Paradigms of agriculture

Kassam, Amir; Kassam, Laila

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-816410-5.00010-4

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Despite the clear definition provided by the FAO (Kassam, Friedrich, and Derpsch, 2019; FAO, 2021), CA remains difficult to characterize when we look at systems in their agricultural, climatic, and economic reality. Given the prevalence and widespread support for CA, we advocate for moving CA from its current definition based on the means toward a definition that includes performance-based metrics that address different ecosystem services (Palm et al, 2014; Jayaraman et al, 2021; Kassam and Kassam, 2021). CA has potential to help address challenges associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, and water pollution, but opportunities may be missed without developing performance targets that go beyond soil conservation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving conservation agriculture from principles to a performance-based production system

Cordeau

2024

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

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Conservation agriculture (CA) is an approach to farming that is defined by three principles: (1) minimal soil disturbance (no-till), (2) crop diversity in time and space, and (3) soil coverage by crop residues and/or cover crops. These principles provide a roadmap to protect and improve soil. However, the narrow criteria for defining CA may fail to account for tradeoffs between soil health and other ecosystem services. A literature review of meta-analyses dealing with CA and an online survey in France were conducted to explore the implementation and performances of CA. Research on CA systems has focused on crop productivity and soil quality whereas research on other dimensions of cropping system sustainability are lacking. The effects of CA on other aspects of sustainability such as biodiversity and profitability are less prevalent in the literature. The online survey results show that 63% of respondents thought that CA helps reduce pesticide use, 91% that CA improves water use efficiency, and 77% that CA helps to store carbon and achieve the objectives of the 4 per 1000 international initiative. Given the prevalence and widespread support for CA, we advocate for moving CA from its current definition based on the means toward a definition that includes performance-based metrics that address different ecosystem services. CA has potential to help address challenges associated with climate change, biodiversity loss, and water pollution, but opportunities may be missed without developing performance targets that go beyond soil conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving conservation agriculture from principles to a performance-based production system

Cordeau

2024

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

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“…Although adopting perennial species into agricultural systems produces multiple benefits, one of the longer-term adverse effects of forage-biomass production, in particular those with taproots such as M, is the possible depletion of deep-layer soil water ( Jiang et al., 2006 ). One solution can be a rotational plantation based on a single life cycle of alfalfa pasture, similar to the rotational grazing system used in grassland conservation ( Kassam and Kassam, 2021 ; Dong et al., 2022 ). In fact, deep-soil dryness is not unique with forage pastures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving the dual goals of biomass production and soil rehabilitation with sown pasture on marginal cropland: Evidence from a multi-year field experiment in Northeast Inner Mongolia

Li²,

Wang³

et al. 2022

Front. Plant Sci.

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Grassland is the primary land use in China but has experienced severe degradation in recent decades due to overgrazing and conversion to agricultural production. Here, we conducted a field experiment in northeastern Inner Mongolia to test the effectiveness of sown pastures in lowering the grazing pressure on grasslands and raising the quality of marginal soils. Alfalfa and smooth bromegrass monocultures and mixture were sown in a marginal cropland field in Hulunber in June 2016. Biomass productivity, soil physicochemical, and biological properties were monitored annually from 2016 to 2020. The results showed that the marginal cropland soil responded consistently positively to sown pastures for major soil properties. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) increased by 48 and 21%, respectively, from 2016 to 2020 over the 0-60 cm soil depth range. Soil microbes responded proactively too. The soil microbial biomass C (SMBC) and N (SMBN) increased by 117 and 39%, respectively, during the period of 2016-2020. However, by the end of the experiment, the soil of a natural grassland field, which was included in the experiment as a control, led the sown pasture soil by 28% for SOC, 35% for TN, 66% for SMBC, and 96% for SMBN. Nevertheless, the natural grassland soil’s productive capacity was inferior to that of the sown pasture soil. The average aboveground biomass productivity of sown pastures was measured at 8.4 Mg ha-1 in 2020, compared to 5.0 Mg ha-1 for natural grassland, while the root biomass of sown pastures was averaged at 7.5 Mg ha-1, leading the natural grassland by 15%. Our analyses also showed that the sown pastures’ biomass productivity advantage had a much-neglected potential in natural grassland protection. If 50% of the available marginal cropland resources in Hulunber under the current environmental protection law were used for sown pastures, the livestock grazing pressure on the natural grasslands would decrease by a big margin of 38%. Overall, these results represent systematic empirical and analytical evidence of marginal cropland soil’s positive responses to sown pastures, which shows clearly that sown pasture is a valid measure both for soil rehabilitation and biomass production.

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“…Local economies with food sovereignty going beyond food security with international peasant, slow food, cooperative solidarity movements like La Via Campesina and Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale with the many versions of food hubs may cut out middle-men and monopolies or speculators making produce cheaper, safer and closer products suitable to diverse dietary needs [244,268]. Regenerative farming and agroecology, sometimes less strict than organic farming that does not allow weed-killers, with less tillage or chemicals and "soil doctors" may heal poor soil health and make them both more productive and more resilient to climate change (whether temperature, drought or floods) as well as habitat for a rich ecosystem for micro-organisms and a storage sink for carbon -but this is often only solvable by local measures as there is no "one size fits all" solution [269][270][271][272] (Figure 13). Care needs to be taken as radical overhauls such as banning all fertilisers and pesticides can cause a low yield crisis, as suggested by the experience of Sri Lanka.…”

Section: Big Food-small Holdersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pellagra: Down Not Out If Down and Out (and South) – Part 2

Williams¹,

Wood²,

Hill³

2024

Vitamin B and Vitamin E - Pleiotropic and Nutritional Benefits

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North-South variation in the supply of meat has always been present. Sharing of meat was the rule but in the multi-centric Neolithic revolution when domestication of animals and plants co-evolved class differences became pronounced-aristocrats and inferior proletariats and “lesser breeds and lower orders” started to form. The distribution of natural domesticates was uneven with the near-east and a temperate band across Europe well off compared with Africa and the Americas. The Columbian exchange changed this as meat became abundant in the New World who then exported to Europe. Wars, expropriations and genocides were over the meat supply and acquiring pastureland or water. Colonial plantation profits paid for meat imports from “settler colonies” indigenous or poor peoples on low meat pro-pellagrous diets were considered inferior whatever their colour and had poorer health and life expectancy. Attempts to correct hunger in the resultant ramshackle “Third world” concentrated on calories fuelling population booms and busts and delaying demographic, epidemiological and economic transitions. High meat variances are narrowing in China and Asia but need help elsewhere in the South. Dangers of not developing with a safe and sufficient meat supply include the emergence of zoonoses and mass migration. Reparations, rehabilitation and rejuvenation should concentrate on reconstituting a meat commons giving us a shot at redemption and survival.

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Paradigms of agriculture

Cited by 14 publications

References 43 publications

Moving conservation agriculture from principles to a performance-based production system

Moving conservation agriculture from principles to a performance-based production system

Achieving the dual goals of biomass production and soil rehabilitation with sown pasture on marginal cropland: Evidence from a multi-year field experiment in Northeast Inner Mongolia

Pellagra: Down Not Out If Down and Out (and South) – Part 2

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