WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (WMST 245)

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WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (WMST 245)

• SECTION 6
• NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
• SOIL

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Strip Cropping in Iowa to prevent soil erosion
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Without that twelve or so inches of brown powder
round the earth this planet would be as barren as
the moon. John Seymour
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SOIL IS A LIVING SKIN, AN ECOSYSTEM THAT IS HOME
TO TEEMING MILLIONS OF LIVING ORGANISMS.

• A hectare of pasture land in a humid climate can
  contain more than a million earthworms and about
  25 million insects.
• A single gram of soil (1/5 teaspoon) can contain
  
• over 100 million bacteria
• 1 million actinomycetes filamentous or
  rod-shaped bacteria including actinomyces and
  streptomyces
• 100,000 fungi whose hyphae filamentous threads
  if strung together would measure 5 metres in
  length (16 feet)

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IN ITS INTRICATE ECOSYSTEMS, SOILS ALSO CONTAIN

• Amoeba, rotifers, diatoms, protozoa, algae
• Mites, collembola (spring tails), slugs and
  snails
• Nematodes round worms 0.5-1.5 mm long, 30
  million per cubic metre a grocery cart full
• Beetles carnivorous predators, woodlice,
  spiders, centipedes and millipedes
• Root hairs billions of tiny root hairs that help
  hold the plant in place, build soils, and protect
  the topsoil from erosion

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HOW CAN SO MANY ORGANISMS LIVE IN SO LITTLE SPACE?

• Soils have a huge range of habitats very close to
  each other, sometimes millimetres apart
• Pores filled with water
• Pores filled with moist air
• Micro-zones of good aeration
• Areas of anoxic conditions
• Areas enriched with decaying organic materials
• Locations that are highly acidic and some that
  are alkaline
• A wide range of temperature variations
• SOILS CONTAIN MUCH OF THE WORLDS BIODVERSITY

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SOIL MICROFLORA
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SOIL MICROFLORA
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SOIL MICRO- MACRO-FAUNA
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SOIL MACRO-FAUNA
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SOIL FLORA FAUNA
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DOUGLAS FIR SEED ROOT
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SHIFTING CULTIVATION, OR SLASH-AND-BURN
AGRICULTURE IN NIGERIA
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Water Can Cause Soil Erosion
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Sediment from deforested areas of northwestern
Madagascar being deposited into the Bay of
Bombetoka.
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Nitrates washing off agricultural land as far
away as Illinois cause algal blooms and anoxic
zones at the mouth of the Mississippi River
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Soil Erosion at Kaiwaka, Northland, New Zealand
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Wind can also erode China, Shanxi Province,
Loess Plateau Soil Erosion Experiment Station
Reforestation Activities
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Women Plant Trees in Chinas Gansu Province in
China, 30 million women planted 2.1 billion trees
in the years after the 1st World Womens Congress
for a Healthy Planet, in 1991
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Terraced Farms in Rwanda to Prevent Soil Erosion
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Women Constructing Terraces in Konso District,
Southern Ethiopia
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Women Farmers in Peru Build Contour Terraces to
Increase Potato Production
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Constructing Terraces in Rwanda
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Smallholder Farming in Rwanda
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Soil Tillage in Africa
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Terraced Rice Paddies in Asia
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Terraced Rice Paddies in China
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Terraced Rice Paddies in Bali, Indonesia
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Field of wheatgrass on a hill at the Rodale
Institute, Kutztown, PAHealthy soil, healthy
food, healthy peopleIf youre a vegetable,
dirt is all youve got
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Corn, grasses, pond and apple orchards in the
distance accentuate the rolling contours of the
Rodale Institute property.
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Regeneration of Soil, According to Rodale (a)
Compost
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Womens Community Garden in Senegal with Healthy,
Well-Composted Soil
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Regeneration of Soil, According to Rodale(b)
Crop Rotations
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Regeneration of Soil, According to Rodale(c)
Cover Crops (legumes)
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Regeneration of Soil, According to Rodale(c)
Cover Crops (legumes)
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Women Scientists Study Lentils (an important
legume) at Research Station in Debre Zeit,
Ethiopia
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Cross-Breeding Lentils at International Research
Station in Syria
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Women Harvesting Lentils in Syria
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Woman Farmer Addresses Her Neighbors at Lentil
Field Day in Yemen
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Peru Women farmers applying fertilizer to a
field of freshly sown potato seeds (crop rotation
or fertilizers are needed to prevent even the
best soils from being depleted by farming)
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Darfur, Sudan Women Collect Straw for Animal Feed
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SOIL FERTILITY IN THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL
REVOLUTION

• FORMER ROTATION OF
• WHEAT (Winter)?BARLEY (Spring)?FALLOW
• GIVES WAY TO
• WHEAT?TURNIPS?BARLEY?CLOVER
• TO SUPPORT MORE ANIMALS (fed turnips clover)
  which produce manure to go back on to land, and
  help produce rising yields of crops, better soil
  fertility

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SOIL FERTILITY IN THE AG. REVOLUTION (CONTD)

• AFTER 1815, CLOSED FARMING SYSTEM GAVE WAY TO AN
  OPEN ONE, IN WHICH INPUTS WERE PURCHASED FROM
  OUTSIDE THE FARM, ESPECIALLY TO RAISE SOIL
  FERTILITY
• GUANO (from Peru), NITRATE (from Chile),
  SUPERPHOSPHATE, GROUND BONES
• BIG INVESTMENTS IN LAND DRAINAGE

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SOIL FERTILITY IN THE AG. REVOLUTION (CONTD)

• IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY, DISCOVERIES ABOUT PLANT
  NUTRITION LEAD EVENTUALLY TO HUGE WORLD-WIDE
  FERTILIZER INDUSTRY
• 1900 2 million tons
• 1945 7 million tons
• 1965 31 million tons
• 1975 90 million tons
• 1999 141 million tons

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SOIL FERTILITY IN THE GREEN REVOLUTION

• INCREASED PRODUCTION OF CEREALS CAME FROM
• MORE FERTILIZER (33 )
• MORE AREA (25 )
• BETTER CROP VARIETIES (23 )
• MORE IRRIGATION (8 )
• OTHER FACTORS (11 )

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SOIL FERTILITY TODAY NO-TILL AGRICULTURE

• ADVANTAGES OF NO-TILL (ZERO-TILL)
• Reduce Erosion (and therefore stream pollution)
• Increase biological activity in the soil
• Increase organic matter (Carbon) content of soil
• Reduce labor costs of weeding
• Make chemical fertilizer more effective
• De-compact the soil (make it more airy)(use
  earthworms)
• Improve water holding capacity and water uptake
  by plants

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NO-TILL AGRICULTURETHINK LIKE A ROOT!
Francis Shaxson

• ZERO TILLAGE IS A REVOLUTION IN THE FARMERS
  MIND John Landers
• DECOMPACTION ZONE FOR ZERO TILLAGE