Sustainable Agriculture Begins With The Soil – Minimum Disturbance, Maximum Yield

This calls for a paradigm shift! 

Above is the upper half of the cover of SEARCA's first published Professorial Chair Lecture, by multi-awarded UPLB Professor of Land & Water Resources Engineering Victor B Ella, with the long title, "Conservation Agriculture: A Biological Engineering Approach To Sustainable Agriculture In Support Of Rural Development In Southeast Asia," with 64 inside pages, coming out in 2018.

Outright, I want to say this is the most intelligent research and report on what Mr Ella refers to as "conservation agriculture," that which I know fits perfectly into what I believe is "organic agriculture" – with conservation referring to the objective and organic referring to the process.

In the Abstract, Mr Ella says:

Conservation agriculture... is based on the principles of minimum soil disturbance, continuous mulch cover, and diverse crop species rotation.

Without consciously realizing it, Mr Ella has defined the organic agriculture that I appreciate and advocate. As I put it in my title: "Minimum Disturbance, Maximum Yield." The continuous mulch cover provides the organic matter that the soil needs to provide water and nutrients to the crops. The diverse crop species rotated ensures both natural pest control and farm productivity – and therefore profitability – for the farmer.

Mr Ella says other researches in conservation agriculture in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, "have provided empirical evidence on the benefits and advantages of conservation agriculture over plow-based crop production systems."

"Minimum soil disturbance" means no plowing, only boring a little hole for every little seed or seedling planted. And yet, as Mr Ella says, the results show that:

Conservation agriculture improves soil quality and crop yield, minimizes leaching of fertilizers and improves soil adsorption of nutrients, improves soil health, saves labor from land preparation and weeding, improves water use efficiency, and provides other socioeconomic and environmental benefits over plow-based systems.

Modern chemical agriculture, MCA, adds to the fertility of the soil but does not improve its quality. MCA improves crop yield but does notminimize leaching of fertilizer nutrients. Neitherdoes MCA improve water use efficiency. MCA is labor-intensive because of land preparation and weeding.

I want to add to Mr Ella's literature references, but not from results of studies. I know 2 of the best sources of unorthodox farming data and information based on personal experiences – and these are the books written by Edward H Faulkner, pioneering farmer of Nebraska: Plowman's Folly (published by the Oklahoma Press in 1945) and Soil Development (1952). Mr Faulkner's main thesis, in my own words, is that we must first grow the soil beforewe attempt to grow the crop, so that the soil can grow the crop well for our sake. He decried the use of the moldboard plow, which he said destroyed the structure of the soil first of all – why do you want to destroy the structure of what you want to use? Mr Faulkner's trash mulching gave a continuous mulch cover all over the field and, yes, he advocated multiple cropping.

For Sustainable Agriculture, I salute Mr Ela, Biological Engineer!@517