Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0201&L=sanet-mg&P=31107
From:         Steve Diver 
Subject:      No-till, Rolf Derpsch, Roland Bunch's 5 Principles, MOIST

Klaus Wiegand pasted the quotes from Rolf Derpsch on no-till, and listed
the @griculture Online web page that featured Derpsch as a speaker at a
no-till conference January 21-22 in Salina, Kansas. 

Scientist says no-till's biggest obstacle is 'mindset'
http://email.agriculture.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eLcW044p60TM0FCTh0AP 

I was glad to see Rolf Derpsch mentioned, because I have found his No-Till
web page to be a great place to learn about no-till and its beneficial
impact in South America. No-Till site by Rolf Derpsch
http://www.rolf-derpsch.com/notill.htm 

Here is my own no-till web collection, inspired by people adapting no-till
to small farm agriculture like Steve Groff in PA, Ron Morse in VA, Aref
Abdul-Baki in MD, Alex Hitt in NC, Doug Walton in OK, Seth Dabney in MS,
etc. 

No-Till and Strip-Till Vegetable Production: Focus on Non-Chemical Methods
of Cover Crop Suppression and Weed Control
http://ncatark.uark.edu/~steved/no-till-veggie.html 

I list one no-till book, in particular, as a noteworthy addition to The
Farmer's Bookshelf: Lamarca, Carlos Crovetto. 1996. Stubble Over the Soil:
The Vital Role of Plant Residue in Soil Management to Improve Soil Quality.
American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI. 245 p. This book is a jewel on
no-till agriculture, capturing the essence of the value and importance of
conservation tillage on soil health. Carlos Crovetto Lamarca, an agronomist
with Chequen farm in Chile, a famous site of no-till agriculture in South
America, focuses on the vital role of reduced tillage and plant residues to
improve soil quality. Lamarca 245-page book is filled with color photos and
educational illustrations of no-till agriculture, agricultural implements,
cover crops, mulches, crop residues, and soil quality improvements. 

When I think of Rolf Depsch's work addressing no-till in Brazil and
Paraguay, I am also drawn to the work of Roland Bunch and his Five
Principles of Soil Management for the Humid Tropics. These soil management
principles -- which place critical importance on maximizing organic matter
production, keeping the soil covered with green manures and cover crop
mulches, zero tillage, maximizing biodiversity, and feeding crops largely
through mulches -- are described in detail in his paper below. 

Roland Bunch is the author of "Two Ears of Corn: A Guide to People-Centered
Agricultural Development", and for many years he worked as Central American
representative for World Neighbors. Nutrient Quantity or Nutrient Access?:
A New Understanding of How to Maintain Soil Fertility in the Tropics By
Roland Bunch, October 2001 HTML Gateway:
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/RolandB.html Bunch's
Paper in PDF: http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/Roland.pdf
A 19-page PDF download NECOFA -- Network for Ecofarming in Africa --
provides an alternate source, where the paper is available in HTML: Bunch's
Paper in HTML:
http://www.necofa.org/activities/publications/bunch_primav.html Bunch
refers to Ana Primavesi's "earth-shaking book", The Ecological Management
of Soils, as the inspiration for his paper, but as far as I can tell this
book is available in Spanish+Portugese only. 

Though, I did notice Ana Primavesi has published several articles in
English in LEISA (Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture), the
[excellent] quaterly magazine published by ILEIA in The Netherlands. LEISA
http://www.ileia.org 

Finally, the other source that comes to mind on the topic of green manure
and cover crop mulches in Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere in the
context of small farm agriculture is MOIST: The MOIST Group at Cornell
University Management of Organic Inputs in Soils of the Tropics
http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/moist/home2.html 

Steve Diver