Soil
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Regenerative agriculture: Some perspectives
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ...
Rehabilitating bare areas with ponding
I am frequently told that the reason very few landowners do soil erosion control or try to rehabilitate bare, degraded areas is because of the ...
Controlling soil erosion
with brush packing, mulching, and creating a micro-climate One of the best ways in which to rehabilitate bare, soil eroded areas is to apply brush-packing, ...
Carbon sequestration in the soil
Carbon and sequestration have become fashionable environmental “buzzwords”, they are repeated in television programs about forests and fires, one can find them in any nature ...
Crop health is key to sustainable agriculture
Eighty percent of human survival relies on plants. As the human population grows, and environmental degradation intensifies, the pressure on providing healthy, nutritious food (amongst ...
Partnering with soil microorganisms to improve soil fertility
Soil quality and productivity is dependent on many different environmental conditions such as pH, temperature, oxygen, moisture, and nutrient availability. All these factors must be ...
Determine your soil health using biotic and abiotic indicators in one package – YourSoilTM
Soil is a living system and the foundation of crop production. Soil health is defined as the capacity of soil to function as a vital ...
What is Conservation Agriculture?
Conventional “arable” agriculture is normally based on soil tillage as the main operation. The most widely known tool for this operation is the plough, which ...
The threat of invasive Tamarix species to riparian ecosystems in South Africa
Tamarix species (common name: Tamarisk), also known as ‘salt cedars’, are native to the Euro-Asian region and some parts of Africa. It is one of ...
Technology in a bottle: the story of C4L tech
Think of what matters more to you than anything else in the world. It is likely to be someone, not something. People matter more than ...
Use of Satellite Data in Agriculture
Satellites are termed an ‘all-seeing eye in the sky’. They collect data from the Earth for different applications. The principle of satellite data collection is ...
The importance of crop health to sustainable crop production
The productivity of crops relates directly to their health. But what is a healthy crop? A healthy crop is a crop that receives sufficient water, ...
Soil health in a nutshell
Soil is the upper layer of the earth’s crust, which sustains life. It consists of a mixture of mineral particles, organic material, organisms, and liquids, ...
The 10 elements of agroecology:
Guiding the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems. Today’s food and agricultural systems have succeeded in supplying large volumes of food to global markets. ...
Food and clean water start with soil biodiversity
Although soils are vital for agriculture, biodiversity, and clean water, this below-ground world is often overlooked. The loss of life below the ground due to intensification of ...
To restore our soils, feed the microbes
Our soils are in trouble. Over the past century, we have abused them with ploughing, tilling and too much fertilizer. What many thinks of as ...
Dekgewasse help natuurlewe in wingerde
Die aanplant en behoud van dekgewasse, veral kruidagtige of breëblaarspesies, is een van die belangrikste bestuurspraktyke om te oorweeg deur wyndruifboere wat sensitief te werk ...
Can biotech crops secure enough food?
Food security and nourishment is an important consideration for many communities in the developing world, including the African continent. However, addressing the food security challenge ...
Status of Food Security
Food security is generally defined as the situation when all people have physical or economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times ...
The organic vegetable garden in urban areas
“In our Twenty-first century of absolute convenience and consumerism, we have become disconnected from nature. We somehow believe that not only can we live separately ...
Regenerative Agriculture is Trending in South Africa
Arable farming systems across South Africa are going through a change. Forced by a variable climate and financial pressure, regenerative farming models are increasingly being ...
Bewaringslandbou kan mielie-opbrengste hupstoot gee
Mielieboere wat geenbewerking of bewaringslandbou op hul plase wil toepas sal kan baat uit heelwat beter opbrengste tydens droër seisoene, omdat hierdie boerderymetodes hulle toelaat ...
Microbes: Our tiny, crucial allies
Most of us considered microbes little more than nasty germs before science recently began turning our view of the microbial world on its head. A ...
Healthy soil is the real key to feeding the world
One of the biggest modern myths about agriculture is that organic farming is inherently sustainable. It can be, but it is not necessarily. After all, ...
Soil Preparation book for grapevine industries just launched!
A brand new book was just released for the wine and table grape industries. SOIL PREPARATION for sustainable wine and table grape production, by Johan ...
Carbon farming can slash CO2 emissions
Soil health improvement, a technique known as carbon farming, could cut the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere by more than one-sixth, a ...
Cover Cropping for Climate Smart Agriculture
In recent years there have been several new terms being used pertaining to modern agriculture. Terms such as Conservation farming, Regenerative agriculture, Sustainable agriculture, Climate ...
What is Soil Carbon Sequestration?
What is Soil Carbon Sequestration? Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide can be lowered either by reducing emissions or by taking carbon dioxide out of the ...
Seeding equipment for a drier future
The agricultural sector remains vulnerable to water risks and a changing climate. The droughts we are currently facing have had a great impact on the ...
The role of Conservation Agriculture in Climate Smart Agriculture
The Western Cape Province and especially the agricultural sector is facing climate change with projections of continued warming of between 1.5 °C and 3 °C ...
Why massive effort needs to be put into growing trees on farms
It’s now over 50 years since the world was first warned that resources were being used at an unsustainable rate. It has now been estimated that almost one quarter ...
Conservation Agriculture and soil fertility management Part 2
Case study on a degraded soil in the North West Province Following an introduction to some theoretical principles and practices of Conservation Agriculture and integrated ...
‘Soil probiotics’ promise bigger, healthier crops
But there’s a downside More than half the world’s plant-derived energy intake comes from just three crops: rice, wheat and maize. These crops, like most ...
Conservation Agriculture and soil fertility management Part 1
Theoretical principles and practices In South Africa, crop production systems based on intensive and continuous soil tillage have led to excessively high soil degradation rates ...