, USA	http://rodaleinstitute.org/
36	Science and Development Network, UK	http://www.scidev.net/en
37	Soil Health, Australia	www.soilhealth.com
38	Soilhealth.net	http://soilhealth.net/
39	Solar Cookers International Network	http://solarcooking.wikia.com
40	TeraVita, Science of Humic Acids	www.teravita.com
41	The Epicentre Exotic Herbs and Spices	www.theepicentre.com
42	The Killer Plants, UK	http://thekillerplants.blogspot.in/
43	The Vetiver Network International	www.vetiver.org
44	Top Tropicals (rare tropical plants)	http://toptropicals.com
45	Trees for Life International	www.treesforlife.org
46	Tropical Fruits	www.bijlmakers.com/fruits/tropicalfruits.htm
47	Tropical Permaculture	www.tropicalpermaculture.com
48	World Agroforestry Center, Nairobi	www.worldagroforestrycentre.org
49	World Cocoa Foundation, USA	www.worldcocoafoundation.org
50	World Organic Trade Fair	www.biofach.de/en

See also :

Soil and its properties

Types of animal manures for increasing organic content

Modern farming and its effect on agriculture