1. Comprehensive Assessment of Water, Food and Agriculture
Have our water investment and management decisions paid off? How have they impacted poverty, food security, and the environment? What are our options for the future? The Comprehensive Assessment takes stock of these questions.
[ http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/Assessment/index.asp ]2. Consortium for International Crop Protection / IPMnet
From the IPMnet website: The Consortium for International Crop Protection (CICP), working for a quarter of a century to implement effective and environmentally-sensitive crop protection worldwide, welcomes visitors to its revamped website and invites usage of all of the free resources offered (all freely available).
[ http://www.ipmnet.org/ ] 3. FAO Conservation Agriculture
"Conservation agriculture (CA) aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture through the application of the three CA principles: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations. CA holds tremendous potential for all sizes of farms and agro-ecological systems, but its adoption is perhaps most urgently required by smallholder farmers, especially those facing acute labour shortages. It is a way to combine profitable agricultural production with environmental concerns and sustainability and it has been proven to work in a variety of agroecological zones and farming systems."
[ http://www.fao.org/ag/ca ] 4. GRDC: Raised Bed Systems - Growers hop into beds of promise
Research and development for growing grain crops on beds, whether raised or flat, began in 1996 with a drainage demonstration site established by Southern Farming Systems (SFS) at Gnarwarre near Geelong. The aim of this farmer-led group was to improve drainage and at the same time enhance soil structure.
The narrow (1.5 metre) raised beds showed an instant drainage benefit (60 percent yield increase with canola) and after only two crops, significant soil structure improvements were measured. Soil structure parameters that improved included slaking, dispersion, water infiltration and bulk density.
[ http://www.grdc.com.au/growers/gc/gc51/raisedbed1.htm ] 5. GRDC: Raised beds improving soils
Raised bed cropping in south-western Victoria is producing improved soil structure.
Victorian Department of Primary Industries research scientist Renick Peries reports that raised beds have been in use as a drainage method since 1996.
[ http://www.grdc.com.au/growers/cd/south/southern_region04016.htm ] 6. IASRI: Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute
The Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) promotes and conducts research,education and training in Agricultural Statistics and Computer Application in Agriculture
[ http://www.iasri.res.in/ ] 7. Integrated Soil, Water and Nutrient Management for Sustainable Rice-Wheat Cropping Systems in Asia
The overall objective is to improve the productivity and sustainability of rice-wheat cropping systems through increased efficiency of water and nutrient use. The specific objective is to modify existing water and nutrient management systems, and improve soil management in both traditional and emerging tillage systems, for sustainable intensification of cereal production.
[ http://www.iaea.or.at/programmes/nafa/d1/crp/d1_5002.html ] 8. No-Till Essentials
The massive adoption rate of no-till crop establishment systems in Western Australia in recent years has prompted the production of this No-till Essentials package. The Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association (WANTFA) estimated that 40% of farmers in WA may have no-tilled in 1998. Therefore, a brief description of things to be aware of when adopting no-till are outlined in this no-till package. No-till offers many benefits to farmers and their soils. However, there are also pitfalls with this new crop production system and these need to be avoided.
[ http://www.wantfa.com.au/public_pge/No_till_essentials01/no_till_01.html ] 9. Raised bed cropping in southern Victoria
Abstract: The area under broad acre raised bed crops in southern Victoria has increased from 300ha in 1997 to 35,000ha in 2003. The enhanced crop yield on raised beds compared to traditional ‘flat’ cropping results from better drainage and differences in soil structure below the depth of tillage resulting in an improvement in the plant available water (PAW) capacity. These differences in soil physical properties assist crops to survive the extreme weather events and achieve yield stability across years.
[ http://www.regional.org.au/au/cs/2004/poster/1/4/670_periesrv.htm ] 10. Raised Beds Improving Soils
Raised bed cropping in south-western Victoria is producing improved soil structure.
Victorian Department of Primary Industries research scientist Renick Peries reports that raised beds have been in use as a drainage method since 1996.
[ http://www.farmersinfo.com.au/pages/features/grain/cropdoc18.htm ] 11. Rice Knowledge Bank
Into this yawning gap between research and impact has stepped the Rice Knowledge Bank. Not only is it one of the world’s first digital extension services for those who provide information and support for farmers (such as NGOs), it is also the first comprehensive, digital rice-production library containing an ever-increasing wealth of information on training and rice production.
[ http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/ ] 12. Rice Yield Mystery Solved? Key clues revealed about declines in Asia
The article talks about declining nitrogen availability due to organic nitrogen forming bonds with lignin from the residues, resulting in declining yield.
[ http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep04/rice0904.htm ] 13. RWC wins the King Baudouin Award (from www.cimmyt.org)
MEXICO CITY, 27 October 2004--In recognition of its seminal role in charting a course toward more ecologically-friendly, higher-producing agriculture among the poor in Asia, the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains (RWC) received the King Baudouin Award of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) at a ceremony attended by 1,000 international agricultural researchers and development specialists meeting this week in Mexico City. The RWC is a unique consortium of government and international research institutions whose work has led to a widespread agricultural transformation--some say a revolution--in Asia’s breadbasket regions.
[ http://www.cimmyt.org/english/wps/news/science_prize2.htm ] 14. Spring Water Use Trial
Crop performance on raised beds has been extremely encouraging; however in some situations crops can run out of water during grain fill because of poor access to deeper soil moisture. Rooting depth of cereals on raised beds is still disappointing in many situations due to inhospitable subsoils. The inability of crops to forage for deeper subsoil moisture leads in some years to a reduction in potential yield and a reduction in grain quality through poor grain development.
[ http://www.grdc.com.au/growers/res_upd/hirain/02/RU_HR_BOLAC_2002_P9.htm ] 15. Structural support after 3 years
A wide range of the research and development activities of Southern Farming Systems is supported by growers and the Federal Government through the GRDC. One such project will study the soil structure changes under raised beds.
Raised beds improved the structure and water-holding capacity of two different soil types during three years of rotations at Gnarwarre in high-rainfall south-western Victoria.
[ http://www.grdc.com.au/growers/hg/12/structural_support.htm ] 16. Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) Bangladesh
The Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) is a global catalytic initiative launched by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in response to Agenda 21, which articulated the need for improved information dissemination to support sustainable development. The program is geared towards facilitating communication between users and suppliers of sustainable development information in developing countries.
[ http://www.sdnbd.org/ ] 17. Western Ag Innovations
Western Ag Innovations markets the use of the Plant Root Simulator (PRS)™-probes. The PRS™-probes consist of cation- and anion-exchange resin membranes encased in a plastic probe, which are inserted into the soil to measure nutrient supply in situ with minimal disturbance. The PRS™-probes integrate all of the principal edaphic factors affecting nutrient uptake by plants (i.e., soil moisture and temperature, mineralization, immobilization, free ion activities, buffer power, ion diffusion, etc.), independent of soil type. The PRS™-probes are a convenient and economical means of quantifying both spatial and temporal variations in nutrient supply rates for all nutrient ions simultaneously; making them an essential tool in agronomic, forestry, and environmental research.
[ http://www.westernag.ca/innov/main.html ] 18. Western Australian
No-Tillage Farmers Association
WANTFA is a farmer group determined to find sustainable ways of growing high yield crops. Severe wind erosion on sandy soils and water erosion and structural damage to loamy soils motivated farmers to learn no-till sowing from each other. WANTFA provides information to farmers about no-till systems and facilitates the exchange of ideas, encourages no-till research, and disseminates no-till information.
[ http://www.wantfa.com.au ] | 
