1 minute read
GLTEN – not just another acronym
by WCDOA pubs
by Dr Johann Strauss
TThe Global Long-Term Agricultural Experiment Network (GLTEN), launched in 2018, is a network of long-term agricultural experiments spanning five continents and representing numerous climates, environments, crop systems and farming practices.
The GLTEN is supported by over 50 long-term experiments (LTEs) across the world. The scientific findings from these LTEs enable the identification of factors influencing the sustainable intensification of agriculture worldwide and can contribute to several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The Western Cape Department of Agriculture was part of the inaugural meeting from which the GLTEN was launched. Currently three of the longterm conservation agriculture trials run by the Directorate Plant Sciences, situated at Langgewens and Tygerhoek Research Farms, form part of this network.
The oldest of the three trials has been running since 1996, while the other two started in 2007.
Just recently the first major publication coming out of the GLTEN collaboration, published in Nature: Sustainability, compared 30 long-term trials from across Europe and Africa and showed that crop yields can be maintained and even increased through lower nitrogen application and the absence of tillage, but that it is important that a systems approach is followed.
Learn more!
Scan the QR code or visit nature.com/articles/s41893022-00911-x to access
Nature: Sustainability.
The lead author of the article, Dr Chloe MacLaren, Rothamsted Research, recently spoke at the 10th Conservation Agriculture Western Cape Jack Human week. During the talk she congratulated the Western Cape Department of Agriculture for the vision to have long-term trials and she underlined the fact that the local longterm trails were unique in the world due to the size of the plots and the volume of information gathered annually. Not even the oldest long-term trial in the world (179 years), located at Rothamsted in England, gathers as much information and as consistently as we do in the local trials. AP
Established in 1926, Langgewens Research Farm was established with infrastructure and staff to support to researchers. Research institutions currently involved in projects on the farm include the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, Stellenbosch University, ARC Small Grain Institute, Swartland Cereals Development Group and other private institutions.
For more information, contact Dr Johann Strauss:
