Sustainable Management Practices Flashcards
What are sustainable management practices?
- Conservation agriculture
- No till / reduced till
- Crop rotation / diversification
- Agroforestry
- Leys / temporary crops
- Compost, manure
- Terracing / contour farming
- Pest nutrient management
- Biochar
- Acidity management (basalt / Ca aggregate)
- Precision agriculture
Why is crop diversity important?
Different plants have preferential nutrient sources.
e.g. Deschampsia flexuosa prefers ammonium, whereas Arrnhenatherum elatius preders nitrates
Combining both in one field would utilised different nutrienta that are unfavourable to others.
Plant diversity also increases SOC by elevating carbon inputs and belowground biomass.
Why are leys / temporary crops important?
- Minimises soil disturbance
- Helps rebuild aggregates in soil
- Mycorrhiza and earthworm recovery
- Legume rich leys can rebuild soil C and health
- Shown that wheat grown after grass-legume leys showed improved yields with less N fertiliser
What is agroforestry for?
Use of trees to recycle nutrients and water deep in soils, below the rooting depth of annual crops
How much straw is plouged into UK soil each year and what cna be done instead of this?
5,500,000 tonnes of straw ploughed into soil in UK each year.
Instead, it could be burned (producing clean energy) and the ash be ploughed into fields as fertiliser.
What are the avoided emissions of using biochar as a fertiliser?
Avoided emissions are 2 to 5 times greater when biochar is applied to soil rather than used for fossil energy offsetting.
What are growth of legumes sensitive to?
Sensitive to pH, adding lime to acidic soils can increase N fixation.
(Caires et al., 2008) says surface application of lime is better for soil than direct drilling.
How can precision agriculture benefit soil health?
By using remote sensing to detect exactly when and where fertilisers are needed.
