In the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, the low-input cropping systems dominated by cereal monoculture and intensive tillage have a marked negative impact on pressure from diseases, weeds and pests resulting in decreased profit margins. The agricultural model based on mechanical soil tillage, exposed soils and continued monocropping is typically accompanied by negative effects on agriculture’s natural resource base to such an extent that future agricultural productive potential is jeopardized. This form of agriculture is considered to act as a major driver of biodiversity loss and to speed up the loss of soil by increasing the mineralization of organic matteri and erosion rates.
Conservation Agriculture Training guide for extension agents and farmers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia ISBN 978-92-5-131456-2 9 5 I7154EN/1/05.19 Conservation Agriculture Training guide for extension agents and farmers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Sandra Corsi and Hafiz Muminjanov Food and Agriculture Organization United Nations Rome, 2019 Corsi, S and Muminjanov, H 2019 Conservation Agriculture: Training guide for extension agents and farmers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Rome, FAO The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO ISBN 978-92-5-131456-2 ©FAO, 2019 Some rights reserved This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo) Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services The use of the FAO logo is not permitted If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons license If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition Any mediation relating to disputes arising under the licence shall be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) as at present in force Third-party materials Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any thirdparty-owned component in the work rests solely with the user Sales, rights and licensing FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/ publications) and can be purchased through publications-sales@fao.org Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: copyright@fao.org Cover photos: ©H Muminjanov Printed in Italy Contents Foreword vii Acknowledgements .viii Abbreviations and acronyms ix How to use this Guide xi Introduction The need for change – sustainable production intensification 2.1 Soil health related to sustainable agriculture .10 2.2 Objectives of soil and land management for sustainable agriculture 17 Conservation Agriculture – objectives, principles, practices 23 3.1 Constraints and solutions to the introduction and adoption of Conservation Agriculture .27 Equipment and machinery in Conservation Agriculture 35 4.1 Weed management 37 4.2 Crop residue and growth management 37 4.3 No-till seeding 41 Operations in Conservation Agriculture systems 51 5.1 Crop residue management 53 5.2 Pre-seeding cover crops and weed management 55 5.3 No-till seeding 58 5.4 Post-planting operations 62 5.5 Phytosanitary management 62 5.6 Nutrient management .65 Designing cropping systems for specific goals 69 6.1 Cover crops characteristics .72 6.2 Fitting cover crops in the cropping system 82 Recommendations for adoption and promotion of Conservation Agriculture 89 7.1 A whole new system of production .91 7.2 Farmer Field School – an example of knowledge extension 93 Appendices .95 Bibliography .97 Glossary 100 Annex Characteristics of the main field crops in Eastern Europe and Central Asia 103 Annex Characteristics of cover crops suitable for Eastern Europe and Central Asia 105 Annex Cover-crop-based successions and rotations suitable for Eastern Europe and Central Asia 114 Annex FAO Environmental and Social Management Guidelines – Environment and Social Standard (E&SS5): Pest and Pesticide Management 119 iii Figures Farmers participating in a field day demonstration, Tajikistan Example of slope erosion leading to gradual degradation of the soil Crop residues in a field under Conservation Agriculture: farmers need to get used to “untidy” fields, Republic of Moldova Soil organisms 16 Mycorrhizal fungi 20 Three principles of Conservation Agriculture 26 Oat and pea mixtures for production of high-quality feed, weeds suppression and recycling of nutrients in the soil 30 Cucumber relayed in maize to control weeds .30 Soil protected by wheat residues, Tajikistan 33 10 Roller-crimper flattening cover crops, Tajikistan .38 11 Herbicide application with boom sprayer, Turkey 39 12 Soybean harvesting and plant residues spreading across the field, Kazakhstan 40 13 No-till seeding with a jab planter, Tajikistan 41 14 Li-seeder 42 15 Animal-drawn seeders 42 16 Single-axle walking tractor .43 17 Penetration/depth control mechanism 45 18 Components on a row crop furrow opener unit 46 19 Schematic drawing of the seed placement mechanism of a no-till planter 47 20 Chisel type furrow openers for fertilizer 48 21 Double disc type furrow openers for fertilizer 48 22 Snow trapped by standing crop residues, north Kazakhstan .53 23 Maize seeding at wheat harvest, Tajikistan 58 24 Configuration of conventional planting systems vs raised beds .60 25 Preparation of permanent beds .60 26 Barley crop badly infested with common wild oat, a noxious weed, Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan 62 27 Trials of main crop and cover crop varieties, Hisor, Tajikistan 72 28 Effect of ease of decomposition of crop residues on soil structure 75 29 Field of maturing wheat under Conservation Agriculture, Armenia 82 Tables iv Soil principles for climate change adaptation and mitigation and enhancement of resilience 10 Ideal soil bulk densities and root growth limiting bulk densities for soils of different textures 11 Soil pH range .12 Comparison of Conservation Agriculture on raised beds vs tillage-based flooding irrigation systems 61 Less-than-ideal crop sequences 63 10 11 12 13 A1.1 A2.1 A2.2 A3.1 A3.2 Examples of cover crop mixes that provide multiple functions 77 Cover crop mixes that provide biological soil tillage, soil protection and/or feed 78 Soil cover during the vegetative period of warm-season cover crops 79 Soil cover during the vegetative period of cold-season cover crops .80 Estimation of the quantity of dry matter produced by the above-ground parts of some cover crops 80 Growing cycle of the main crops in rotation 87 Growing cycle of cover crop candidates to be potentially included in the rotation 87 Good agronomic management practices 92 Characteristics of main field crops 103 Characteristics of main cover crops 105 Specific features of main cover crops 113 Examples of crop successions in cover-crop-based systems 115 Examples of cover-crop-based crop rotations suitable for Eastern Europe and Central Asia 117 Boxes 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 A3.1 Challenges to sustainable intensification in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Soil carbon pools 13 Soil organic carbon stabilization process 14 Soil organisms 16 Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) 18 Farmer Field Schools and economic empowerment 31 How much residue can be removed from the field? .33 C/N ratio for crop residue management 54 Chemical desiccation for cover crops and weed management 56 Purchasing seed material abroad .71 Cover crops 73 Organic matter – farmers “listen” with their eyes 75 How much nitrogen is made available from a cover crop? 76 Rhizobium inoculant types for leguminous species .77 Are cover crop systems suited to all farmers? 84 Adult learning principles 94 Crop sequencing in cover-crop-based systems .115 v Foreword Agriculture in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is diverse, and has great potential to revitalize the economy of the countries in the region via improved productivity (efficiency) and higher total yield for food, fodder and fibre crops Conservation Agriculture can rise to the major challenge of making sustainable intensification of production systems a reality In order for farmers to transition to appropriate sustainable production systems, the provision of an adequate enabling environment and access to knowledge and services, including extension, mechanization, inputs and market intelligence, are crucial Farmer Field Schools are the best place for exchanging experience and knowledge about Conservation Agriculture, building the technical and scientific capacity of national partners, and thus moving towards widespread adoption and uptake of sustainable and viable agricultural practices vii Acknowledgements This guide was developed by Sandra Corsi (FAO Conservation Agriculture Officer) and Hafiz Muminjanov (FAO Agricultural Officer) Valuable support and inputs were provided by Avetik Nersisyan (FAO Agricultural Officer) and Josef Kienzle (FAO Agricultural Engineer) Thanks are also owed to colleagues from FAO Plant Production and Protection Division, including Hans Dreyer (Director of the Plant Protection and Production Division), Remi Nono Womdim (Deputy Director of the Plant Protection and Production Division), Fenton Beed (Team Leader for Rural and Urban Crop and mechanization Systems), Manuela Allara (FAO Integrated Pest Management Programme Officer), Toufic Elasmar (FAO Farmer Field School Officer) and FAO Country Offices in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova and Tajikistan Many experts from international agencies and research organisations provided critical inputs and suggestions during the preparation of this Guide: AgroLead Public Association for agricultural extension (Kyrgyzstan), the National Agency for Rural Development (Republic of Moldova), Sarob Cooperative (Tajikistan), and the Seed Associations of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Valuable comments were provided from Deborah Duveskog (FAO Subregional Emergency Office for Eastern and Central Africa), Omurbek Mambetov and Zhaiyl Bolokbaev (FAO Kyrgyzstan), Marufkul Mahkamov, Munira Otambekova and Bahromiddin Husenov (FAO Tajikistan), Armen Dovlatyan (FAO Armenia), Vahan Amirkhanyan (FAO Armenia), Gagik Mkrtchyan (Head of Armenian Technology Group), Hunan Khazaryan (Head of the Soil Science, Land Reclamation and Agrochemistry Scientific Center, Armenia), Nune Sarukhanyan (President of Green Lane NGO), Ruslan Malai (FAO Republic of Moldova), Boris Boincean (SELECTIA Research Institute of Field Crops), Theodor Friedrich (FAO Representative in Bolivia), Amir Kassam and Alexandra Bot (Conservation Agriculture Specialists), Aroa Santiago Bautista (FAO Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia), Harun Cicek (Konya Food and Agriculture University) and Murat Karabayev (CIMMYT Representative in Kazakhstan) Importantly the authors of the many valuable publications cited in this guide are acknowledged: the work by Roland Bunch and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) on cover crops, the work by John Landers on mechanized operations in no-till, and the work by FAO-IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) on Farmer Field Schools, in particular, provided a wealth of knowledge and practical recommendations to match the needs of farmers and farming systems The production of the English version was coordinated by Hamza Bahri (FAO Communication Officer), the copy editing was undertaken by Ruth Duffy, and the layout was designed and implemented by Timour Madibaev viii ... Conservation Agriculture Training guide for extension agents and farmers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Sandra Corsi and Hafiz Muminjanov Food and Agriculture Organization... 2019 Corsi, S and Muminjanov, H 2019 Conservation Agriculture: Training guide for extension agents and farmers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Rome, FAO The designations employed and the presentation... implemented Conservation Agriculture systems at field level for a minimum of one season xi Introduction Chapter 1 Conservation Agriculture: Training guide for extension agents and farmers in Eastern Europe