Every time a new disease or insect pest appears, the critics who want to disparage ZT say that it is to blame. For example, some plant pathologists maintain that the best control for soybean stem canker is to plough in crop residues, but the ZT practitioners and other pathologists opposed this and proved them wrong.
Now the same is being said about ploughing in cotton residues, a practice that originated in the USA where there was a strong tendency towards monocultures of cotton, maize, and other crops, with reliance on chemical controls of pests, weeds and diseases. Brazilian researchers and pioneer ZT farmers are now showing that insertion of cotton in a good crop rotation allows ZT cotton to produce top yields, at the same time bringing the multiple benefits of the indirect biological controls generated by alternating with other crops. In 1998 the state of Mato Grosso do Sul changed its law to allow shredding of cotton residues as a control measure for over wintering pests. There are, indeed, sporadic attacks of several species of soil beetles which cause patches of total loss and scare the farmer out of his wits.
In the interests of persuading farmers not to abandon ZT, one needs to demonstrate the usually non-repetitive history of these pests and the inefficiency of cultivation processes for their control. Further, the farmer does not fully appreciate what he loses when he cultivates his soil; Reicovsky (1997) has shown in the USA that 70% of ploughed-down crop residue can be lost within 19 days of ploughing. In addition, after several years of practicing ZT, it is easy to forget how serious erosion problems can be without it.
ZTAT, in collaboration with the local extension service and a farmer co-operative, recently organised a debate in the Federal District with 100 farmers and technicians to examine the pros and cons of reverting to conventional tillage as an eventual control measure for persistent weeds, diseases, pests, soil compaction, and the like. An experienced consultant agronomist, whose supervised Phaseolus bean crops are frequently close to yields of three tons/ha, summed up one aspect of the argument when he said, "I know the weak root system of beans likes ploughed soil, but you don't sacrifice the whole system for one crop. Put beans on old ZT land, where the old root galleries and soil fauna have restructured it."
Box 8, which lists what the farmer loses by reverting to conventional tillage, was shown to the participants in the debate.
This debate was so stimulating that the president of the nearby co-operative immediately approached Finkenbinder to form a CAT. ZTAT is now promoting the idea of similar debates within the CAT network.
Van der Klinken carried out a survey on reversion to CT in conjunction with the Goiás state Irrigation Farmers' Association. The members work mainly with centre pivot systems and use ZT. But a number of farmers had reverted to Conventional Tillage. The reasons were that, despite their appreciation of the benefits of ZT, farmers were fearful of disease attacks. In particular, two new bean diseases, which were confounded with anthacnose, did not respond to the fungicides which controlled this disease. The farmers needed to be certain of control, in spite of the losses from leaving ZT. At that time of the survey, there was no evidence as to whether other controls were effective. Furthermore, under irrigation with three crops a year, it is easy to replace the crop residues lost by abandoning ZT.
Other reasons which ZT farmers have given for reverting to CT are:
However, except for severe problems with the physical condition of soils, most tropical agronomists agree that a more diverse rotation is the solution to these ills. The paradox is that many farmers wants to plant a profitable crop like beans every year under pivot irrigation, and then they blame ZT for the disease build-up! There is also evidence that white mould in beans can be controlled by either antagonist fungi or by preventing the spread of spores by a thick residue cover, so the situation is not straightforward. A leading Embrapa plant pathologist from the Rice and Bean Centre is now offering a pathogen assay service to determine whether ploughing might be an effective control or not.
A number of early CATs fizzled out once the novelty of discovering how ZT works wore off. ZTAT has therefore concerned itself with developing and promoting second phase activities for CATs. These include: participatory planning of on-farm research and its subsequent execution; round tables and debates on current problems; on-farm student training; lectures by CAT members for students; organization of local ZT events; advanced courses on soil fertility, weed control, and spraying technology; specialist talks on current topics; farm visits, and soon on.
The list of environmental benefits generated by ZT, shown in Box 5 (see Section Policy and environmental considerations) illustrates the arguments being used to convince environmentalists to support ZT. But, in spite of this, and the book published specifically to tackle this question, no hard financial support has been received to date from this sector. It should be noted that the support of the Ministry of Environment was based on water-resources management, not on general environmental considerations.
In a round of seminars promoted in 1998/9 to discuss Agenda 21, in which several members of ZTAT participated, it became very clear that many environmentalists see the farmer as the villain. The fact that the desiccant herbicides used in ZT are all totally inactivated on reaching the soil, and that the overall positive effects of ZT for the environment are huge, were totally obfuscated by Green activists in the seminars. An offer by van der Klinken to produce an additional three million hectares of ZT in five years, at the minuscule cost of US$1.00 per hectare, was ridiculed with the argument that the farmer had to pay for past misdeeds (see Section Policy and environmental considerations). While van der Klinken becomes very irate about this situation, Martinez remains sanguine about it. He recommends just chipping away at moderate environmentalists in the hope that one day there will be adequate realisation that support to ZT is in the general interest.
The chief arguments which have been used by the Green lobby against Zero Tillage are :
ZTAT obviously needs a firmer financial base to carry out its future activities, but this requires the preparation of projects for financing, extensive lobbying, and enquiries with potential financing agencies. ZTAT meets with a credibility limitation among bilateral and international sponsors because it is not yet working intensively with their priority target group of resource-poor small farmers. This credibility aspect requires much time and effort to overcome, in spite of ZTAT's pilot projects with small farmers.
A new edition of the ZT Manual, which could generate income, would now demand about six months of straight work before reaching a stage where sponsorship could be looked for. Yet Van der Klinken and Finkenbinder are already working more than normal hours in the editing of the technical bulletin, presenting technical papers and talks, supervising training courses, and in supporting pilot projects, CATs, members, and other interested parties.
The fact that the number of CATs is steadily growing indicates demand for ZTAT's activities, but ZT practitioners are unwilling, or have not been approached in the best manner, to affiliate themselves en masse and guarantee a stable baseline budget. There is demand for a website on Tropical Zero Tillage but can this generate a significant margin through advertising? Can the Cerrado Zero Tillage publication be increased to fortnightly or monthly editions under professional management and generate better margins? How could future events be adequately designed and managed to generate operational profits? Such self-funding, though elusive, would have the advantage of commercial neutrality and moral re-enforcement from the recipients of the services provided. And above all, it would eliminate the time-consuming and often frustrating bureaucratic processes of seeking funding.
There is obviously a social need and burgeoning demand for ZT application to the small farm sector, and pilot projects are encouraging. But ZTAT's members are currently not from this sector. However, it would probably be relatively easy to find international donors for a multi-annual project for poverty alleviation and environmental protection with small farmers. This would provide a guaranteed budget, which has not been possible in the eight years of ZTAT's existence.
The two key players, Dirk van der Klinken and Swedo Martinez, have complemented each other well, and although of greatly differing characters, have been united in the common cause. Van der Klinken is a doer and mover, but he has at times been disorganized by undertaking too many tasks at once. Martinez has been a good organizer and an excellent administrator. Both have commanded respect in technical and scientific circles. The fact that they had known each other for over 25 years before their joint venture in ZTAT has allowed them to overcome their sometimes major differences of opinion.
Swedo Martinez, who is good at raising support, does not receive remuneration for the considerable amount of work that he is doing. For how much longer will he consider the satisfaction he derives from this pivotal contribution as adequate? Men like this are difficult to find. Do any of the other directors or members of the Deliberative Council have this capacity and the desire and time to do the job? If they have, they are few and far between, live in farming areas, are busy managing their own farms, and have little or no contact with potential sources of funding - except for commercial firms, whose budgets are pruned to the bone as a result of the de-capitalization of the farm sector as a whole.
Looking towards his role in the future, van der Klinken has to bear in mind that he has no regular salary from ZTAT, and the Ministry of Environment consultancy he was engaged in has dried up because of political changes. He can maintain himself partly with the aid of some outside consulting, and still run most of the activities, provided he continues to have Finkenbinder's assistance.
For a man nearing retirement age like van der Klinken, an internationally supported project for ZT in the small farm sector, as outlined at the end of the previous section, could be a new challenge, with less stress than continuing in the present improvised manner. However, the opportunities for his participation on the international scene have been increasing to the point where he is considering a lecture tour of Europe, some project development in Africa, and a number of other assignments.
Fred Pedregoso has spent three years tirelessly underpinning ZTAT activities to the detriment of his own research work, but soon he will have to return to his career as a full time researcher again. This will mean that he will have little time to undertake organisational chores for ZTAT. His new position as co-ordinator of the National Research Council's ZT Platform Project to define research needs will inevitably open up new research horizons and funding to carry them out. Can Finkenbinder do the necessary underpinning, or is someone else needed? And where will their salaries come from?
Brazil's Northeast is similar to many semi-arid and arid areas of the tropical world. It has extensive areas of low and sporadic rainfall (300-1000mm), and these areas are also subject to periodic long droughts. Furthermore, the landowners have off-season grazing rights over land they have rented out and over sharecropper land. No ZT technology has yet been developed for this agronomic situation.
The problems inherent in developing and applying ZT in these circumstances are :
Some strategies and concepts that could be examined are :
Undoubtedly, the mulch cover of ZT and Conservation Agriculture in semi-arid areas would improve the soil water balance and promote higher yields, while the greater infiltration capacity would ensure more rainfall stored in the soil profile when the heavy rains, which do occasionally occur in semi-arid areas, would run off under Conventional Tillage.