Cropping
Systems
ACTIVITIES
Important efforts are made by the Field Food
Crops Group (FFCG) in the area of cropping
systems. In collaboration with various services
from the Agricultural Department a
multidisciplinary Informal Working Group on
Conservation Agriculture has been created.
Conservation Agriculture (CA) involves a set of
practices based on zero or minimum tillage, the
use of direct drills, a varied crop rotation,
the maintenance of a permanent soil cover (cover
crops, crop residues) and weed management. CA
allows farmers to better manage available soil,
water and biological resources as well as farm
inputs and labor and make more effective use of
natural ecological processes. It contributes
both to environmental conservation and to
enhanced and sustained agricultural production.
Ploughing by hoe or mouldboard and disc
plough have been used universally for centuries
to manage weeds, incorporate crop residues into
the soil and provide a clean seed bed. However,
major causes of land degradation include these
types of land preparation (hoeing, ploughing ),
the removal or burning of crop residues, and
inadequate crop rotations that do not maintain
vegetative cover of the land or allow
appropriate restitution of organic matter and
plant nutrients. These leave the soil bare,
hence directly exposed to the wind, rain and
sun. All these practices result in declining
soil organic matter (SOM), which is essential
for moisture retention, water infiltration and
the nutrient exchange capacity of the soil.
Under current production systems, land
preparation and weeding are often causing labor
bottlenecks, thereby reducing the cropped area
per household and/or productivity. In Brazil,
the US, Canada and Russia CA approaches are
being widely tested and adapted to revere this
trend.
CA practices minimise soil disturbance,
replacing ploughing of the soil by direct
seeding with an adapted drill and thereby
reducing fuel, energy and labor consumption and
production costs in agriculture. It maintains a
permanent or semi-permanent organic cover on the
soil surface which is provided by a growing crop
or a dead and decomposing mulch. It protects the
soil surface from the degrading effects of the
sun, rain and wind (erosion) and provides a
substrate to feed soil biota. The living soil
organisms play a vital role in the break down of
organic matter and in mixing and aerating of the
soil. Crop competition by weeds and cover crops
are reduced through timely management including
when necessary the use of herbicides. Overall CA
contributes to enhanced and sustained
agricultural productivity and can thus be
referred to as resource-efficient/effective
agriculture.
Besides farm-level benefits, CA contributes
to wider environmental benefits such as improved
management of soil and water resources from farm
to watershed levels, including better recharge
of ground and surface water resources, improved
water quality and reduced pollution and
siltation effects downstream, increased carbon
sequestration, reduced risk of soil erosion and
vulnerability to natural disasters such as
drought, storms, floods and landslides. CA also
contributes to maintaining biodiversity through
diversification of production systems.
The first CA-oriented project activity has
been initiated in early 2000 through starting-up
a FAO-financed project on "Improved Cereal
Production Technologies" in Mongolia. Crop
production in Mongolia is severely constrained
by its cold and dry continental climate and a
growing period of about 100 days which only
allow to grow mechanized spring wheat which is
the main crop and some potatoes, vegetable and
fodder crops. It is common practice to fallow
one year in two and the fallow is mechanically
cultivated up to 5 times to control weed growth.
This has led to loss of soil moisture and
serious wind erosion and together with a lack of
essential farm inputs (improved seeds, fuel,
agro-chemicals, spares) has contributed to very
low crop productivity.
The project regards efficient crop and land
management as key to farmers' economic survival
in producing cereal crops in a difficult
climate. The current practice of frequent fallow
cultivation is unsustainable both from a
technical and financial point of view. Weed
control is very poor, soil moisture losses and
wind erosion are high and fuel for tractors is
scarce and costly. The project introduces
conservation farming technologies such as
chemical fallow on the basis of non-selective
herbicides, minimum and/or no tillage
technologies, diversified cropping systems by
introducing spring barley, improved crop residue
management by maximizing the amount of trash on
the soil surface. These technologies would
improve weed control, save scarce soil moisture,
increase soil fertility and protect the soil
from wind and water erosion. They also would
minimize the number of field operations and
greatly reduce operational costs. The project
also assists in improving planting and
harvesting operations through the supply of
direct drill equipment and straw spreaders and
train farmers in on-farm quality seed
production.
The FFCG is furthermore planning a similar
CA-based project for Kazakhstan to be started in
2001. Together with the Mongolia project this
would lay the basis for a regional approach to
tackling the production problems in the Central
Asian steppe zones. This regional approach has
also been bolstered through co-sponsoring a
regional conference (Russian Federation,
Kazakhstan, Mongolia) on "Energy and Resources
Saving in Agriculture of Arid Regions in Central
Asia" which was staged in 2000 at the Altai
Research Institute of Soil Management and Plant
Breeding in Barnaul, West Siberia, Russian
Federation.
Promotion of the CA approach is extended into
South and East Asia through sponsoring of an
International Workshop on Conservation
Agriculture for Food Security and Environment
Protection in Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems to be
staged in Lahore, Pakistan from 6-9 February
2001. Important collaborating partners are the
Rice-Wheat Consortium which comprises CIMMYT,
World Bank and the International Water
Management Institute.
