Economics and energetics of organic and conventional farming

The use of organic farming technologies has certain advantages in some situations and for certain crops such as maize; however, with other crops such as vegetables and fruits, yields under organic production may be substantially reduced compared with conventional production. In most cases, the use of organic technologies requires higher labor inputs than conventional technologies. Some major advantages of organic production are the conservation of soil and water resources and the effective recycling of livestock wastes when they are available.     

Degradation of Polylactic Acid (PLA) Plastic in Costa Rican Soil and Iowa State University Compost Rows

In this study the degradation of polylactic acid (PLA) plastic films in Costa Rican soil and in a leaf composting environment was investigated. Three types of PLA films were used: Ch-I, (PLA monolayer plastic films from Chronopol, Golden, CO), GII (PLA trilayer plastic films from Cargill Dow Polymers LLC, Minnetonka, MN), and Ca-I (PLA monolayer plastic films from Cargill Dow Polymers LLC). The average soil temperature and moisture content in Costa Rica were 27°C and 80%, respectively. The average degradation rate of PLA plastic films in the soil of the banana field was 7675 M _w/week. Two compost rows were set up at the Iowa State University (ISU) (Ames) compost site. Temperature and relative humidity of the compost rows were kept at 55 ± 5°C and 50 ± 10% RH, respectively. The degradation rates of GII and Ca-I in the compost rows were 113,290 and 71,283 M _w/week, respectively. Therefore, it was estimated that in Costa Rican soil and in compost rows, PLA would be visibly degraded in 6 months and in 3 weeks, respectively.     

利用城市生活垃圾制取有机复合肥

用城市生活垃圾经好氧高温制成堆肥,并向其中加入无机化肥和微量元素添加剂可制成有机复合肥。本文简要阐述了好氧高温堆肥的生产工艺,推荐了用垃圾生产有机复合肥的两类配方。     

Sustainable Agriculture: New Paradigms and Old Practices? Increased Production with Management of Organic Inputs in Senegal

Farmers in Sahelian countries are confronted with a variety of soil fertility and management problems. During the last two decades, NGOs have worked with farmers and research institutions to develop and test practices that will increase food production, while at the same time enhance the natural resource base.Since 1987, The Rodale Institute (RI) has worked closely with farmers' associations and government institutions to promote regenerative agriculture-farming systems that prioritize the use of local resources while improving them as they are used to grow food, using agro-ecological methods. The Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute has collaborated in this program as a partner of RI. The Senegal Regenerative Agriculture Resource Center model has been applied as a new and viable approach that builds on traditional knowledge and farmer-to-farmer exchange.Research results on soil conservation and improvement have shown that fields spread with amended animal manure or compost yield greater harvests than fields farmed with traditional methods.     

Contour Farming Based on Natural Vegetative Strips: Expanding the Scope for Increased Food Crop Production on Sloping Lands in Asia

In the agriculture of the future, there is a compelling place for agroecologically-based practices alongside practices based on the best available chemical, genetic, and engineering components. This paper explores this issue in the context of the development and spread of a conservation farming system based on natural vegetative contour buffer strips in smallholder production systems in southeast Asia. Farmers adapted contour hedgerow farming practices into a simpler, buffer-strip system as a labor-saving measure to conserve soil and sustain yields on steeply sloping cropland in Claveria, Mindanao, Philippines. Permanent-ridge tillage systems were also adapted to smallholder farming systems by researchers. Natural vegetative buffer strips resulted in gradually increasing yields, with an estimated benefit of 0.5t/ha/crop. They were seen to increase land values, facilitate investment in more intensive and profitable cropping systems, and expand the land base for food crop agriculture. They induced an institutional innovation of farmer-led Landcare organizations, which have spread this and other agroforestry practices to thousands of households in the southern Philippines.     

More Productivity with Fewer External Inputs: Central American Case Studies of Agroecological Development and their Broader Implications

A study of the impact of two agroecological development programs in central America was conducted in 1994, five years and fifteen years after the programmes had ended. Yields of maize and beans being achieved by those farmers involved in each program were, on the average, more than seven times the yields being achieved at the time of program initiation. Increases in yields and incomes were achieved through the use of a large number of innovations, involving especially soil retention measures, purchased organic matter, intercropped green manure/cover crops, natural pest control, crop diversification and crop rotations. Use of chemical fertilizer was reduced, herbicides avoided almost entirely, and several substitutes for pesticides are now used. These technologies, plus more recent innovations such as microscale water harvesting and precision planting, should enable small farmers around the world to increase productivity enough that the world can avoid major hunger over the next 30 years, without increasing substantially, if at all, the world's use of chemical inputs.     

Delivering on the Promise of Agroforestry

Agroforestry – the traditional practice of growing trees on farms for the benefit of the farm family and for the environment – was brought from the realm of indigenous knowledge into the forefront of agricultural research less than two decades ago. It was promoted widely as a sustainability-enhancing practice that combines the best attributes of forestry and agriculture. Based on principles of natural resource management and process-oriented research, agroforestry is now recognized as an applied science, that is instrumental in assuring food security, reducing poverty and enhancing ecosystem resilience at the scale of thousands of smallholder farmers in the tropics.Trees on farms provide both products and services: they yield food, fuelwood, fodder, timber and medicines, which farm families can use at home or take to market to bring in much-needed cash; they replenish organic matter and nutrient levels in soils and they help control erosion and conserve water. The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, and its partners, are working to integrate the functions of trees with policy and institutional improvements that aim at facilitating wide-scale adoption by farmers.Two examples described in this paper are replenishing soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa using short-term improved tree and shrub fallows and the results of agroforestry research to support significant land tenure policy in southeast Asia.Although just one option in sustainable land-use, science-based agroforestry has the potential to produce economically, socially and environmentally sound results for the billions of people who depend on this ancient practice and modern science.     

红壤丘陵区土地利用变化对土壤质量影响

以鄂南红壤丘陵典型区的三个村为代表 ,应用地理信息系统对 1981和 1998年两个时期的土地利用变化和土壤质量进行对比研究 ,分析了土地利用变化对土壤质量的影响。结果表明 :研究区土地利用结构总体上具有农业型特点 ,17a间水田减少了 2 1% ;其余的利用方式则有不同幅度的增加 ,居民地、水域、林地、园地和旱地增加了 4 2 .2 %、99.6 %、8%、5 6 .8%和 8%。土壤质量有从优劣两端向中等靠拢的趋势 ,17a后 、 、 和 等地面积分别减少 18.6 %、12 .2 %、2 9.6 %和 2 5 % ; 等地增幅达 5 1.9%。土地利用方式及管理措施是影响土壤质量演变方向和强度的关键因子 ,园地和林地的土壤质量大多得到明显改善 ,水田的Δ SQI多数呈下降的趋势 ,旱地的土壤质量变化比较复杂 ,与土地利用结构相关。依此 ,本文探讨了定向培育土壤质量的途径     

Sulfur Metabolism in Polluted Sphagnum Peat Bogs: A Combined 34S–35S–210Pb Study

The size and isotopic behavior of sulfur pools in²¹⁰Pb-dated peat cores were investigated to obtain aninsight into retention mechanisms of pollutant S in twomountain-top peatlands of the Northern Czech Republic, CentralEurope. The bogs were situated 40 km apart in an area whichbetween the years 1985 and 1995 received as much as 130 kg Sha^-1 yr^-1 from the atmosphere. Vertical peataccretion was faster at Pod Jelení horou (JH) than atVelký moál (VM). Organic carbon-bonded S was themost abundant sulfur pool, constituting 77 and 65 wt. % at JHand VM, respectively. At JH both the S concentration maximumand the highest annual S deposition rate were displaceddownward by more than 20 years (from 1987 to the 1960s)indicating that the buried S is vertically mobile. At VM the Sconcentration was the highest in the topmost 2-cm section eventhough atmospheric S deposition peaked in 1987. Differentmechanisms of S isotope redistribution prevailed in thetopmost peat layers at JH, where a negative ³⁴Sshift occurred, and at VM, where a positive ³⁴Sshift occurred. Bacterial sulfate reduction was responsiblefor the negative ³⁴S shift at JH. One possibleexplanation of the positive ³⁴S shift at VM isrelease of ³²S-enriched products of mineralization duringpeat diagenesis. There was a strong positive correlationbetween the abundance of total and pyrite S along the profiles.The presence of pyrite S at VM (526 ± 60 ppm) suggestedthat even at VM bacterial sulfate reduction occurred. Ananaerobic incubation of JH peat indicated sulfate reductionrate of 600 nmol g^-1 day^-1. The turnover times forinorganic S pools were shorter than for the organic S pools.Cumulative S contents in the Czech peat bogs were found to besignificantly lower than in similar sites in the NortheasternU.S., even though the atmospheric S inputs were more thanthree times higher at the Czech sites. Possible causes of suchdiscrepancy are discussed.     

Evaluation of leachate composition by multivariate data analysis (MVDA)

Landfills generate emissions in the form of gas and leachate. The emissions are often measured within monitoring programmes. It is likely that the requirements of such monitoring programmes can be extended in the future, particularly in light of the increased interest in specific organic substances. Multivariate data analyses (MVDA) have been used to evaluate the possibility of predicting the content of specific organic substances from more common analyses. The results indicate that this is possible for a specific leachate. MVDA can also be used to reduce the number of analyses performed within existing monitoring programmes while retaining information about all the variables formerly included in the programmes.