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CALGARY, ALBERTA, Oct 26, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Viterra Inc. (“Viterra”) /quotes/comstock/11t!e:vt (CA:VT 9.88, +0.13, +1.33%) (asx:VTA) is pleased to announce that its carbon credit program has aggregated over one million offsets, representing over $10 million paid to Alberta farmers, since its launch in March, 2008.
Viterra purchases and aggregates carbon offset credits, based on the Alberta government’s protocols for tillage system management. They are generated through no till or reduced till practices on agricultural land, which decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
“Viterra’s carbon credit program illustrates our commitment to developing solutions that bring value to our farm customers while encouraging sustainable farming practices. Reaching this milestone is a testament to the success of our program and to our employees, who work closely with our customers.” said Doug Wonnacott, Viterra’s Senior Vice-President, Agri-products.
In November, 2008, Viterra signed a long-term supply agreement with ENMAX Energy Corporation (“ENMAX Energy”), Alberta’s leading competitive electricity retailer. Through this arrangement, Viterra customers have access to a reliable market for their carbon offset credits.
“We would like to congratulate Viterra on the success of its carbon credit program. Innovative solutions such as these are excellent examples of what can be accomplished through collaboration and a shared commitment to environmental best practices,” said Corey Wilson Commercial Manager, ENMAX Energy.
Posted in Agriculture, no till farming | Tagged Agriculture, carbon credits, carbon market, Farming, No Till Farming | Leave a Comment »
Philanthropist Howard Buffett
Could the next green revolution be brown? Philanthropist Howard Buffett, who has joined Microsoft founder Bill Gatesin pouring money into agriculture development, used an appearance at the World Food Prize symposium on Wednesday to call for a “brown revolution” that would involve boosting food production through improving the soil.
And the theme continued during the symposium on Thursday and at a side event sponsored by the Worldwatch Institute, a group that focuses on sustainability issues in agriculture.
Conserving organic matter in the soil will improve fertility while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Across the globe, north, south, east and west, we have major problems in the soil,” said Hans Herren, past World Food Prize laureate.
Brian Halweil of Worldwatch said that improving soil fertility through mulching, reducing tillage or planting cover crops has been shown to increase corn yields in Kenya by at least 20 percent.
Herren said more money needs to be put into measures like educating farmers on how to make compost properly.
Rolf Derpsch, a conservation expert and a panelist during the symposium, said that about 25 million acres of agricultural land is lost to soil degradation every year, with the worst losses in the tropics and sub-tropics. He said that plowing is a leading cause of the problem and that no-till farming “can no longer be ignored” as a solution, he said.
In the United States, farmers have been conserving soil through the use of genetically modified herbicide-immune seeds that make it easier to grow soybeans and corn without plowing between crops. An official with biotech seed giant Syngenta said the benefits (of no-till farming) “we’ve seen in the developed world are even more needed in the developing world.”
Posted in Agriculture, no till farming | Tagged Agriculture, Farming, Green house gas emissions, No Till Farming, soil erosion, Sustainable | Leave a Comment »
The world’s soils have the potential to store about 3000 megatonnes of carbon per year by the end of the 21st century, according to a new study. It suggests that restoring carbon to cropland and peat soils through practices such as afforestation and no-till farming could help solve global problems of food insecurity and climate change.
Most countries suffering from food shortages are in the developing world where farming typically consists of small landholders using intensive practices. As a result the soils have low levels of organic carbon, making them prone to soil erosion, low levels of nutrients, poor water retention and less biodiversity. Poor soil quality means that crop yields are more dependent on rainfall and temperature and more affected by pest infestations.
The loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) can be remedied using recommended management practices (RMPs), such as afforestation, conversion of degraded and marginal cropland to pasture, no-till farming, use of compost/manure and crop rotations. Using figures on carbon sequestration gained by different practices, the study estimated that, depending on soils and climate, the potential of these RMPs for the next 50 to 100 years is in the range of 100-1000 kg of carbon per hectare per year. On a global scale, this could translate to as much as 3000 megatonnes a year. Not only would this improve the state of soils and food security but, according to previous research1, it could also reduce atmospheric CO2 by 50 parts per million by 2100.
The study investigated the potential impact of this restoration of soil SOC on crop yield. By pulling together information on the relationship between SOC in the root zone and crop yield in various parts of the world, the study concluded that SOC tended to contribute more to productivity in soils that were coarse, poor quality, received low rates of chemical fertilisers and were rain fed rather than irrigated. Depending on climate and other variables, it estimated the proposed increase in SOC could increase cereal and grain legume production in developing countries by 32 million tonnes per year, and roots and tuber production by 9 million tonnes per year.
Finally, the study offered a rough estimate of the cost effectiveness of paying farmers to improve the sequestration of carbon in soil. If farmers were compensated at a rate equivalent to the cost of carbon capture and storage, roughly $367 per tonne of carbon2, then even at the modest rate of carbon sequestration of 250 kg per hectare per year this would equate to $90 per hectare per year. Rewarding farmers even at $25/ha/yr ($10/acre/yr) could provide an incentive for adopting RMPs by small land holders and resource-poor farmers. As such the study suggests that paying farmers and managers to use RMPs to sequester carbon, either through schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism or by paying for ecosystem services, is an important strategy to improve both regional and global food security. It suggested the concept of ‘farming carbon’ where credits gained by sequestering soil carbon could be sold and traded using transparent and fair prices based on the valuation of ecosystem services.
- See: Hansen. J. et al. (2008) Target atmospheric CO2: where should humanity aim? Open Atmospheric Science Journal. 2:217-231.
- See: McKinsey & Co. (2009) Pathways to low-carbon economy. Version 2 of the global greenhouse gas abatement cost curve. P190.
Source: Lal, R. (2010) Beyond Copenhagen: mitigating climate change and achieving food security through soil carbon sequestration. Food Security. 2:169-177.
Posted in Agriculture, no till farming, soil | Tagged Agriculture, carbon market, Clean Seed Capital, Green house gas emissions, No Till Farming, soil erosion, Sustainable | Leave a Comment »
Earth Policy Institute on October 6, 2010
By Lester R. Brown
The literature on soil erosion contains countless references to the “loss of protective vegetation.” Over the last half-century, clearcutting, overgrazing, and overplowing have removed so much of that protective cover that the world is quickly losing soil accumulated over long stretches of geological time (see “Civilization’s Foundation Eroding”). Preserving the biological productivity of highly erodible cropland depends on planting it in grass or trees before it becomes wasteland.
Soil Conservation: The American Experience
The 1930s Dust Bowl that threatened to turn the U.S. Great Plains into a vast desert was a traumatic experience that led to revolutionary changes in American agricultural practices, including the planting of tree shelterbelts (rows of trees planted beside fields to slow wind and thus reduce wind erosion) and strip cropping (the planting of wheat on alternate strips with fallowed land each year). Strip cropping permits soil moisture to accumulate on the fallowed strips, while the alternating planted strips reduce wind speed and hence erosion on the idled land.
In 1985, the U.S. Congress, with strong support from the environmental community, created the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to reduce soil erosion and control overproduction of basic commodities. By 1990 there were some 14 million hectares (35 million acres) of highly erodible land with permanent vegetative cover under 10-year contracts. Under this program, farmers were paid to plant fragile cropland to grass or trees. The retirement of those 14 million hectares under the CRP, together with the use of conservation practices on 37 percent of all cropland, reduced U.S. soil erosion from 3.1 billion tons to 1.9 billion tons between 1982 and 1997. The U.S. approach offers a model for the rest of the world.
Another tool in the soil conservation toolkit—and a relatively new one—is conservation tillage, which includes both no-till and minimum tillage. Instead of the traditional cultural practices of plowing land and discing or harrowing it to prepare the seedbed, and then using a mechanical cultivator to control weeds in row crops, farmers simply drill seeds directly through crop residues into undisturbed soil, controlling weeds with herbicides. The only soil disturbance is the narrow slit in the soil surface where the seeds are inserted, leaving the remainder of the soil undisturbed, covered by crop residues and thus resistant to both water and wind erosion. In addition to reducing erosion, this practice retains water, raises soil carbon content, and greatly reduces energy use for tillage.
In the United States, where farmers during the 1990s were required to implement a soil conservation plan on erodible cropland in order to be eligible for commodity price supports, the no-till area went from 7 million hectares in 1990 to 27 million hectares (67 million acres) in 2007. Now widely used in the production of corn and soybeans, no-till has spread rapidly in the western hemisphere, covering 26 million hectares in Brazil, 20 million hectares in Argentina, and 13 million in Canada. Australia, with 12 million hectares, rounds out the five leading no-till countries.
Once farmers master the practice of no-till, its use can spread rapidly, particularly if governments provide economic incentives or require farm soil conservation plans for farmers to be eligible for crop subsidies.
Farming practices that reduce soil erosion and raise cropland productivity usually also lead to higher carbon content in the soil. Among these are the shift to minimum-till and no-till farming, the more extensive use of cover crops, the return of livestock and poultry manure to the land, expansion of irrigated area, a return to more mixed crop-livestock farming, and the forestation of marginal land.
Posted in Agriculture, no till farming, soil | Tagged Agriculture, No Till Farming, soil erosion, Sustainable | Leave a Comment »
The literature on soil erosion contains countless references to the “loss of protective vegetation.” Over the last half-century, clearcutting, overgrazing, and overplowing have removed so much of that protective cover that the world is quickly losing soil accumulated over long stretches of geological time (see “Civilization’s Foundation Eroding“). Preserving the biological productivity of highly erodible cropland depends on planting it in grass or trees before it becomes wasteland.
The 1930s Dust Bowl that threatened to turn the U.S. Great Plains into a vast desert was a traumatic experience that led to revolutionary changes in American agricultural practices, including the planting of tree shelterbelts (rows of trees planted beside fields to slow wind and thus reduce wind erosion) and strip cropping (the planting of wheat on alternate strips with fallowed land each year). Strip cropping permits soil moisture to accumulate on the fallowed strips, while the alternating planted strips reduce wind speed and hence erosion on the idled land.
In 1985, the U.S. Congress, with strong support from the environmental community, created the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to reduce soil erosion and control overproduction of basic commodities. By 1990 there were some 14 million hectares (35 million acres) of highly erodible land with permanent vegetative cover under 10-year contracts. Under this program, farmers were paid to plant fragile cropland to grass or trees. The retirement of those 14 million hectares under the CRP, together with the use of conservation practices on 37 percent of all cropland, reduced U.S. soil erosion from 3.1 billion tons to 1.9 billion tons between 1982 and 1997. The U.S. approach offers a model for the rest of the world.
Another tool in the soil conservation toolkit—and a relatively new one—is conservation tillage, which includes both no-till and minimum tillage. Instead of the traditional cultural practices of plowing land and discing or harrowing it to prepare the seedbed, and then using a mechanical cultivator to control weeds in row crops, farmers simply drill seeds directly through crop residues into undisturbed soil, controlling weeds with herbicides.
The only soil disturbance is the narrow slit in the soil surface where the seeds are inserted, leaving the remainder of the soil undisturbed, covered by crop residues and thus resistant to both water and wind erosion. In addition to reducing erosion, this practice retains water, raises soil carbon content, and greatly reduces energy use for tillage.
In the United States, where farmers during the 1990s were required to implement a soil conservation plan on erodible cropland in order to be eligible for commodity price supports, the no-till area went from 7 million hectares in 1990 to 27 million hectares (67 million acres) in 2007. Now widely used in the production of corn and soybeans, no-till has spread rapidly in the western hemisphere, covering 26 million hectares in Brazil, 20 million hectares in Argentina, and 13 million in Canada. Australia, with 12 million hectares, rounds out the five leading no-till countries.
Once farmers master the practice of no-till, its use can spread rapidly, particularly if governments provide economic incentives or require farm soil conservation plans for farmers to be eligible for crop subsidies.
Farming practices that reduce soil erosion and raise cropland productivity usually also lead to higher carbon content in the soil. Among these are the shift to minimum-till and no-till farming, the more extensive use of cover crops, the return of livestock and poultry manure to the land, expansion of irrigated area, a return to more mixed crop-livestock farming, and the forestation of marginal land.
Together, restoring the earth’s tree and grass cover and practicing conservation agriculture protect soil from erosion and reduce flooding. They also sequester carbon, making them powerful tools in the effort to fight global warming.
Posted in Agriculture, soil | Tagged Agriculture, No Till Farming, soil erosion, Sustainable | Leave a Comment »
It was 1956, and Bob Klein was a young teenage farm boy growing up on the High Plains near David City, Nebraska. It was a prolonged drought, and Klein can still recall seeing dust clouds from his second story window.
“When I grew up, seeing those dust storms and those crops that amounted to nothing because of all that tillage, it really increased my interest in what we could do to start conserving soil and water and still raise good crops,” he told me last week at Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, Neb. “It seemed to me that we had to do a better job.”
Klein (above) has made it a lifelong pursuit to do just that. He’s one of the silent drivers behind the full-tilt movement toward more sustainable, smarter farming systems, focusing on no-till, water retention and improved irrigation methods.
Earlier this month he was recognized for his 50 years of work at the University of Nebraska extension service.
Klein spent 20 years as an extension agent in wind-swept Red Willow County before joining UN as a crop specialist in western Nebraska. Since 1983 he and many others have sought to change how water is used for crop production in this resource-vulnerable part of the world. His duties include monitoring more than 1,700 acres of crop operations, including a water test area near Brule.
“We want to develop sustainable water systems so we don’t lower the aquifer, and there’s something there for our grandkids,” he says. “We want to make crop production as efficient as possible for both dry land and irrigated producers.”
Nebraska sits atop the Ogallala aquifer, a shallow, vast water table that feeds about 27% of the irrigated cropland in the United States – much of it here in the state. The aquifer has dropped about 10% since groundwater irrigation began in the mid ’50s.
Over the past four decades, Klein has worked mostly on crop variety testing and educating farmers about crop residue. He’s also a key figure in developing crop budgets for Nebraska farmers.
To keep more water for future generations, more and more Nebraska farmers have adopted complete no till systems that employ crop residues to preserve soil moisture. The percentage of no-till planted wheat has expanded from 4% in 2004 to 29% in 2008. Fifty-three percent of the soybeans in 2008 were planted with no-till compared to just 37% in 2004. In 2008, 42% of the corn was planted using no-till, up from 34% in 2004.
“We make the soil better – with no-till we see more organic matter,” Klein says. “It’s so critical to get that organic matter growth.”
Agriculture uses 70% of the world’s freshwater withdrawals for irrigation, and 60% of the food supply is produced by rain-fed agriculture. No-till is one way to conserve this resource.
People like Klein understand we must grow more food using less water. It’s a mindset that would benefit everyone involved in agriculture.
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The health of the soil is improved by limiting disturbances, Ray Archuleta, NRCS researcher, told attendees of a training event on no-till and cover crops in Greensburg, Ind.
Cover crops are important not only for providing cover and protection to the topsoil, but also for creating diversity that creates a support network to hold soil particles together, Archuleta says. That enables soils to better hold nutrients and moisture.
Archuleta says soil disturbances needs to be minimized in farming. No-till and well-chosen cover crops create a network of microorganisms and roots to hold soil together, reducing erosion and the need for applied fertilizers. Specific cover crops and practices can be prescribed for any soil concern, he explains.
There are biological means to address the needs of the land that work better in the long run to promote conservation and maintain yield, he says. By avoiding unnecessary tillage, the diversity both above and below the soil will improve, better mimicking nature.
Healthier soil, he told field day attendees, enables a producer to use less inputs while also keeping water clean.
“We have to wean ourselves off of tillage mentally, and we have to wean the soil of tilling, too,” Archuleta says. “Tillage begets tillage.”
Barry Fisher, Indiana NRCS agronomist, notes that cool-weather plants can do a lot for producers by providing a higher functioning, more productive soil.
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learning about the benefits of no-till farming.
Speakers at the conference, which was hosted by No Till on The Plains, included Jill Clapperton, Francis Yeatman, Paul Jasa, Kristine Nichols and Kenneth Miller, who are all involved in some aspect of farming. Presenters came as far away as South Africa. The event featured a morning of speakers and an afternoon on-site on the land of Gail Fuller north of Emporia. Fuller said he farms about 2,000 acres in Lyon and Wabaunsee Counties. Fuller started farming using the no-till method, which leaves the crop residue on the ground rather than tilling it under, in 1995.
One of the benefits to not tilling the land is prevention of erosion.
“Erosion is not acceptable,” Fuller said.
Fuller said he is starting to see differences in yields because the crop residue left on top of the ground helps to maintain nutrients in the soil. Other benefits include less labor and fuel costs, Fuller added.
Jasa, extension engineer, UNL Extension, Lincoln, Neb., said no-till practices are not only good for the crops, but the practice also is good for the environment. Crop residue left on the field prevents chemical run-off to nearby waterways, blowing dirt and erosion.
“It keeps the sun and the wind off the soil surface,” Jasa said. “The key is to hold the soil in.”
The residue also feeds the crops continuously rather than just when the residue is tilled under, Jasa said. Crop residue left on top of the soil breaks down, continuously feeds the soil.
“It’s a time-released form of nutrition,” Jasa said. “When you till, the feeding only lasts a week or two.”
Microbes also help hold the soil together, Jasa added.
“You’ve got Mother Nature’s glue,” he said.
Jasa said while no-till has many benefits, it isn’t always easy to get people to buy into the practice.
“Tradition is hard to break,” he said.
When the large group of people arrived to Fuller’s farm, Jasa demonstrated the benefits gained from leaving residue on the soil using a rainfall simulator he has been using since 1990. Jasa had several pans of soil, no-till soil without residue on top, no-till soil with residue on top, tilled soil without residue and tilled soil with some cover on top and tilled soil with a greater covering of residue on top. The device simulated an inch of rain. Under each pan was jars to collect any runoff. After a period of time, the jars under the uncovered soil filled with water that had run off the soil. The jars under the soil with covering had significantly less runoff and the water was clearer.
“You need residue to make the system work,” Jasa said. “Leave the residue there.”
Jasa further illustrated the benefit of residue covering by turning the pans of soil over. The pans that had soil with no covering had dry soil on the bottom. The pans with covering had soil that was saturated all the way through. And the more the residue on top, the more water was retained in the soil – even the tilled soil that was just covered with residue.
“That’s not no-till,” Jasa said pointing to the pan of tilled soil with straw residue on top. “That is simply residue. Leave the residue there.”
For more information on no-till farming, go to the No-Till on the Plains’ web site at http://www.notill.org/.
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New Delhi (IANS) – India, looking to launch a second green revolution to boost its food security, has begun looking at distant South America where countries have been able to ramp up food production with new technology and farming methods. And to take lessons first-hand, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will visit Argentina, Brazil and Mexico this month.
“India has much to learn from the best practices of South America, especially Brazil and Argentina,” R. Viswanathan, Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, told IANS during a visit here.
The South American countries have overtaken the United States in soya production, accounting for 50 percent of global production, and significantly denting the American domination in the agri-business sector.
With large swathes of land in a sparsely populated region, which accounts for 26 percent of global freshwater reserves, South American nations have the highest yields per hectare.
For Indian companies, which have been looking at farmlands for their agri-business, there is another attraction– the technologies that have been indigenously developed in these countries and applied in farming.
A revolutionary method is “no-till farming”, which is applied in 80 percent of the land cultivated in the Mercosur countries (a trading bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay,). In this kind of farming, land is not ploughed. Instead, the agricultural residue of the last plant is allowed to enrich the soil. The seed is then injected into the soil through special machines.
Another technology which Pawar is likely to see in Argentina is the Silobag– a polyeutherane bag that can store up to 200 tonnes of foodgrains on the field itself – that saves costs on building concrete storage units.
“We have brought this to the notice of the agriculture ministry,” said Viswanathan.
India faces a shortage of 15 million tonnes in storage capacity, one of the main reasons why hundreds of tonnes of food grains are wasted every year in the country. The technology figured at a meeting between Pawar and his Argentine counterpart, Julian Andres Dominguez here earlier last month.
Moreover, India can look to replicate the success of Argentina in turning agriculture into a high-technology sector.
Viswanathan referred to the Argentine group Los Grobos, which has brought the outsourcing model to agriculture. Los Grobos cultivates 270,000 hectares in Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, without owning a single plot of land.
It uses “precision farming”, which employs software to determine the input distribution and monitors by satellite the location of the seeds and sprayer machines. At the same time, soil monitors give real-time information, helping the group head office to decide on the nutritional and other parameters.
All this could be brought to India for trial.
Also, Indian companies can move to the continent to take advantage of the available technology and expertise for business in the agricultural sector.
Viswanathan said Indian entrepreneurs should vigorously explore the region “since South America has an agri-business ecosystem like the IT ecosystem in India – export-oriented with competent human resources and service providers that allow investors to focus on output and returns.”
South America is a major source of oilseeds. It exports soya and sunflower oil worth $1 billion to India annually. It is learnt that the Indian delegation led by Pawar would explore increasing the supply of edible oil and pulses to the subcontinent as domestic output has not been able to meet galloping demand.
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