Landwards Spring 2021
Book Club
With a couple of fairly heavyweight (and timely) volumes on conservation agriculture and a scrapbook charting the development of JCB’s products over the past 75 years there is some decent recommended reading in this edition. If you have read or written a new or recent book which members will benefit from, please let the editor know.
New two-volume collection on conservation agriculture Two new books on Conservation Agriculture, edited by Professor Amir Kassam, University of Reading, UK, have been published by Cambridge-based Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a farming system that promotes continuous minimum soil disturbance, maintenance of a permanent soil cover and diversification of plant species. (FAO, 2020).
Advances in Conservation Agriculture Volume 1: Systems and Science summarises research
on key components for successful Conservation Agriculture (CA). 28
Chapters review the latest research on ways of optimising no-till techniques to minimise soil disturbance in relation to seeding, weeding and other operations. Chapters also review ways to improve soil health in CA, including mulch cover, cover crops, rotations and intercropping.
Advances in Conservation Agriculture Volume 2: Practice and Benefits reviews
ways of optimising CA practices and their benefits. Chapters summarise research on optimising soil management, crop nutrition and irrigation, as well as weed, insect pest and disease management. The book also reviews ways of optimising the environmental and social benefits of adopting CA practices. Jules Petty, Professor of Environment and Society, University of Essex, says:
