프랑스 농부가 보존농업을 기대한다

Farms that have been in no-till for decades can be the best indicator of whether or not tilling improves soil health and farm production.

Sarah Singla is an agronomic engineer and a farmer in the south of France where she manages her grandfather’s farm. The farm has been in no-till since 1980, she said.

“Soil is a living organism, and when you use no-till, the soil is working for you,” Singla said. “We have just 1 or 2 percent of farmers doing no-till worldwide. Most of our farmers are doing tillage.”

In addition to no-till, Singla believes a very diverse rotation improves soil and productivity.

On her 250-acre farm in southern France, Singla puts in nine acres in winter wheat, 57.5 acres of triticale, 14 acres of flax, five acres of sunflowers, one acre of buckwheat, 40 acres of rapeseed, 40 acres of alfalfa, 41 acres of spring peas, 1.2 acres of phacelia, one acre of parsley for seed, one acre of dill and 14 acres of sorghum.

That’s 12 different crops.

“We’re a little more diversified than folks around here,” she said. Diversification allows them to use crops with long tap roots like alfalfa, phacelia and sunflowers that break up soil compacted layers and use up water with other crops like parsley and wheat that have shallower roots.

Diversity also provides a living soil with earthworms. The castings from earthworms provide a perfect mix of nutrients that are available to the plants.

“Diversity doesn’t always mean adding more species,” Singla said. It also means to put the same crop in different areas of the farm to add nutrients, depending on the needs of the area. Peas can add nitrogen, and buckwheat can unlock phosphorus, she said.

“Buckwheat also has a good effect on controlling weeds,” Singla said.

Their average rainfall per year is 30 inches. While they farm near a lake, they are not allowed to  use the water for irrigation as it belongs to a private company, Singla said.

She uses a semeato no-till drill which ensures a little bit of contact with the soil but also achieves efficiency and accuracy of seed placement.

“We have no problem with plant emergence,” Singla said.

In the old days, they used regular tilling like others did and still do today. They still have photos of their farm from 1901 when it took 40 workers tilling and growing crops.

In 1951, mechanism arrived and farm equipment became more high tech. Her family changed with the time.

But they are “looking forward” and constantly changing to not only be no-till but to constantly improve their soil with diversity and other farm methods.

In 1980, her grandfather bought a sulky uni-drill and went all no-till.

“Today we are all conservation agriculture,” she said, adding she will seed triticale directly into cover crops to keep the soil covered with residue at all times.

Some of the varieties Singla uses in her cover crops are red clover, phacelia, guizotia niger, mustard sarepta, sunflower, \forage peas, vetch, and oats.

Covered soil, direct sowing and rotation of crops are all part of conservation tillage.

“I’ve found I can use less and less fertilizer when I keep my rotations diversified and cover on the soil,” she said.

What helps regenerate the soil? Singla said light, air and water; biological available nutrients; living material on the soil including plants and animals and living materials in the soil.

“Organisms can work for you in the soil if you keep it covered,” she said. “Soil is meant to be covered. We need to rebuild the soil to regenerate the soil.”

But other farmers around the world still prefer tilling and not keeping their soil covered. As a result, Singla said, soil erosion is still going on, adding that bare soil is too hot while soil stays cool when covered.

“If the soil is too hot you are killing your fungi. You are killing everybody,” Singla said. In addition, water won’t infiltrate bare soil and instead, it runs off.

Singla said farmers need to think about what is in the ground and what kind of crops need to address the soil issues. For example, wheat has shallow roots, so a crop like rapeseed with a taproot can help. Fava beans can bring nitrogen to the soil, and cover crops can include a variety of crops like vetch and radishes that provide a lot of advantages to the soil.

In Brazil, farmers are planting soybeans directly into their wheat crops. They harvest the wheat and the soybeans are still growing.

But all farmers are interested in growing more with less and keeping inputs low. Gaining benefits from previous crops can help with that, Singla said.

In a study at www.agriculturedeconservation.com, canola cost less to plant in terms of inputs when the previous crop was sweet corn as compared to wheat. Lupin was in the middle in terms of input costs, she said.

“We need to constantly team with nature to get the best results from our farms and keep our soil healthy,” Singla said in summary.