Page 22 - 04 Cotton SA October 2014

Nuus • News

Conservation

agriculture -

sustainable crop protection Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an

approach to managing agro-ecosystems
intensifi cation for improved and sustained productivity,
increased profi ts and food security while
base and the environment.
ach year, 12 million hectares of land in the the growing problems with profi tability and preserving and enhancing the resource
world, where 20 million tonnes of grain poverty in some of the rural areas. According • CA is characterized by three linked
Ecould have been grown, are lost to land to a recent study by the Agricultural Research principles, namely:
degradation. In the past 40 years, 30 percent of Council (ARC) in South Africa, the average
the Planet’s arable (food-producing) land has soil loss under annual crops (such as grain • Continuous minimum mechanical soil
become unproductive due to erosion. Unless and cotton) in the country is 13 ton per ha disturbance.
this trend is reversed soon, feeding the world’s per annum, which is much higher than the • Permanent organic soil cover.
growing population will be impossible. natural soil formation rate. If we have to off er • Diversifi cation of crop species grown in
In July 2008, a Technical Workshop was held farmers a better chance to survive on the sequences and/or associations.
at the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural farm and if sustainable and economically
Organisation (FAO) headquarters (Rome) viable agriculture is to be achieved, then the
entitled: “Investing in Sustainable Crop paradigms of agriculture production and availability and thus resilience to drought,
Intensifi cation: The Case for Improving Soil management must be changed. improve recharge of aquifers and reduce the
Health”. The main outcome was to develop There is general agreement among key impact of the apparent increased volatility in
a Framework for Action. The Workshop government departments, such as the weather associated with climate change. It
was attended by 96 stakeholders from 40 Department of Agriculture, Forestry and will cut production costs, lead to more reliable
countries, representing governments and Fisheries (DAFF) and producer’s organisations, harvests and reduce risks especially for small
inter-governmental institutions, the private such as Grain SA, that these outcomes will holders.
sector, research organizations, farmers and be achieved through the adoption and Because of the multiple benefi ts that
NGOs. implementation of Conservation Agriculture CA systems generate in terms of yield,
The consensus of the Workshop was that (CA) principles and practices. CA is seen as sustainability of land use, incomes, timeliness
plough-based farming, as now widely an ideal system for sustainable and climate- of cropping practices, ease of farming and
practised, has unsustainable elements, smart agricultural intensifi cation, through eco-system services, the area under CA
whose continued promotion and application which farmers can attain higher levels of systems has been growing exponentially
endangers global capacities to respond to productivity and profi tability (i.e. or ‘green in many countries, largely as a result of the
the food security concerns. Ploughing and prosperity’) while improving soil health and initiative of farmers and their organizations. In
removal of crop residues after harvest leave the environment. South Africa, CA has not been “mainstreamed”
soil naked and vulnerable to wind and rain, Ample evidence now exists of the successes in agricultural development programmes or
resulting in gradual, often unnoticed erosion of CA under many diverse agro-ecological backed by suitable policies and institutional
of soil. This is like tyre wear on your car — conditions to justify a major investment of support, and the total area under CA is still
unless given the attention and respect it human and fi nancial resources in catalysing small relative to areas farmed using tillage.
deserves, catastrophe is only a matter of time. a shift, whenever and wherever conditions However, there are a signifi cant upswing in
Erosion also puts carbon into the air where it permit it, towards CA. This will lead to large the number of innovative farmers (commercial
contributes to climate change. and small holder) practising CA successfully,
and demonstrable savings in machinery
In South Africa, crop production systems and energy use and in carbon emissions, a as well as key research and development
initiatives having a great success in promoting
based on intensive and continuous soil tillage rise in soil organic matter content and biotic it.
have led to excessively high soil degradation activity. It will also reduce carbon emissions,
rates in grain producing areas. This adds to ensure less erosion, increase crop water Dr Hendrik Smith, Grain SA

Katoen SA Cotton 22 September 2014