As a committee of British MPs declare organic methods could not feed Britain etc., thanks to Claire Robinson for 1 and nlpwessex for 2:
1. Organic yelds equal or beat chemical yields
2. Madagascar rice trials lead to agricultural revolution
---
1. Organic yields equal or beat chemical yields
Below is a reminder of some hard data on comparative farming trials showing that organic methods can and do yield as well as and sometimes better than crops grown under conventional (chemical) systems. The trials, begun in 1981, have now been going for 20 years and the Rodale Institute report, published in 1999, is a summary of the first 15 yrs of the experiment.
This study, along with others showing similar results, has demonstrated that organic farming can show equal or better yields than intensive chemical methods, often after a soil recovery period of around 4 years. So next time some biotech industry stooge comes up with population explosion horror stories saying we need GM/chemicals to feed the world, just quietly remind them that the argument has been settled in the late 1980s: organic farming is perfectly capable of feeding the world--and what is more, without depleting vaulable soil or poisoning water supplies and people--let alone posing the extraordinary levels of risk involved in genetic manipulation.
I recommend getting hold of this report as it is well worth taking a look at the truly horrible pictures of depleted compacted soil of chemical agriculture compared with soft, rich organic soil; and the astonishing differences between the organic and conventional crops during the drought of 1995 (the organic is doing very well, where the conventional crop is clearly suffering severe water deprivation stress--do we really need GM crops bred to tolerate drought? perhaps organic crops will be a better food security bet as weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable).
And a note that will bring joy and relief to the hearts of the animal manure-phobic organic bashers out there ("organic food is grown in animal manure and carries pathogens"--though in fact, conventional farming uses more animal manure than organic as well as human sewage sludge, and conventional methods do not require composting to kill bacteria): ONE OF THE ORGANIC SYSTEMS TESTED USED ONLY LEGUME COVER CROPS AS A NITROGEN SOURCE, NOT ANIMAL MANURE.
Thanks to Michael Khoo of Greenpeace for drawing attention to this excellent publication.
Claire Robinson
****
The Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial: The first 15 years. 1999
Executive summary
Available from the Rodale Inst, Kutztown, PA, USA, Tel (USA) 610 683 1400 website www.rodaleinstitute.org email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Conventional agriculture, which relies heavily on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, has come under increased scrutiny because of evidence that modern production techniques are having a negative impact on the environment. Organic agriculture has been put forth as a less destructive alternative, but widespread adoption of organic techniques has been hampered by questions about whether such practices can produce food and fiber as efficiently or as economically as conventional methods.
The Rodale Institute's Farming Systems Trial, now in its 19th years of continuous large-scale experimentation, was established to answer those questions. This report summarises the first 15 yrs of the experiment.
The primary conclusions:
***After a transition period of about four years, crops grown under organic systems yield as well as and sometimes better than crops grown under the conventional system. Moreover, organic systems can out-produce the conventional system in years of less than optimal growing conditions such as drought.
***Organic techniques significantly improve soil quality, as measured in structure (tilth), total soil organic matter, and biological activity. These improvements enhance productivity and reduce the potential for negative environmental impacts such as nitrate leaching and erosion.
***Organic systems that use only legume cover crops as a nitrogen source, as well as those that use animal manures, are capable of supplying enough nitrogen to produce crop yields equivalent to those grown with mineral fertilizers--even for heavy nitrogen users such as corn. Overall, available nitrogen levels are increasing in the Trial's organic systems while nitrogen levels are decreasing in the conventional system.
***The organic systems absorb and retain carbon at significant levels, an important finding that may suggest a role for agriculture in reducing the impact of global warming.
***Nitrogen losses through leaching--a pollution problem that can have human health consequences--were much higher in the conventional system than in the organic systems.
***After a transition period characterized by reduced yields, the organic systems were competitive financially with the conventional system. Projected profits ranged from slightly below to substantially above those in the conventional system, even though economic analyses did not assume any price premium for organically grown crops.
***Soils managed organically show a higher level of microbial activity and a greater diversity of organisms--long-term changes in the character of the soild community that can promote plant health and may positively affect the way elements such as carbon and nitrogen are cycled in the soil.
**********
Snippets from the report:
The initial goal of the Farming Systems Trial was to determine if organic farming systems could compete productively and economically with conventional systems. That was affirmed in the late 1980s, after several years of comparable yields across all systems. In the next millennium, the imperative may be to determine how all farming systems affect food quality and the environment, both locally and globally.
* Soil organic matter content, shown as percent carbon, has increased in both of the organic soils. There has been no significant change in the conventionally managed soils.
* Poor soil structure increases the susceptibility of soils to erosion, which leads to further soil degradation and also results in contamination of surface waters with agricultural chemicals and nutrients that are washed off with the soil.
* Water is able to percolate into the organically managed soils at a faster rate. During rain storms more water will be absorbed into the soil and less will run over the surface and out of the field.
* The conventionally managed soils... had the lowest levels of biologically active carbon. Moreover, a higher amount of carbon in the conventional system was in a water-soluble form, suggesting that carbon in that system is vulnerable to loss from leaching.
* In the drought year of 1995... soils in the organic systems contained more moisture than soils from the conventional system for most of the growing season. That year, corn yields in the legume-based [non-animal manure organic] system were more than 22% higher than yields in the conventional system.
* In summary, after 15 years, the two organic systems have shown measurable and significant improvements in soil quality. Total soil organic matter and the biologically active fraction of organic matter increased in both the manure based [organic] and legume based [organic] systems, but not in the conventional system. In addition to accumulating carbon, the organic systems retained more nitrogen than the conventional system, enhancing yields and reducing the potential for pollution from nitrate leaching.
Increases in soil organic matter also improved soil structure or tilth, creating a better root-zone environment for growing plants and allowing the soil to better absorb and retain moisture. In periods of low rainfall, this ability was a critical factor in maintaining adequate yields, and it reduced the potential for erosion in severe storms. [Comment from Claire: Any gardener knows that soil rich in organic matter keeps plants alive in drought situations better than depleted and compacted soil; one wonders if the genetic engineers who tweak genes to create drought resistance have ever successfully grown anything in their lives and if so, why have they not learned from the experience that the quality of the soil primarily governs the quality of the plant?]
These soil quality improvements were associated with rotation practices that included a diversity of crops, and the addition of organic materials that were relatively high in nitrogen.
---
2. Madagascar rice trials lead to agricultural revolution
Financial Times; Jan 23, 2001
Madagascar rice trials lead to agricultural revolution: New methods break with centuries of tradition.
By JOHN MADELEY
When small farmers in Madagascar employed a new way of growing rice in the late 1980s, the results were so startling that agricultural scientists could hardly believe they were possible.
Yields of about two tonnes per hectare had shot up to about 8-10 tonnes per hectare, without chemical fertilisers, pesticides or expensive seed varieties, and by breaking some of the conventional "rules" of rice management.
For years the new technique, known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), was virtually ignored. The system was developed in Madagascar by an agronomist priest, Henri de Laudani, working with a small farmers group, Association Tefy Saina.
Last week a representative of the group, Sebastin Rafaralahy, presented its work to a conference in London, "Reducing Poverty though Sustainable Agriculture", organised by the University of Essex together with the Department for International Development.
Traditionally, rice is transplanted into fields at about eight weeks, said Mr Rafaralahy, when the plant is strong and likely to survive, and three or more seedlings are planted in clumps in the hope that one will fully mature. But with SRI, seedlings are transplanted at about six days and planted individually, enabling farmers to use less seed.
For thousands of years lowland rice has been grown under flooded conditions to ensure water supply and reduce weed problems. But while rice can survive in water, it is not an aquatic plant, Mr Rafaralahy pointed out.
Farmers in Madagascar noted that root growth was far greater if the plant was not kept continually submerged in water - "the plants receive more oxygen and nutrients from the atmosphere and derive greater benefit from the warmth of the sun", he said.
Using the SRI system the soil is only kept continually wet during the reproductive stage when the plant is producing grains. During the rest of the growth cycle the fields are irrigated in the evening and dry during the day.
Using their own seed, some 20,000 farmers have now adopted the method in Madagascar, and the yields have proved sustainable.
After being evaluated by Cornell University in the US, the system has spread to other countries, including major rice growers such as Bangladesh, China and Indonesia. In China yields of 9-10.5 tonnes per hectare were achieved in the first year of the system, compared with the national average of 6 tonnes per hectare.
This initiative in Madagascar was one of a number presented to the conference, all of which are included in a database of sustainable agriculture projects built up by professor Jules Pretty of the University of Essex.
He told the conference that the database now contains information on 208 initiatives from 52 countries, which indicates that at least 9m farmers have adopted sustainable agriculture methods on 29m hectares of land - some 3 per cent of land under crops in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Sustainable agriculture makes the best use of "nature's goods and services to help with pest control, soil regeneration and nutrient cycling", said professor Pretty; "and better use of the knowledge and skills of farmers, so improving their self-reliance".
Modern agriculture, he believes, is "very successful in terms of food production but causes a lot of damage to the environment and has tended to damage the natural processes". The evidence, he said, shows that switching to sustainable agriculture "can lead to substantial increases in per hectare food production".
For non-irrigated crops, yields typically increase by 50-100 per cent "though considerably greater in a few cases. For 146,000 farmers cultivating roots - potato, sweet potato and cassava - average food production increased by 150 per cent". For irrigated crops, the gains were much smaller, 5-10 per cent, "through starting from a higher absolute yield base".
With policy and institutional support, the benefits of sustainable agriculture could spread to much larger numbers of people, believes professor Pretty, but he cautions that "even the substantial increase reported here might not be enough".
"We cannot yet say that a transition to sustainable agriculture will result in enough food to meet the needs of developing countries, but there is scope for considerable confidence," he said.
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited