In many communities in the world, the population lives on agriculture. Smallholder agriculture covers 75% of agricultural production, most of which are rain-fed agriculture. This number indicates that the impact of population explosion in rural areas is prompting communities to adopt unsustainable farming practices, like burning of tropical rain forests to grow crops, planting on steep slopes, entering fragile marginal ecosystems, and overgrazing and over cropping. This volume estimates that one-sixth of the globe’s land area (nearly 2 billion hectares) has been degraded due to overgrazing and negative farming practices.
Water supply for agricultural purposes is becoming scarcer, and there is almost no land reserve that can be used to expand the agricultural base. Come 2025, nearly 3 billion people in 48 countries shall be affected by severe water shortages throughout the year or some months. The volume recommends suitable and site-specific technologies to reverse poverty and food insecurity issues. Some of the chapters mentioned include: chapter 1: philosophies of restoration agriculture on small farms, chapter 2: soil food web and chapter 3: conservation farming among others. Both scientific and indigenous knowledge available to the community should effectively facilitate this process, and farmers must acti vely participate in designing, implementation and evaluation of these technologies.

List of Figures xi

Abstract xv

Preface xvii

Chapter 1 Philosophies of Restoration Agriculture on Small Farms 1

1.1 Introduction 2

1.2 Permaculture 2

1.3 Permaculture Ethics 3

1.4 Handling of People 4

1.5 Outlook for Well-Being 4

1.6 The Permaculture Principles 5

1.7 Models 7

1.8 Operations of the Program 7

1.9 Approaches to Design 8

1.10 Environmental, Forestry and Land Management 15

1.11 Preparation of Funding 19

1.12 A Vision That Is Helping Us 20

1.13 How to Decide Which Software to Use 22

1.14 Cover Crops & Multi-Species Cover Crops 25

1.15 Biochar/Terra Preta 28

1.1 6 Ecological Aquaculture 29

Chapter 2 Soil Food Web 33

2.1 Introduction 34

2.2 Nutrient Recycling 35

2.3 Organic Matter Fuels the Food Web 38

2.4. Food Sources for Soil Organism 38

2.5 The Importance of the Soil Food Web 41

2.6 Interaction Strengths in Food Webs: Issues and Opportunities 44

2.7 Issue and Opportunities 45

2.8 Methods and Approaches 47

2.9 Theory Vs. Experiment 49

2.10 Interpreting Results in a Broader Ecological Context 51

Chapter 3 Conservation Farming 57

3.1 Introduction 58

3.2 Principles of Conservation Farming 60

3.3 Conservation Farming Principle: Farmer Conviction of Immediate Economic Benefits 65

3.4 Examples of Conservation Farming 66

3.5 Impact of Conservation Farming in Sustainable Cropping System 68

3.6 Conservation Farming in Crop Breeding 70

3.7 Conservation Farming Crop Based Management Practices 71

3.8 Implementation of Conservation Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa 73

3.9 Benefits of Conservation Farming 77

Chapter 4 Organic Annual Cropping and Crop Rotations as a Method to Restore Agriculture 79

4.1 Organic Annual Cropping 80

4.2 Stages to a Successful Biological Transition 82

4.3 Benefits of Organic Annual Cropping 86

4.4 Crop Rotations 89

4.5 HowTo Rotate Plants 93

4.6 Modern Developments in Crop Rotation and Annual Cropping: 94

4.7 Technologies for Improving Crop Rotation 97

4.8 Annual Cropping Trends 98

Chapter 5 Composting in Agriculture 101

5.1 Introduction 102

5.2 Composting 102

5.3 Composting In Agriculture 103

5.4 Organic Solid Waste 112

5.5 Household Level Composting 119

5.6 Other Composting Methods 122

5.7 Monitoring and Record Keeping in Composting 124

5.8 Disadvantages of Composting in Agriculture 124

Chapter 6 Increasing Biodiversity in Agriculture 127

6.1 Introduction 128

6.2 Ways of Increasing Biodiversity in Agriculture 129

6.3 The Future of Agricultural Biodiversity; Futuristic Ways of Improving Biodiversity 136

6.4 Importance of Biodiversity in Agriculture 138

6.5 Challenges Encountered When Implementing Means of Improving Biodiversity 144

Chapter 7 Improving the Water Cycle in Agriculture 151

7.1 Introduction 152

7.2 Agricultural Water Cycle Protection 153

7.3 Risks to Clean Water and Watersheds 154

7.4. Solutions 154

7.5 How to Collect Rainwater and the Benefits 159

7.6 Optimizing Watering Period 160

7.7 Follow Best Practices to Improve Soil Quality 161

7.8 Crop Rotation 162

7.9 Managing Soils to Improve Water Efficiency 165

7.10 Soil Health And The Future Of Agriculture 171

Chapter 8 Increasing Plant's Resilience To Climate Change 173

8.1 Introduction 174

8.2 The Human Factor 177

8.3 The 'Next-Generation Plants' 179

8.4 Plant Science 180

8.5 Nuclear Techniques Used as a Way to Strengthen Resilience to Climate Changes 183

8.6 Salinity Stress 186

8.7 High Temperature Stress 191

8.8 Conservation Tillage 193

8.9 Oxidative Stress and Cellular Antioxidants 195

Chapter 9 Home Carden as a Method to Mitigate the Adverse Effect of Global Food Shocks and Food Price Volatilities 197

9.1 Characteristics of Home Gardening 199

9.2 Home Gardening and Globai Food Shocks 200

9.3 Home Gardening and Food Security 203

9.4 Home Gardening and Food Price Volatilities 207

9.5 Strategies Taken by States to Promote Home Gardening 209

9.6 Recent Trends in Home Gardening 212

Chapter 10 Alternative For Networks As A Way To Restore Agriculture 215

10.1 Introduction 216

10.2 Introduction to Alternative Food Networks 217

10.3 Alternative Food Networks 220

10.4 Community Supported Agriculture 225

10.5 Food Coops 227

10.6 Self-Harvest Gardens 228

10.7 Conclusion 229

References 231

Index 237

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1,1: Permaculture.

Figure 1.2: Agroforestiy.

Figure 1.3: Holistic Farm Management.

Figure 1.4: Permaculture Fann Design, Permaculture Plans.

Figure 1.5: Silvopasture.

Figure 2.1: Soil FoodWeb.

Figure 2.2: Cropping systems in agriculture and their impact on soil health.

Figure 2.3: Soil Food Web - SymSoil’s Perspective.

Figure 2.4: Causes, Effects & Solutions for Food Web Disruptions.

Figure 3.1: Conservation farming seeks to conserve both soil and nature biodiversity.

Figure 3.2: There are three main principles of conservation farming.

Figure 3.3: Minimum tillage ensures that there are high levels of soil conservation.

Figure 3.4: The second principle focuses on the maintenance of the soil surface.

Figure 3.5: The third principle focuses on crop rotation and its use in farming.

Figure 3.6: Conservation farming has been integrated into multiple cropping systems.

Figure 4.1: Annual organic cropping improves soil nutrient levels.

Figure 4.2: Organic alley cropping is gaining popularity globally.

Figure 4.3: Crop rotation enriches the soil for improved yields.

Figure 5.1: An image showing a compost heap.

Figure 5.2: An image showing a list of microorganisms in a compost heap.

Figure 5.3: An image showing the three stages of Composting.

Figure 5.4: An image showing organic solid waste.

Figure 5.5: An image showing animal waste.

Figure 5.6: An in vessel composting diagram.

Figure 5.7: An Aerated Static Pile Composting diagram.

Figure 5.8: An image showing a windrow Composting diagram.

Figure 5.9: An image showing a garden bed compost.

Figure 5.10: An image showing a classic Composting toilet.

Figure 6.1: A farm with cover crops, they are a great habitat for other plants, microorganisms and animals.

Figure 6.2: A diagram showing crop rotation. In this case, three crops are planted successively.

Figure 6.3: A picture of maize and chill intercropping in China.

Figure 6.4: An illustration of ridge tillage for com.

Figure 6.5: The effect of herbicides on microorganisms.

Figure 6.6: People having a walk in a botanical garden. They are the future of biodiversity in agriculture.

Figure 6.7: Importance of biodiversity in the ecosystem, in the supply of ecosystem services.

Figure 6.8: Biodiversity in nutrient, Biodiversity also assist in nutrient recycling in the soils thus ensuring increased crop production.

Figure 6.9: Human impacts on Biodiversity.

Figure 7.1: A healthy water cycle is essential for productive agriculture.

Figure 7.2: Sprinklers can help optimize water use in the farm.

Figure 7.3: Soil conservation can help preserve moisture in the farm.

Figure 8.1: Climatic changes is drastically affecting food supply.

Figure 8.2: Sea vegetables are climate-friendly and have high nutritional value.

Figure 8.3: A bird feeding on nectar from a plant. This is animal and -plant coexistence in action. They both need each other.

Figure 8.4: A lab-modified plant that sets to survive environmental stresses; an example of next-generation plants.

Figure 8.5: An efficient way of irrigation where water is not used without purpose.

Figure 8.6: Integrated cropping-livestock system is whereby animals can graze on the field after harvesting Nutrients go back to the soil.

Figure 8.7: Application of nitrogen-15 in agriculture, which helps quantify the amounts of nitrogen absorbed.

Figure 8.8: Only halophytes are saline tolerant but the rest of the plants die afterwards as they undergo saline stress.

Figure 8.9: The salt overly sensitive pathway plays a role in ensuring ion homeostasis.

Figure 8.10: When plants undergo heat stress, they wither and may prove difficult to reproduce.

Figure 8.11: Conventional breeding strategies techniques can be used to help plants be resilient to heat.

Figure 8.12: Improve climate resilience and soil health.

Figure 9.1: Home gardens are among the latest trends in agriculture.

Figure 9.2: Many families using their lands to conduct extensive agricultural activities.

Figure 9.3: Home gardening has been useful in improving food security.

Figure 9.4: Elaborate measures have been taken to facilitate home gardening in urban areas.

Figure 10.1: Community participation is important to restore agriculture.

Figure 10.2: Alternative foods reduce the burden on traditional crops.

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