Improving Future Agricultural Resiliency of Row Crops Through Soil Best Management Practices

Improving Future Agricultural Resiliency of Row Crops Through Soil Best Management Practices PDF Author: Cara Anne Mathers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Improving Future Agricultural Resiliency of Row Crops Through Soil Best Management Practices

Improving Future Agricultural Resiliency of Row Crops Through Soil Best Management Practices PDF Author: Cara Anne Mathers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


A Better Planet

A Better Planet PDF Author: Daniel C. Esty
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 030024889X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world’s leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability Sustainability has emerged as a global priority over the past several years. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future. This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book’s forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.

Farming for Our Future

Farming for Our Future PDF Author: PETER H.. ROSENBERG LEHNER (NATHAN A.)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781585762378
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Farming for Our Future examines the policies and legal reforms necessary to accelerate the adoption of practices that can make agriculture in the United States climate-neutral or better. These proven practices will also make our food system more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Agriculture's contribution to climate change is substantial--much more so than official figures suggest--and we will not be able to achieve our overall mitigation goals unless agricultural emissions sharply decline. Fortunately, farms and ranches can be a major part of the climate solution, while protecting biodiversity, strengthening rural communities, and improving the lives of the workers who cultivate our crops and rear our animals. The importance of agricultural climate solutions can not be underestimated; it is a critical element both in ensuring our food security and limiting climate change. This book provides essential solutions to address the greatest crises of our time.

The Drought-Resilient Farm

The Drought-Resilient Farm PDF Author: Dale Strickler
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 1635860024
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Rainfall levels are rarely optimal, but there are hundreds of things you can do to efficiently conserve and use the water you do have and to reduce the impact of drought on your soil, crops, livestock, and farm or ranch ecosystem. Author Dale Strickler introduces you to the same innovative systems he used to transform his own drought-stricken family farm in Kansas into a thriving, water-wise, and profitable enterprise, maximizing healthy cropland, pasture, and water supply. Ranging from simple, short-term projects such as installing rain-collection ollas to long-term land-management planning strategies, Strickler’s methods show how to get more water into the soil, keep it in the soil, and help plants and livestock access it.

Soil Health and Intensification of Agroecosystems

Soil Health and Intensification of Agroecosystems PDF Author: Mahdi M. Al-Kaisi
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128054018
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
Soil Health and Intensification of Agroecosystems examines the climate, environmental, and human effects on agroecosystems and how the existing paradigms must be revised in order to establish sustainable production. The increased demand for food and fuel exerts tremendous stress on all aspects of natural resources and the environment to satisfy an ever increasing world population, which includes the use of agriculture products for energy and other uses in addition to human and animal food. The book presents options for ecological systems that mimic the natural diversity of the ecosystem and can have significant effect as the world faces a rapidly changing and volatile climate. The book explores the introduction of sustainable agroecosystems that promote biodiversity, sustain soil health, and enhance food production as ways to help mitigate some of these adverse effects. New agroecosystems will help define a resilient system that can potentially absorb some of the extreme shifts in climate. Changing the existing cropping system paradigm to utilize natural system attributes by promoting biodiversity within production agricultural systems, such as the integration of polycultures, will also enhance ecological resiliency and will likely increase carbon sequestration. - Focuses on the intensification and integration of agroecosystem and soil resiliency by presenting suggested modifications of the current cropping system paradigm - Examines climate, environment, and human effects on agroecosystems - Explores in depth the wide range of intercalated soil and plant interactions as they influence soil sustainability and, in particular, soil quality - Presents options for ecological systems that mimic the natural diversity of the ecosystem and can have significant effect as the world faces a rapidly changing and volatile climate

Innovative Approaches to Gauge Resilience of Managed Rainfed Agricultural Systems

Innovative Approaches to Gauge Resilience of Managed Rainfed Agricultural Systems PDF Author: Eeswaran Rasu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Increasing climate extremes have devastated both crop yields and farm economies, especially in the rainfed agricultural systems of the Midwestern United States. Furthermore, these extreme events are projected to increase in the future due to climate change. As a result, alternative agricultural practices are becoming more common in efforts to mitigate the impacts of extreme climatological events. Nevertheless, the level of resiliency of these practices has not yet been adequately quantified due to the lack of robust metrics available to address the complexity of agricultural systems while being simple enough to be measured at different scales. To this end, three studies were conducted and compiled into this dissertation. These studies were carried out in a long-term cropping system experiment at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and the Kalamazoo River Watershed located in the Southwestern Michigan of the United States.The first study was designed to evaluate the applicability of soil moisture metrics to gauge resiliency of four differently managed rainfed agricultural treatments at the field scale. The robustness of these metrics was assessed over a long-period (1993-2018) for a corn-soybean-wheat rotation by monitoring crop growth and yield in response to climate variability. Results demonstrated that the soil moisture metrics can be used as indicators of resilience at the field scale. The no-till treatment had the highest level of resilience as quantified by soil moisture retention, effectiveness of reducing drought severity, crop yields, and stability of yields. Although the organic treatment substantially improved resiliency in terms of soil moisture conservation and drought mitigation than the conventional treatment, the limitation of available nitrogen significantly reduced corn and wheat yields. Meanwhile, the reduced input treatment was the least resilient as it was vulnerable during extreme climate conditions. The second study was performed to evaluate the climate resilience of four rainfed agricultural treatments in terms of profitability and farm risks for the same corn-soybean-wheat rotation. Crop production and management data were used to conduct enterprise budgeting and risk analysis. The means and volatility of estimated net returns and risk preferences were used as the evaluation metrics. According to the results of this study, the organic and the no-till treatments had higher resilience than the conventional and the reduced input treatments as they were projected to generate greater net revenues with higher stability. Furthermore, these treatments were promising to cater to a large group of farmers with different risk preferences. Meantime, conventional and reduced inputs treatments were found to be adversely affected by climate extremes.The goal of the third study was to examine the impacts of large-scale adaptation of conservation agricultural practices (i.e., no-till treatment) on resilience in comparison to traditional practices (i.e., conventional treatment). Similar to the previous two studies, the corn-soybean-wheat rotation was applied on all agricultural land use in the Kalamazoo River Watershed during the period of 1993-2019. Crop and groundwater models were integrated to derive the resilience metrics, namely recharge, groundwater level, soil moisture, yield, and net return. Results showed clear improvement in all metrics under the no-till treatment. Therefore, the adoption of the no-till could improve the overall resilience of the corn-soybean-wheat rotation. Together, these studies present a set of robust metrics to quantify the resilience of diverse rainfed agricultural systems both at the field and watershed scale.

Resilient Agriculture

Resilient Agriculture PDF Author: Laura Lengnick
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 1550925784
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the productivity and profitability of agriculture in North America. More variable weather, drought, and flooding create the most obvious damage, but hot summer nights, warmer winters, longer growing seasons, and other environmental changes have more subtle but far-reaching effects on plant and livestock growth and development. Resilient Agriculture recognizes the critical role that sustainable agriculture will play in the coming decades and beyond. The latest science on climate risk, resilience, and climate change adaptation is blended with the personal experience of farmers and ranchers to explore: The "strange changes" in weather recorded over the last decade The associated shifts in crop and livestock behavior The actions producers have taken to maintain productivity in a changing climate The climate change challenge is real and it is here now. To enjoy the sustained production of food, fiber, and fuel well into the twenty-first century, we must begin now to make changes that will enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience of North American agriculture. The rich knowledge base presented in Resilient Agriculture is poised to serve as the cornerstone of an evolving, climate-ready food system. Laura Lengnick is a researcher, policymaker, activist, educator, and farmer whose work explores the community-enhancing potential of agriculture and food systems. She directs the academic program in sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson College and was a lead author of the report Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.

Agricultural Soil Sustainability and Carbon Management

Agricultural Soil Sustainability and Carbon Management PDF Author: Sunita Kumari Meena
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323959121
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Agricultural Soil Sustainability and Carbon Management presents long-term research in the field of sustainable soil use and management to guide in the prioritizing the multifunctional value of soil health and addressing interdisciplinary links between major issues such as biodiversity and climate change. As soil is the largest terrestrial carbon pool and a significant contributor of greenhouse gases, much progress can be made toward curtailing the climate crisis by sustainable soil management practices. The book provides valuable insight into the soil and carbon management, research gaps, and the methodological challenges for research into soil carbon management that will be important over the decades. - Prioritizes the multifunctional value of soil systems and addresses interdisciplinary links within major issues including Soil Health, Carbon Sustainability, Biodiversity and Climate change - Provides best management practices and techniques for sustainable carbon management under different cropping pattern/ecosystem - Explains the carbon mechanism and application methodology in relation to food production and identifies future areas for research and developments

Improving Water Management Recent OECD Experience

Improving Water Management Recent OECD Experience PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264099506
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
This publication brings together the recent work of the OECD on water management issues. It identifies the main policy challenges addressed by that work for sustainable water management.

Building Soils for Better Crops

Building Soils for Better Crops PDF Author: Fred Magdoff
Publisher: Sare
ISBN: 9781888626131
Category : Humus
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
"'Published by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, with funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture."