Soil quality

The mix of nutrients, microorganisms, and organic matter found in healthy, high-quality soil supports the development of plants. The earth will have the capacity to store enough water to support the vegetation while also enabling appropriate drainage. Healthy soil will additionally have a pH level that is ideal for the crops being produced and a good soil structure that enables roots to penetrate and effectively absorb nutrients.

A number of techniques are used to improve soil quality, including adding organic matter through composting or cover crops, decreasing soil compaction, using fertilizers sparingly, and putting conservation measures in place to stop soil runoff. Higher agricultural harvests and a decreased need for additives like pesticides and fertilizers can both result from improving soil quality.

Water

Depending on the crop variety, stage of development, soil type, and environmental circumstances, different crops have different water needs. To support their growth and development, crops must receive a sufficient and timely quantity of water. Crops with bad quality and stunted growth can result from a lack of water availability.

There are several ways to give water to crops, including rain-fed farmland and sprinkler, trickle, or flood irrigation systems. The option of irrigation strategy is influenced by a number of variables, including agricultural water needs, soil type, topography, and water resource accessibility.

Climate

Due to its impact on agricultural growth and development, the climate has significant effects on food output. Climate consists of elements like weather, precipitation, humidity, wind, and sunlight.

One of the key climatic elements influencing vegetable development is temperature. Each plant has a particular temperature range that it needs to develop at its best, and crops can suffer from excessive heat. For instance, frost can harm crops, and hot weather can lead to heat stress, which lowers harvests and degrades produce quality.

A certain volume of water is necessary for crops to develop and generate. Drought stress can result from insufficient rainfall or insufficient irrigation, which lowers agricultural output and quality. High humidity can make it more likely for pests and fungi to spread, which can reduce crop quality and output.

Fertilizer

Applying fertilizers properly can help boost agricultural output and enhance harvest quality. However, excessive fertilizer use can result in environmental issues like soil deterioration, water body contamination, and carbon gas emissions. Because of this, it’s crucial to use fertilizers carefully, taking into account things like agricultural nutrition needs, soil fertility levels, and environmental effects.

There are numerous fertilizer varieties, including both organic and synthetic fertilizers. Compost and manure are examples of organic fertilizers that come from natural sources and contain a combination of minerals and organic matter to help increase soil richness and structure. Synthetic fertilizers made using industrial methods, inorganic fertilizers generally have greater nutrient concentrations than organic fertilizers.

Pest and disease control

Controlling pests and diseases is a crucial part of growing crops because they can seriously harm harvests, lowering output and quality. Chemical, biological, and cultural techniques are all used to manage pests and diseases.

Crop rotation, the use of resistant crop types, and the maintenance of excellent field hygiene are examples of cultural control techniques. For instance, sowing resistant crop types help reduce insect and disease harm, while crop rotation reduces the accumulation of soil-borne diseases.

Natural foes of pests and diseases like predators, parasites, and pathogens are used in biological control techniques to reduce insect and disease numbers. For instance, using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to control larvae or unleashing ladybugs to control aphids.

Chemical control techniques use pesticides like insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides to control bugs, diseases, and weeds. When using chemical control techniques, it’s important to weigh the possible risks to human health and the ecosystem. A sustainable strategy for insect and disease control known as integrated pest management (IPM) uses various control techniques to limit the use of pesticides while maximizing their efficacy.

Crop variety

To maximize output and quality, it is essential to choose the correct crop type. When choosing a variety, it is important to take temperature, soil type, and the crop’s planned use into account. A variety that thrives in a warm environment might not thrive as well in a temperate climate, and a variety that sells well in the raw market might not sell well in the processing industry.

Crop varieties with particular characteristics, such as disease resistance, increased yield, and better quality, are developed through breeding initiatives. Using more effective and precise breeding methods, such as genetic engineering and marker-assisted selection, it is now feasible to create crops with desired characteristics.

Crop rotation

The act of alternating the crops produced on a specific plot of the ground over time is known as crop rotation. This is done to enhance soil health, lessen the threat of pests and diseases, and boost product output and quality. Crop rotation is the practice of producing various crops in a precise order, with each crop offering a unique advantage to the soil and the crop that follows.

Crop rotation can enhance soil health by lowering bugs and illnesses that are carried by the soil, boosting soil organic matter, and enhancing soil structure. For instance, it is known that leguminous plants, like beans and peas, absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere, which can then be used by following plants to increase soil fertility.

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But instead of fundamentally changing the system of industrial agriculture, we are thrown into the idea of ​​abandoning meat as a non-ecological product in favor of vegetable protein produced in the same industrial way. One of the arguments, perhaps, has been heard by everyone: Cows farts with methane – and these are huge CO2 emissions, comparable to industrial ones, which means a terrible threat to climate change.

This argument smacks of manipulation of information, because even Wikipedia says that methane can be of different origins, including biogenic – natural and abiogenic – formed as a result of chemical reactions of inorganic substances. And like yogurts, which are not equally beneficial, not all carbon emissions are equally harmful to the climate.

In general, the whole story with CO2 emissions is complex and very few people understand. So let’s figure it out on our fingers. And with the help of specialists – I am translating an excerpt from a letter from the authors of the film Sacred Cow Diana Rogers and Rob Wolfe: “In fact, cattle do not farts with methane, but vomit it during digestion.

So what’s the difference between CO2 emissions (as methane) from cows and fossil fuels?

Methane emissions from cattle are part of the natural carbon cycle, while emissions from fossil fuels are not.

Fossil fuels come from ancient carbon that has been underground for millions of years, and when mined, it adds new carbon to the atmosphere that has been stored in the atmosphere for thousands of years.

The methane that cows regurgitate comes from naturally occurring carbon (carbon is absorbed by the grass that the cows eat).

What is most interesting: the life cycle of this methane in the atmosphere is no more than 12 years, after this time it decomposes into water and carbon dioxide. Water falls out as precipitation and carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants for photosynthesis. ” And then – all back, because nature conceived this cycle: carbon – photosynthesis – plant – animal – atmosphere – water – carbon – and again.

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Let’s start with the fact that regenerative agriculture (for brevity we will call it “regAgri”), like many good things (natural cosmetics, for example) does not have a legislative definition anywhere in the world. So there are a lot of interpretations. But the basic interpretation (and here it is for dummies in general) is simple: regenerative agriculture is the restoration of soil and other natural resources.

That is, in the process of growing food according to the methods of RegAgri, the farmer does not destroy natural biocenoses, does not pollute the water, does not deprive the soil of fertility, but worms, flies and other fleas – life, but on the contrary, restores mother nature. That is, regenerative agriculture is practices, methods that can be applied collectively or separately in order not to destroy the environment by growing food.

But if the story works with the regenerating cream, alas, not always, then correctly applying RegAgry practice, you should get:

• restore soil fertility without the help of synthetic fertilizers
• make the earth richer in minerals (again without synthetics)
• keep ground water and water bodies clean
• restore bee populations and healthy bio-balance in the fields
• maintain and improve biodiversity (plant local varieties of potatoes and apple trees, grow local, climate-adapted livestock breeds)
• reduce CO2 emissions – significantly!

RegAgri is a practice that uses natural mechanisms in the process of food production and – oh bingo! – all this really significantly reduces CO2 emissions. That is, once again a person was convinced: nature is not stupid, and it is necessary to use practices spied on in nature in order to reduce the harmful effect of agriculture on climate change.

The post There are 60 crops left to harvest and there will be no more food appeared first on Compost.

At the beginning of negotiations back in 1992, they talked about preventing climate change and reducing emissions, now another task has been added – adaptation to climate change. Those who do not adapt will not survive. At whose expense will the poorest countries adapt? How much money will developed countries need to adapt? The question of money, of course, hovers across Europe.

The abandonment of coal became the leitmotif of the Bonn talks. Protests took place before the negotiations began, anti-coal activists blocked coal lobbyists’ activities in the negotiations themselves, and at the end of the negotiations, 25 countries, including Canada and the UK, formed a post-coal alliance with the motto “Let’s live without coal.”

In addition to coal, the atom also got it. It has not been considered peaceful in Europe for a long time. The thing is that there are no immense areas where you can take waste from the nuclear industry and, as it were, forget about them.

“There is no safe technology for radioactive waste in the world. In Germany, this problem has not been resolved either. Now there is a license for the disposal of nuclear waste for a period of 40 years. The most famous disposal site for radioactive waste is located in Gorleben. Containers with waste began to be brought there in 1995, which means that in 18 years the question will arise of what to do next with this waste.

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One of the reasons for the deplorable situation is air, water and soil pollution from industrial agriculture. More than 90% of everything we eat comes from the soil, directly or indirectly. At the same time, industrial agriculture using pesticides and mineral fertilizers is the right way to & nbsp; loss of soil – the main resource of the earth, without which humanity cannot feed itself.

Back in 1986, one of the UN reports said that the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides led to a reduction in the useful soil layer – humus – by as much as 30 times. By 2021, the agroindustry is still moving on a path leading to the gradual disappearance of living species, disruption of the food chain and balance.

Attempts by humanity to rebuild nature for themselves invariably lead to collapse. And now the man’s clear task is to restore natural balance, to remove agriculture from the chemical needle. And the tool for this has already been found – permanent cultivation, which can be applied both on a regional scale and on personal hectares.

Permaculture is not just a new approach to land cultivation, it is a new way of looking at the environment. A mindset that will help preserve the environment and reverse the restoration process.

Traditional land cultivation methods have a simple task – to get immediate benefits. The focus on consumption is key.

Permaculture calls for exploring the possibilities of the earth and adapting to natural laws. Its main principle is long-term reproduction without human intervention. It is possible and it works.

The recipe for a sustainable approach to food cultivation and sustainable use of land based on permaculture:

we create an ecosystem in the image and likeness, that is, we observe, learn and help;
we equip the landscape: we plant gardens, form reservoirs, fertilize with what is on the site;
working on the water balance, creating man-made lakes, collecting rainwater and directing it around the site;
we understand that it will take at least three years to restore the site, but every year we will receive more and more high quality food products;
no chemicals and pesticides;
abandonment of monoculture plantings, now on one bed you can grow a basic grocery basket, as it happens in nature;
we are learning to apply the method on six acres, gradually expanding the area to the scale of the agricultural complex.

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