Eficácia e seletividade do iodossulfurão-metilo-sódio +mesossulfurão-metilo na cevada dística (Hordeum distichum L.)

Nos anos agrícolas de 2012/2013 e 2013/2014, realizaram-se na Herdade Experimental da Almocreva (Beja) quatro ensaios de campo (dois em cada ano) com o objetivo de estudar a eficácia e seletividade na cultura da cevada dística do herbicida iodossulfurão-metilo-sódio (50 g L-1) + mesossulfurão-metilo (7,5 g L-1). Em cada um dos ensaios, aplicaram-se três doses (5,0 + 0,75; 7,5 + 1,125 e 10,0 + 1,5 g s.a ha-1) do herbicida, em duas fases distintas do desenvolvimento das infestantes e da cultura. No ano de 2012/2013, o herbicida foi aplicado quando as infestantes se encontravam na fase de desenvolvimento de três a quatro pares de folhas e, a cultura, no início do afilhamento, a que correspondeu o estádio 20 da escala de Zadoks (primeira época de aplicação). A segunda época de aplicação realizou-se quando as infestantes estavam na fase de desenvolvimento de seis a sete pares de folhas e, a cultura, no afilhamento completo (estádio 29 da escala de Zadoks). No ano de 2013/2014, a primeira época de aplicação teve lugar quando as infestantes estavam na fase de desenvolvimento de cinco a seis pares de folhas e, a cultura, na fase de colmo principal (estádio 24 da escala de Zadoks). A segunda época de aplicação efetuou-se quando as infestantes estavam na fase de desenvolvimento de sete a oito pares de folhas e, a cultura, no 3º nó visível (estádio 33 da escala de Zadoks). Os resultados obtidos demonstraram, que a antecipação da aplicação para fases mais precoces do desenvolvimento das infestantes e da cultura não conduziu a um aumento da eficácia em relação a aplicações mais tardias, para todas as doses de herbicida. Com as doses recomendadas (7,5 + 1,125 e 10,0 + 1,5 g s.a ha-1) a eficácia foi maior em ambos os anos de ensaios e épocas de aplicação, relativamente à dose inferior (5,0 + 0,75 g s.a ha-1), mas a interação doses x épocas não foi significativa. No ano de 2012/2013 e contrariamente ao sucedido no ano de 2013/2014, verificou-se uma redução significativa da produtividade da cultura com a antecipação da aplicação, consequência da fitotoxidade causada pelo herbicida, quando esta se encontrava no início do afilhamento.

Conservation Agriculture and its contribution to the achievement of agri-environmental and economic challenges in Europe

Conservation Agriculture is an ecosystem approach to farming capable of providing solutions for numerous of the agri-environmental concerns in Europe. Certainly, most of the challenges addressed in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) could be tackled through Conservation Agriculture (CA). Not only the agri-environmental ones, but also those concerning farmer and rural communities’ prosperity. The optimisation of inputs and similar yields than conventional tillage, make Conservation Agriculture a profitable system compared to the tillage based agriculture. Whereas this sustainable agricultural system was conceived for protecting agrarian soils from its degradation, the numerous collateral benefits that emanate from soil conservation, i.e., climate change mitigation and adaptation, have raised Conservation Agriculture as one of the global emerging agrosciences, being adopted by an increasing number of farmers worldwide, including Europe.

Soil quality assessment in conservation agriculture systems

Soil is a key resource that provides the basis of food production and sustains and delivers several ecosystems services including regulating and supporting services such as water and climate regulation, soil formation and the cycling of nutrients carbon and water. During the last decades, population growth, dietary changes and the subsequent pressure on food production, have caused severe damages on soil quality as a consequence of intensive, high input-based agriculture. While agriculture is supposed to maintain and steward its most important resource base, it compromises soil quality and fertility through its impact on erosion, soil organic matter and biodiversity decline, compaction, etc., and thus the necessary yield increases for the next decades. New or improved cropping systems and agricultural practices are needed to ensure a sustainable use of this resource and to fully take the advantages of its associated ecosystem services. Also, new and better soil quality indicators are crucial for fast and in-field soil diagnosis to help farmers decide on the best management practices to adopt under specific pedo-climatic conditions. Conservation Agriculture and its fundamental principles: minimum (or no) soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover and crop rotation /intercropping certainly figure among the possibilities capable to guarantee sustainable soil management. The iSQAPER project – Interactive Soil Quality Assessment in Europe and China for Agricultural Productivity and Environmental Resilience – is tackling this problem with the development of a Soil Quality application (SQAPP) that links soil and agricultural management practices to soil quality indicators and will provide an easy-to-use tool for farmers and land managers to judge their soil status. The University of Évora is the leader of WP6 - Evaluating and demonstrating measures to improve Soil Quality. In this work package, several promising soil and agricultural management practices will be tested at selected sites and evaluated using the set of soil quality indicators defined for the SQAPP tool. The project as a whole and WP6 in specific can contribute to proof and demonstrate under different pedoclimatic conditions the impact of Conservation Agriculture practices on soil quality and function as was named the call under which this project was submitted.

Mobilizing Greater Crop and Land Potentials Sustainably

The supply side of the food security engine is the way we farm. The current engine of conventional tillage farming is faltering and needs to be replaced. This presentation will address supply side issues of agriculture to meet future agricultural demands for food and industry using the alternate no-till Conservation Agriculture (CA) paradigm (involving no-till farming with mulch soil cover and diversified cropping) that is able to raise productivity sustainably and efficiently, reduce inputs, regenerate degraded land, minimise soil erosion, and harness the flow of ecosystem services. CA is an ecosystems approach to farming capable of enhancing not only the economic and environmental performance of crop production and land management, but also promotes a mindset change for producing ‘more from less’, the key attitude towards sustainable production intensification. CA is now spreading globally in all continents at an annual rate of 10 Mha and covers some 157 Mha of cropland. Today global agriculture produces enough food to feed three times the current population of 7.21 billion. In 1976, when the world population was 4.15 billion, world food production far exceeded the amount necessary to feed that population. However, our urban and industrialised lifestyle leads to wastage of food of some 30%-40%, as well as waste of enormous amount of energy and protein while transforming crop-based food into animal-derived food; we have a higher proportion of people than ever before who are obese; we continue to degrade our ecosystems including much of our agricultural land of which some 400 Mha is reported to be abandoned due to severe soil and land degradation; and yields of staple cereals appear to have stagnated. These are signs of unsustainability at the structural level in the society, and it is at the structural level, for both supply side and demand side, that we need transformed mind sets about production, consumption and distribution. CA not only provides the possibility of increased crop yields for the low input smallholder farmer, it also provides a pro-poor rural and agricultural development model to support agricultural intensification in an affordable manner. For the high output farmer, it offers greater efficiency (productivity) and profit, resilience and stewardship. For farming anywhere, it addresses the root causes of agricultural land degradation, sub-optimal ecological crop and land potentials or yield ceilings, and poor crop phenotypic expressions or yield gaps. As national economies expand and diversify, more people become integrated into the economy and are able to access food. However, for those whose livelihoods continue to depend on agriculture to feed themselves and the rest of the world population, the challenge is for agriculture to produce the needed food and raw material for industry with minimum harm to the environment and the society, and to produce it with maximum efficiency and resilience against abiotic and biotic stresses, including those arising from climate change. There is growing empirical and scientific evidence worldwide that the future global supplies of food and agricultural raw materials can be assured sustainably at much lower environmental and economic cost by shifting away from conventional tillage-based food and agriculture systems to no-till CA-based food and agriculture systems. To achieve this goal will require effective national and global policy and institutional support (including research and education).

Local Understandings of Soil Fertility, Rainfall and Conservation Agriculture in Laikipia, Kenya: A Qualitative Analysis.

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is mostly referred to in the literature as having three principles at the core of its identity: minimum soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover and crop diversity. This farming package has been described as suitable to improve yields and livelihoods of smallholders in semi-arid regions of Kenya, which since the colonial period have been heavily subjected to tillage. Our study is based on a qualitative approach that followed local meanings and understandings of soil fertility, rainfall and CA in Ethi and Umande located in the semi-arid region of Laikipia, Kenya. Farm visits, 53 semistructured interviews, informal talks were carried out from April to June 2015. Ethi and Umande locations were part of a resettlement programme after the independence of Kenya that joined together people coming from different farming contexts. Since the 1970–80s, state and NGOs have been promoting several approaches to control erosion and boost soil fertility. In this context, CA has also been promoted preferentially since 2007. Interviewees were well acquainted with soil erosion and the methods to control it. Today, rainfall amount and distribution are identified as major constraints to crop performance. Soil fertility is understood as being under control since farmers use several methods to boost it (inorganic fertilisers, manure, terraces, agroforestry, vegetation barriers). CA is recognised to deliver better yields but it is not able to perform well under severe drought and does not provide yields as high as ‘promised’ in promotion campaigns. Moreover, CA is mainly understood as “cultivating with chemicals”, “kulima na dawa”, in kiswahili. A dominant view is that CA is about minimum tillage and use of pre-emergence herbicides. It is relevant to reflect about what kind of CA is being promoted and if elements like soil cover and crop rotation are given due attention. CA based on these two ideas, minimum tillage and use of herbicides, is hard to stand as a programme to be promoted and up-scaled. Therefore CA appears not to be recognised as a convincing approach to improve the livelihoods in Laikipia.

A Agricultura de Conservação como resposta ao desafio da gestão sustentável do solo e da água: Uma perspetiva europeia

Qual é a perspetiva europeia? Quais são os desafios? A PAC e a gestão sustentável do solo e da água Os “deliverables” da Agricultura de Conservação (AC) em relação à gestão sustentável do solo e da água, e não só! A Agricultura de Conservação na Europa e no Mundo A Agricultura de Conservação e a PAC Mensagens

Possibilities and challenges for No-till practices in Bulgaria

What is No-till? From No-till to Conservation Agriculture (CA) Why use No-till/CA? Where is No-till/CA practiced? The Bulgarian context The Ups The challenges No-till/CA in the context of CAP

Policy and Institutional Support for CA Development (Examples from Europe, Africa, Asia)

Policy and Institutional Support for CA Development (Examples from Europe, Africa, Asia)