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Policymakers, donors, and investors are seeing the wisdom of investing in soil restoration, agroecology, agroforestry, and biodiversity, among other regenerative actions. Not only are these markets a good fit for smallholder farmers who practice agroecology , but they are also more equitable and accessible for women and youth.
The input reduction principle of agroecology is wrong when it comes to mineral fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa. …but that doesn’t mean agroecology is wrong. Genetic modification can improve crop yields — but stop overselling it. Drivers and stressors of resilience to food insecurity: evidence from 35 countries.
Intensive agrifood production systems rely on the excessive use of agrochemicals and monocultural production, harming the environment and failing to support healthy diets. Agroecology can be the solution to our nutrition and environmental crises. Current food systems struggle to provide healthy diets while sustaining ecosystems.
” The Role of Crop, Livestock, and Farmed Aquatic Intraspecific Diversity in Maintaining Ecosystem Services. Towards an agroecological approach to crop health: reducing pest incidence through synergies between plant diversity and soil microbial ecology. Diversity of the research teams, that is.
We need to rethink our food systems and transition to diversified agroecological systems that can ensure we address this twin challenge, and to provide nutritious diets to a growing population without destroying the planet. This way, soils store more organic carbon especially when cover crops are combined with no-till management.
Growing vast monocultures of potatoes requires synthetic fertilizers whose production requires massive amounts of energy. Another 38 percent comes from retail consumption and waste; and the rest is from industrial inputs (like pesticides and fertilizer) and agriculture production. The same is true for plastic used in food packaging.
CROPGRIDS: A global geo-referenced dataset of 173 crops circa 2020. It’s great to finally know where crops are grown. If only they had had this analytical framework when they thought of Bt crops. Crop Diversity Experiment: towards a mechanistic understanding of the benefits of species diversity in annual crop systems.
While this way of growing vanilla is helpful in times of climate change, this year, local producers lost the majority of their production due to the extreme heat in the region. We wanted to stop the fires and decided to introduce crops that would help us do so,” Garcia Martinez remembers. “We Photography by Noel Rojo.
A Bigger Conversation’s Director, Pat Thomas, shares insights from the ‘Agroecological Intelligence’ project, which spoke with agroecological farmers and growers to establish a criteria for adopting new technologies. An automatic irrigation system follows their path. But not everyone buys in to this narrative.
By Justin Duncan, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist For the past couple years, NCAT has worked with the Southern Risk Management Education Center to provide training to farmers on how to better decide which crops to plant based on agroecological methods. For me, it’s all about getting to know the plant’s needs.
For example, soil and vegetation on farms remove carbon from the atmosphere, regulate hydrological flows, and shelter pollinators who pollinate crops. Regenerative farming, however, can reduce the decline of natural capital on farmland, enhances many ecosystem services, climate resiliency, and improves productivity and profitability.
By Justin Duncan, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist For the past couple years, NCAT has worked with the Southern Risk Management Education Center to provide training to farmers on how to better decide which crops to plant based on agroecological methods. What is growing on the site already that is related to the desired crop?
Initially, farmers and corporations alike wade into the shallow end, implementing relatively simple and inexpensive techniques such as cover cropping and minimal tillage to optimize for soil health and carbon sequestration. In the deep end, outcomes are sought to benefit the farmers and stewards of whole landscapes themselves.
On the back 16 acres of Walla Walla Community College, 30 Red Angus cows stand munching on hairy vetch, ryegrass and other cover crops that were planted to help restore the soil. As part of its efforts to foster a new crop of farmers, earlier this y ear, the USDA announced it would be investing $262.5 It’s truly full circle.”
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in regenerative agriculture, a holistic approach to farming that seeks to restore and revitalize the land while improving crop yields and overall farm profitability. This means increased crop yields and reduced inputs like fertilizers and pesticides. What’s in It for Farmers?
These products are best marketed directly to consumers, local chefs, or specialty markets, although I hope this will change. As farmers who work in unpredictable climates, we know the importance of growing a diverse range of foods and harvesting various parts to make up for times when cash crops are scarce.
A new report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy provides an analysis of how current and projected climate change risks are affecting production and trade by the major cereal producers, exporters, and importers in international markets.
Other posts explore how the next farm bill can tackle issues in regional market development, crop insurance access, and more. This public research and development (R&D) investment is the primary driver of long-term productivity growth in US agriculture.
The primary message regarding agriculture as a whole is that the risks to agricultural production are rising and will continue to rise as a result of climate change. Drought and torrential rain will frequently reduce productivity in all regions. high-efficiency irrigation and genetic modification) rather than systems approaches.
Since 2017, the cooperative has been piloting new ways to collect, process, and market tree crops, with the goal of catalyzing a local nut-based economy. European settlers also made use of wild tree crops, particularly black walnuts, and Holt says numerous companies processed and sold them through the middle of the 20th century.
Consumption of crops or animals grown on PFAS-contaminated land puts humans at high risk of illness. By the spring of 2022, more than 50 farms in Tier 1 areas learned they had high levels of forever chemicals in their products, their fields, and their water. The state later discovered, however, that the sludge contained harmful PFAS.
Urban ag is any kind of food production space within a city, inclusive of commercial farms that grow and sell directly to consumers, non-profit farms that serve a broader mission, community gardens, school gardens and even vacant lots turned into thriving personal gardens or homesteads. Timothy Bowles, a professor of Agroecology at U.C.
The need for greater access to land, so that younger generations can have a role in equitable and accessible food production – most particularly in agroecological food production – is critical and demands that we find new pathways beyond ownership to invite their participation.
Have you ever found yourself scratching your head trying to make sense of all those terms like polycultures, cocktail crops, intercropping, cover crops, companion cropping, and relay crops? 16:30 – Dr. Bainard shares seeding considerations when it comes to productivity. It’s understandable!
Environmental stressors to crops—decreased and erratic rainfall, pests, and blights—are worsening with climate change. Generational wisdom dictates that certain crops are better suited for certain regions. Generational wisdom dictates that certain crops are better suited for certain regions. Food and Agriculture Organization.
The question of how to diversify farm production is closely linked with the question of expanding access to land. Who manages land determines which scientific perspectives, crop choices, traditions, and skills shape the landscape, with profound implications for its ecological sustainability. Photo credit: Crop Trust.
Here are some of the key takeaways I gleaned from my review of Chapter 11 of NCA 5 : “Weather whiplash” is already hurting US agriculture Extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and heat waves, along with altered precipitation patterns, have affected agriculture by negatively impacting productivity, and made crop yields much less predictable.
A new report from Friends of the Earth explores the potential implications of this novel use of genetic engineering, something that is fundamentally different from the genetically engineered (GE) crops that have been the center of debate for decades. What could go wrong when we genetically engineer them? Take BASF’s 2.0
Poor soils can cut crop yields by up to 50 percent—which, if we’re not careful, could result in more soil being tilled to grow more crops, which degrades more soil, which pushes us closer to climate catastrophe. And that has direct impacts on our food supply and climate. We’re seeing the power of storytelling, too.
Crop failure and low yields, in turn, have exacerbated political instability, poverty, and migration. Partnering with nearly 1,000 farming families in Honduras, SHI has helped restore over 8,000 acres of land by promoting agroecological practices, including the planting of over 2.2 million trees. 45% of these graduates are youth.
The crisis in Ukraine reveals the folly of a global food system where a few staple crops are produced in a select few countries. The crisis in Ukraine reveals that now more than ever, we must embrace a food system grounded in local agroecology. More useful than individual stories of failure or success are broad studies. Among the 12.6
As California has lost much of its grain to higher value crops, small flour mills and grain cleaning businesses have disappeared, too. Meanwhile, the cost of farm production expenses are expected to reach a record high in 2023. isn’t working for many small producers. The median farming income in the U.S. I’ve never seen that.
Over time, the consolidation and commodification of seeds has eroded the resilience of our food systems, diminishing the agrobiodiversity of crops cultivated in the US at an alarming rate. The History of US Seed Breeding For most of the history of domesticated crops, those who grew crops saved seeds from one growing season to the next.
Agroforestry and agroecology are practices central to the regenerative agriculture efforts of Initiative 20x20 partner Sustainable Harvest International (SHI). Conventional practices often include deforestation, the overuse of harmful agro-chemicals, and focus on growing a single crop. Shade-grown coffee is a great example of this.
The book discusses topics such as processed food, genetically modified crops, and the journey to discover and create foods with minimal environmental impact. This guide explains the sustainability of specific food products and demonstrates how a business can successfully communicate their practices to customers.
“She thought that if we’re going to be able to end factory farming, it’s not just about creating a different system that runs parallel, like you might see a lot of organizations doing when they talk about agroecology or regenerative farming [and] things of that nature,” says Whitley. The other hurdle is marketing.
annually, but SHI farmers in Santa Martha are reversing this trend with agroforestry practices that integrate trees with agricultural crops. Conventional sugarcane production uses high levels of pesticides and other agrochemicals, which are harmful to local wildlife and local communities.
Located in Rogersville, New Brunswick, her farm Ferme Terre Partagee currently operates as a coop based on common values and objectives including peasant agroecology and food sovereignty. 29:05 – Why doesn’t Rébeka sell her product to the big grocery store chain? 11:55 – Rébeka shares her farming story.
Their co-created research found that on some farms, the rotational fallow system led to greater agrobiodiversity, greater production, more reliable production, and richer soil. According to the Swedbio report, there are some 207 food crops cultivated in the rotational farming system used by Hin Lad Nai.
Title 1 – Commodities Dramatically raises subsidies for commodity production, including a 10 to 20 percent increase to Price Loss Coverage program reference prices and a bump to revenue guarantees under the Agriculture Risk Coverage program. percent of farmers. 7503, 7123).
He used a conventional approach: He diligently mowed his animals’ pastures to control weeds, added lime to make the soil less acidic, and applied fertilizer to boost productivity. Trees, they say, can protect farm animals from wind and sun, prevent erosion, stabilize streambanks, and yield marketable products like fruit and nuts.
While many sustainability assessments focus on the impacts that farms have on people and planet beyond the farm gate (for example, the contribution of farm greenhouse gas emissions to global warming), less attention is focused on the need to ensure that future generations can meet their needs for farm products, in particular, food.
They support 10 farm, community garden and orchard sites in DeKalb and Rockdale Counties, helping communities grow fresh, culturally familiar crops. These efforts encompass small scale farming, agroecology, agroforestry, and reforestation. And they have children’s program that introduces young people to edible playground gardens.
Regenerative Agriculture and Nature-Based Solutions Coffee crops grow alongside other plants in what is known as an Agroforestry approach to farming. More than just an explicit set of production practices, this way of farming is known as “agroecology”, and refers to working with, rather than against, nature.
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