Chapter 7 - Building Agricultural Resilience With Conservation Pasture-Crop Rotations

Abstract

Specialization of agricultural operations and commodities in many developed countries of the world during the last half century has led to large production gains, but often at the expense of environmental quality and socioeconomic disruption. Soil organic C is a key indicator of soil quality that is low with contemporary clean-cultivated specialized crop production practices and high when farms are managed with conservation tillage, cover crops, manure application, and diverse rotations, especially multiyear pasture-crop rotations. Our thesis is that integrating pastures and crops with other ecologically based practices leads to dramatic improvement in soil organic C and N contents and associated soil quality properties. Therefore, long-term fertility would be restored and environmental quality could be significantly improved to meet the challenges for greater quantity and quality of food production, sustenance of human health, maintenance of wildlife diversity, and balancing our human footprint with nature's capacity to serve our needs.