When looking at a hand full of soil, it might not look very active, but your soil is a container for a dynamic system of biotic (living) and abiotic (physical) processes. This means the composition of your soil is constantly changing and to ensure good yields, farmers must adjust to…
Don’t let the supposed fear of moisture loss keep you from cultivating cover crops, says Gabe Brown, cover crop pioneer from the US state of North Dakota. He plants all his cash crops in grazed cover crops. Brown says the last season was the driest in decades in the region.…
Soil testing has rapidly advanced and now, instead of offering only chemical data as part of scripts, tests are increasingly being conducted in both laboratories and on farms at reasonable cost. Old underwear and tea bags are two of the instruments American farmers are using to affordably measure biological life…
In this video, smallholder farmers from Bergville in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa share their stories and the lessons they learnt from Conservation Agriculture. They also talk about the advantages of working together and the advantages thereof. Â This video was produced by Grain SA. https://youtu.be/6wGBuReNSKc
For grain farmers, the future lies in our ability to look after the health of soil. With the change of climate and more mouths to feed, farmers have to farm as efficient as possible to harvest the best possible yields from healthy plants. By using conservation agricultural practices we can…
The small-scale farmer faces many challenges because he must do everything by hand. But some things are just worth doing and inoculation of soya seed is one of them. LEGUMES HELP THE FARMER Soya, a legume, is a member of the same family as the Acacias, the African botanical iconic…
Swiss chard – more commonly grown than true spinach – is easy to grow and packed with nutrients. Swiss chard looks a lot like the true spinach but has much broader leaves, thicker stems, more vitamin A, and greater yields. Vitamin A prevents night blindness, chronic fatigue, heart disease, stroke…
A food security think-tank has urged Zambian smallholder farmers to plant drought-resistant cowpeas to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. In its latest report, Africa Rising says its pilot project in Eastern Province proved rural populations can use cowpeas as both food and as a cash crop in more…
Converting a field to organic production depends on how soil fertility is managed. Replenishing the soil is important as it determines the health of the plants. Soil fertility isn’t simply a matter of adding synthetic fertilisers to the soil to provide nutrients to the plants. Fertile soil implies that the…
In organic farming, using alternative planting techniques can improve a crop’s performance dramatically. Organic vegetable grower, Jane Griffiths, shares some ideas. The major techniques are interplanting, companion planting, succession planting and vertical planting. Growing two or more types of vegetables in the same place at the same time is known…
WHY SHOULD FARMERS START A WORMERY? An earthworm converts organic material into organic fertiliser and worm castings that is rich in humus. The number of micro-organisms, such as beneficial bacteria in ordinary soil, increases up to 1 000 times once the soil has been ingested and passed through the earthworm…
Justine Mukota wrote to us:Â Good afternoon, please send info on conservation farming with no-till. Will appreciate your feedback. Dear Justine It is not possible to give a comprehensive guide on conservation agriculture and minimum tillage in one article, but here are some pointers and web-sites that will get you started.…
Earthworms are at work day and night without complaint. They increase soil fertility and help you, the farmer, save on production costs. It’s not only gardeners who need earthworms. Farmers need them just as much, maybe more. Earthworms are like mini-factories and produce compost and vermi-tea, natural fertilisers that also…
Africa’s soil is getting a better look under the microscope, thanks to the African Soil Microbiology Project launched at the start of the month from the University of Pretoria (UP) in South Africa. “The project hopes to gain a baseline understanding of the organisms in Africa’s soils and contribute to…
