Sustainable agriculture Archives - Page 14 of 37

Diversifying the small family farm

The best way to avoid pitfalls in new markets — seek the advice  of successful sector counterparts

By Jennifer Paige May 19, 2015

Direct marketing grass-fed beef was how Colleen Biggs turned adverse beef market trends into an opportunity for her family’s ranch in east-central Alberta. “When times got really tough for us, we were doing the low-input swath grazing, bale grazing, everything we could to make ends meet on the ranch but when the market crash happened

Crops, Opinion

Editorial: What’s it going to take to stop soil erosion?

Soil erosion still alive and (not) well in Manitoba

By Laura Rance-Unger May 4, 2015

You could have mistaken Co-operator reporter Lorraine Stevenson for a coal miner, coated as she was with black dirt, after she ventured out across southern Manitoba during those 70- to 90-kilometre-per-hour winds April 15. But for the modern farm equipment and steel granaries in the background, her photographs of airborne and drifting soil could have

Crops, Local news

VIDEO: Soil Conservation Week — the job is not over

By Manitoba Co-operator Staff April 23, 2015

April 19-25 is National Soil Conservation Week, an annual event to remind everyone of the need to protect the soil resource from some of the damage it suffered during the “Dirty Thirties.” Unfortunately, some scenes of that time were repeated in parts of Manitoba last week when south winds gusting as high as 88 km/h

Comment, Opinion

Soil care: Will we make the right choices?

When net effects are considered, tillage can never be justified

By Don Lobb April 23, 2015

2015 is International Year of the Soil, and from April 19-25, National Soil Conservation Week brings focus to soil care in Canada. We need to consider our record through the ages as we implement soil protection now. Through the past 10,000 years, history records the successive rise and failure of great civilizations and powerful nations.

Crops, Oilseeds

Tips and tools for a successful soybean season

Tips on seeding, soil levels, weed control, seed treatments and the  latest sector tools to help you achieve top yields this season

By Jennifer Paige April 14, 2015

Manitoba soybean acreage has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and this year even more farmers are expected to give the crop a try. Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (MAFRD) pulse specialist Dennis Lange offered some tips at the Dauphin Agriculture Society’s Farm Outlook 2015 conference. Lange reviewed the importance of selecting

Crops, Opinion

Editorial: They brought in plows?

By Laura Rance-Unger April 6, 2015

When a consortium of Canadian non-government organizations funded by the Canadian government arrived in the Benishangul-Gumuz state in Western Ethiopia five years ago, their primary goal was to help smallholder farmers boost productivity and food security. They came in with “modern” farming methods. In this context, that meant oxen and plows, showing farmers how to

Zambian farmer Wilfred Hamakumba and his wife Irene, have embraced herbicides as part of their conservation agriculture management. Over the past several years, the farm’s yields have more than doubled, their crops are more diversified and their farm has expanded in size. Irene is particularly pleased with their spraying program, saying it takes a lot less labour than weeding.

Crops, International news

Can conservation agriculture save Africa’s soils?

Adoption rates are  slow, but it may be the continent’s best —  and last — hope

By Laura Rance-Unger March 13, 2015

It was the end of a very long day. We had travelled to remote areas on bad roads, walked barefoot across a flooding creek and hiked nearly an hour both ways to reach one of the three farmers we were scheduled to visit. We were on the trail of conservation agriculture (CA) success stories, and

Crops, International news

Mulch, mice and ‘the man problem’ hold up CA adoption

Women are interested in producing food while men are more interested in growing cash crops using conventional methods

By Laura Rance-Unger March 5, 2015

After three years of producing maize using conservation agriculture, Nkasauka Nthala is a convert. The yields from her tiny .16-hectare plot of maize grown using direct seeding instead of hoeing were 166 per cent above the yields of maize grown under conventional practices. Yet only a small portion of the farm she shares with her

Thomas Nkhunda, 37, has been using conservation agriculture on his plots for eight years.

Cereals, Crops, News

Dropping the hoe and doubling the yield

Minimum tillage  makes for dramatic improvements for this family in Malawi

By Laura Rance-Unger February 26, 2015

It’s raining, but that doesn’t stop Thomas Nkhunda from leading a group of visitors into his fields where he describes how he manages plots demonstrating the benefits of conservation agriculture. Rain isn’t unusual at this time of year. After all, it’s the rainy season in Malawi. What’s unusual is the fact that the rains they

man standing on crop research project field

Crops

Will it be chess or checkers?

A researcher explores different ways of sustainably playing the farming game

By Julienne Isaacs February 4, 2015

It was standing room only in the University of Manitoba’s Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre Jan. 21 for a seminar entitled “Conservation agriculture, organic farming and agro-ecology: the three musketeers of a sustainable food system.” “I try to do this every year because I want to give the graduate students permission to ask tough questions and

Daily Network News

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures end lower

ICE Weekly: Trade progress, new data threaten to break canola’s price range

CBOT Weekly: Trade awaits USDA S/D report

Tag Archives Sustainable agriculture