“Beyond the Beginning – The Zero Till Evolution” is a result of the continuing efforts and insights of farmers, scientists, extension and university specialists to understand the dynamics involved with zero tillage farming systems.
Ensuring food security in a context of growing population and changing climate is arguably the principal challenge of our time. The current human population of 7 billion will increase to more than 9 billion by 2050. The onus of this challenge falls on agriculture, which is the sector of the global economy that is most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
Food & Climate: Connecting the Dots, Choosing the Way Forward, outlines the climate requirements for successful food production, and examines two competing food production methods – industrial and organic – to reveal how they contribute to climate change, how resilient they are in the face of escalating climate shocks, and how organic and related agricultural systems can actually contribute to solving the climate crisis.
This report describes the significant contribution that conservation agricultural systems can have on reducing emission of greenhouse gases, as well as sequestering carbon in soil as organic matter. It also outlines the financial benefits for farmers, the benefits to communities and societies, and the environmental benefits of building soil carbon.
More than 60 international experts have contributed their views to a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and the most suitable strategic approaches for dealing holistically with the inter-related problems of hunger and poverty, rural livelihoods, social and gender inequity, poor health and nutrition, and climate change and environmental sustainability – one of the most interesting and challenging subjects of present development discourse.
The Rodale Institute describes how we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available and inexpensive organic management practices, namely, “regenerative organic agriculture.
The other shock was to learn that, today, small farms have less than a quarter of the world’s agricultural land – or less than a fifth if one excludes China and India from the calculation. Such farms are getting smaller all the time, and if this trend persists they might not be able to continue to feed the world.
A case study of ecological restoration using Holistic Planned Grazing at Las Pilas Ranch, Mexico.
Scientists have recently discovered thousands of microbial species living in, on, and around plant roots that help plants survive and thrive.
By restoring grasslands through Holistic Planned Grazing we have the potential to sequester carbon, restore agricultural productivity, increase soil water retention, and enhance wildlife habitat – while also supplying high-quality protein for millions and providing jobs for thousands of people in rural communities.