From sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.eduMon May 27 13:13:08 1996 Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 07:45:02 -0700 (PDT) From: "Tom Hodges (moderated newsgroup)" To: Principles of Sustainable Agriculture Subject: living mulch (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 08:38:39 -0700 From: LARRY BREECH To: sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Subject: living mulch I am a PA farmer who is currently growing corn in a living mulch made up of crown vetch and trefoil. The purpose is to learn how to eliminate soil erosion and improve soil tilth. Our humus number has gone from 7 to 30 in this field the last few years, but, competition from the mulch has had a negative impact on yield. Has anyone had any experience with this growing technique and able to offer some sugestions on improving production? Larry Breech From sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.eduWed May 29 13:25:09 1996 Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 07:13:51 -0700 (PDT) From: "Tom Hodges (moderated newsgroup)" To: Principles of Sustainable Agriculture Subject: Re: living mulch (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 29 May 96 12:48:35 CST From: Frank Kutka To: sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Subject: Re: living mulch (fwd) In reply I can only suggest that the more cool tolerant corns used in no till may be of use. I know of several very cool tolerant varieties from the mountains, but I doubt that they would work into common machine systems very well. Questions: how much is production dropping with the living mulch? Is the savings in spray and fertilizer making up for any of it? Is the current production, though lower, financially feasible at all? Peace, Frank J. Kutka, part-time Assistant Scientist and farmer (218) 720-4262 fkutka@sage.nrri.umn.edu University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institue 5013 Miller Trunk Highway Duluth MN 55811 and Booming Native Plants 2323 Co Rd 6 Barnum MN 55707 From sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.eduWed May 29 13:49:10 1996 Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 10:09:04 -0700 (PDT) From: "Tom Hodges (moderated newsgroup)" To: Principles of Sustainable Agriculture Subject: Re: living mulch + what kind of agriculture for tomorrow? (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 17:40:03 GMT From: Geraldo Defune To: LARRY BREECH Cc: sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Subject: Re: living mulch + what kind of agriculture for tomorrow? (fwd) Dear Larry, I'm a Brazilian farmer and agronomist with 15 years of successful experience in organic farming, presently doing my PhD in Allelopathy & Biodynamics. I include below a msg that was a general reply about agricultural techniques for the future, but gives an example of minimum cultivation, or living mulch. We call "minimum cultivation" the use of winter legumes like vetch in close rotation with summer crops like maize. It is a very popular & successful technique in southern Brazil, in a sub-tropical climate that allows the legumes to grow during the winter, seeding & drying out in summer without competing with the summer crops. For the decreased yieId problem you mention, I assume you either are in a temperate/colder region that does not allow the vetch to grow early enough, or you're not drilling it early enough in the autumn. Anyway, mowing it down during the maize's early stages (before 7-10 leaves) should allow the corn to take off and overcome competition by shading, as it does with grass weeds under mechanical cultivation. I repeat the relevant example here if you're not interested in the whole msg: To give a practical example, take Maize/Corn soil and weed management: 1. Reduccionist Approach & Product/Input Technology = monocrop buying hybrid seed, herbicides (even in a biotech package), and fertilizer. Total dependence on seed/agrochemical companies & maize market. 2. Systems Approach and Process Technology - maize integrated in rotations and farm system with livestock. Use of winter green-manure (after, e.g., rock-phosphate, if needed) Winter-Vetch (V.sativa) to suppress weeds. No tilling/minimal cultivation by just drilling maize in furrows amidst the vetch, that could have been already been cut a couple of times for forage. Vetch dries out, covering soil, drops seed and returns voluntarily next winter. Maize can also be intercropped v. succesfully with beans and pumpkins (Cucurbita spp) or with a summer green manure like Mucuna that repels almost 100% the weevils. Crop residues can be grazed. The farmer can select his own high-yield varieties, ADAPTED to his farm system. Less external dependence and market risks (more than one produce). I hope it can help you! God blees and keep the good work! Geraldo DEFFUNE G.Deffune@wye.ac.uk or pah_gd@microlab1.wye.ac.uk Wye College - University of London Sustainable Agriculture Research Group Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH, England, U.K. Tel.:(44-1233)813260, Fax: (44-1233)812855 WEB http://www.wye.ac.uk/agriculture/sargintro.html PhD Student sponsored by CNPq - The Brazilian Research Council ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 13:13:52 GMT From: Geraldo_Deffune To: sustag@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Cc: g.deffune@wye.ac.uk, bonny@grignon.inra.fr Subject: Re: what kind of agriculture for tomorrow? (fwd) Dear Sylvie & sustag-l-mates, Although your questions are of a very broad nature, leaving more room for doxological opinions than for epistemological/cientific answers, they are surely v.important and fascinating - I've been asking more or less the same to myself through all my professional life, so thank you for "materializing them", virtually... Answering individual questions: >I would like to discuss with people interested in this topic: >WHAT KIND OF AGRICULTURE FOR TOMORROW (in developped countries, >for the year 2000, 2010, 2020 or 2050)? Surely we'll have to find "softer impact" technologies, that can be both ecologically & economically sustainable and healthy in biological and social terms, i.e., just, non-pollutting & democratically efficient. 1/ which farm structures? (what % of farmers in working population? which size for farms? which importance of part-time farming? etc.) It's very hard to think about active farming pops. higher than 10-15% in developped and 20-30% in developping countries, even if a true descentralization of investment in the rural areas is achieved. But this can be improved by better market/environmental integration between consumers living in the countryside and farmers. Farm-size is a very regional issue, also depending on the land use/ produce (e.g., escargots or champignons only need a few sheds). The same in fact, applies to the whole question and is very dangerous to generalize on these matters. 2/ what will farmers be producing (in a broad sense including provision of services such as care of the countryside, etc.)? Association between food/raw materials, energy and leisure/ eco-tourism is a good strategy. Integration between complementary exploitations that benefit recycling of both materials and resources in general (water, energy, labour) must be a top objective to maximize economicity. 3/ what kind of techniques (including new technologies, biotechnology) will be used? A clear shift to Systems Approach (combining holistic and analytical methods) and Process Technology (knowing how to do, recycling, integrating) as opposed to Reduccionist Approach & Product/Input Technology (buying inputs) is needed and is coming through both farmer and consumer education/awareness. This shift includes priority for biologically based technology, making more use of secondary methabolite interactions (allelopathy, hormesis, hormonal effects, pheromones, kairomones, etc) and Organic methods (as regarding farm, plants and animals like organisms that they indeed are) rather than the conventional chemical paradigm. To give a practical example, take Maize/Corn soil and weed management: 1. Reduccionist Approach & Product/Input Technology = monocrop buying hybrid seed, herbicides (even in a biotech package), and fertilizer. Total dependence on seed/agrochemical companies & maize market. 2. Systems Approach and Process Technology - maize integrated in rotations and farm system with livestock. Use of winter green-manure (after, e.g., rock-phosphate, if needed) Winter-Vetch (V.sativa) to suppress weeds. No tilling/minimal cultivation by just drilling maize in furrows amidst the vetch, that could have been already been cut a couple of times for forage. Vetch dries out, covering soil, drops seed and returns voluntarily next winter. Maize can also be intercropped v. succesfully with beans and pumpkins (Cucurbita spp) or with a summer green manure like Mucuna that repels almost 100% the weevils. Crop residues can be grazed. The farmer can select his own high-yield varieties, ADAPTED to his farm system. Less external dependence and market risks (more than one produce). Biotechnology in a more holistic sense of managing and balancing biological processes with the support of knowledge obtained from genetic engineering research. 4/ which characteristics and orientations for agriculture? A more socially and ecologically concious and integrated agriculture, as suggested above, taking into account the real global costs and the long- term viability and improvement of methods and resources. ----------- Our friend, Dr. Ioannis Ispikoudis, of the Univ. of Tessaloniki, Greece has suggested a cientific greek terminology, "AIFORIA" for real sustainable systems that imply in evolutionary improvement of the environments support capacity - this must be our orientation! 5/ which level of yield for crops, for example for wheat? Between 4 and 5 tons/ha, for both wheat and the maize system mentioned; around 40 T/ha for potatoes and 30-50 T/ha for most "bulky" vegetables (carrots, cabbages). >....and other points that seem important to you. Lots of, but no thanks - I haven't got the time now... >There are at less 2 ways to consider this issue: >+1/ desirable evolution: what kind of agriculture seems desirable? >To whom? What are the conditions and obstacles for an evolution >towards this direction? What are the different points of view?.. >+2/ the likely evolution under different scenarios. Last but not least, I greatly respect and even encourage points of view, different from mine, that can teach me more! "Bons baisers, Sylvie" and a friendly Merry Xmas hug to all! Geraldo DEFFUNE Wye College - University of London Sustainable Agriculture Research Group Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH Tel.:(01233)812401 Ext. 271 Fax: (01233)812855 Inglaterra E-mail: G.Deffune@wye.ac.uk Home address: The Bungalow, Amage Rd. Wye Ashford Kent TN25 5DF Tel: 01233 813260 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sylvie BONNY, researcher INRA-ESR F-78850 GRIGNON FRANCE Tel: (33.1) 30 81 53 34 Fax: (33.1) 30 81 53 68 E-mail: bonny@grignon.inra.fr ----- End Included Message -----