AGROECOLOGY

by David Nuttle

Agroecology is a relatively new form of farming based on balancing environmental needs along with the needs of crops, humans, livestock, wildlife, and pollinators. The objective is to produce food, feed, forage, fiber, cash, green energy, & other crops w/ efficiency, economy, environmental stewardship, and resilience.

Agriculture scientists at Rodale Research Institute, & similar experts, have proven that chemical farming is not sustainable. Chemicals kill the soil microbes that produce natural plant nutrients that make plants most productive with the highest nutrient content. Moreover, monocropping results in lower yields & more crop pests. Crops produced with chemicals are not organic and the chemical Roundup, used to control weeds in corn and soybeans, always contaminates commercial food products from corn and soy w/ the very harmful chemical glyphosate used in Roundup.

Innovations in desert crop production have resulted in several improvements that greatly improve farming. To wit:

a) Use of biochar soil additives inoculated with cultured soil microbes to provide needed plant nutrients on a sustained basis with only 08 percent such biochar, by volume, added to the root-zones of crop rows. N. B. This practice eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers.

b) Irrigation of crops with subsurface micro-drip irrigation systems using water provided by very innovative means, managed aquafers, or desalination of sea water.

c) Planting of tree shelter belts to create microclimates favorable to crop production with an addition of ground covers and windbreaks as needed to prevent wind damage.

d) Planting of a symbiotic mix of food, feed, forage, fiber, niche, tree, green energy, and algal crop plus cash crops to pay operational expenses and increase profits.

d) Creation of forage improvement areas, with stock water tanks, for the intensive rotational grazing of livestock and wildlife displaced from crop production areas.

e) Livestock operations are being improved; e. g. Dorper hair sheep producing good quality

meat on poor forage, dairy & beef crossbreeds for developing nations, camel dairies for

desert areas, and French Rex burrowing rabbits to burrow to stay cool and produce meat on hot deserts.

Some of the other additions to farming include: 1) Precision agriculture (AG); 2) Controlled Ag such as using a greenhouse; 3) Vertical Ag in structures; 4) Hydroponics: 5) Aquaponics; 6) Regenerative w/ a carbon sequestration function; 7) No till w/ cover crops; 8) Composting to improve soils; 9) Genetically modified crops (GMOs); 10) Integrated pest mgmt. (IPM); 11)

AI w/ mechanization and automation; and 12) Integrated organic.

For an Ag training program, for political refugees, my charity (NPI) constructed & operated a controlled, integrated, organic farming in an innovative, self-sustaining greenhouse used to

train these refugees. There was a quail rearing model w/ quail to produce quail eggs, meat, & manure. The manure was used to make a manure effluent to provide nutrients for algal crops aerated to provide the algae with needed carbon nutrient from CO2 in the air. The algae was used to feed algal-eating fish, Tilapia, in an aquaculture tank. The fish waste, urea and feces and some aquaculture water provided a "fertigation" (fertilizer & irrigation) mix for crops grown in a unique aquaponics system.

Modern agriculture will be far different and far more productive, as well as environmentally friendly, than what we have seen in the past!!