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Paper
PP0325-13
TitleConservation Agriculture With Trees, a form of Agroforestry - an institutional perspective
AuthorMeine van Noordwijk, Dennis P Garrity and Delia Catacutan
EditorDamien Hauswirth, Pham Thi Sen, Oleg Nicetic, Florent Tivet, Le Quoc Doanh, Elske Van de Fliert, Gunnar Kirchhof, Stéphane Boulakia, Stéphane Chabierski, Olivier Husson, André Chabanne, Johnny Boyer, Patrice Autfray, Pascal Lienhard, Jean-Claude Legoupil and Matthew L. Stevens
Year2012
Parent TitleThe 3rd International Conference on Conservation Agriculture in Southeast Asia. Hanoi, Vietnam, December 10-15, 2012
PublisherCIRAD, Montpellier, France; NOMAFSI, Phu Tho, Viet Nam; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
City of PublicationHanoi, Vietnam
Pages352-356
Call NumberPP0325-13
Abstract:
Historically agriculture in many parts of the world was compatible with the retention of valuable trees in cropped fields. It used only superficial soil tillage, usually in combination with a controlled fire that cleared the land but did not kill the larger trees1 . In temperate zones with relatively mild climates, however, a different approach to growing crops emerged, “non-conservation agriculture without trees”, which had success as it was readily scaled up with horse-drawn ploughs replacing human tillage, and tractors with ever-more horse power drawing ever-deeper ploughs through a soil that responded by mineralizing a substantial part of its organic matter, feeding the crops. This yield benefit, however, was not sustainable as it depleted the resource base – chemical fertilizer had to become the basis ofplant nutrition. As tillage had killed many of the worms and other minute soil engineers, tillage became “necessary” to create a structure compatible with crop roots. The trouble started when this tree-less tillage-addicted form of agriculture became the norm, became known and taught worldwide as what agriculture is and should be, and was extended to parts of the world with less benign climates.
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