To Plow or Not to Plow Your Farm


A couple of years ago, fresh from college and struggling to endeavor right into science writing, I participated in a workshop on crop biotechnology in Nairobi, Kenya. I clearly recall one man from an international biotech company extol participants that included some poor farmers, agricultural expansion officers, the media, members of parliament and also representatives of non-profit organizations, to consider integrating conservation tillage (CT) into Kenya’s agricultural policies.

constillage4Conservation tillage, he clarified, protects dirt nutrients and also reduces soil erosion. When he mentioned this, one participant soared, wanting to know how weed control would be done. “Make use of herbicides,” the man snapped.

This fired up a highly explosive argument regarding the benefits and drawbacks of conservation tillage that almost derailed the workshop. In a nation where farmers are consistently allegiant to typical farming techniques, conservation tillage showed tough to offer.

Some in the seminar also disregarded conservation tillage as a ruse to advertise the economic passions of multinational biotech business. I, too, couldn’t resist disregarding supporters of CT as apologists for the biotech sector.

Much water has actually passed under the bridge since. I have actually pertained to value that CT holds the key to sustainable agriculture, particularly in creating nations. I should confess that I am not the only one in this.

Last week, for example, Rockefeller Foundation– a non revenue that works with poor farmers in inadequate nations– launched a report revealing that 75 percent of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa “is badly weakened and is being exhausted of fundamental dirt nutrients at a threatening rate.”.

The credit report, Agricultural Production and Soil Nutrient Mining in Africa, advises that unless farmers in sub-Saharan Africa cannot change their farming techniques, food insecurity would certainly intensify.

This report is a recommendation of conservation tillage and African farmers are encouraged to welcome CT

Conservation tillage is, absolutely, the preferred farming approach. Some would certainly hasten to say that conservation tillage promotes herbicide usage whose impact on the atmosphere can verify devastating.

With the emergence of herbicide tolerant genetically modified crops, farmers may not need herbicides for weed control. And since the court is already out on the safety of genetically modified plants– they yield high and are environment-friendly– farmers in Africa have to welcome them. They bond perfectly well with conservation tillage.