Arable

It was always clear to Alexander Kern that he had to get erosion under control. Some 40 years ago, his father Martin recog­nised the danger to his land in the German Kraichgau hills, and since then the family have adopted inter­crop­ping and minimum tillage on the 200ha conven­tional farm between Karl­sruhe and Heil­bronn.

Punjab has always been consid­ered the bread­basket of India. Plenty of water, a temperate climate in the winter, and rich soils in the flat, allu­vial land of the five rivers south of the Himalayas guar­antee good harvests. However, times are also changing in Punjab.

Boosting and securing rape­seed yields is the 'Secure Rape­seed' chal­lenge being under­taken in the French Picardy Region. The ulti­mate goal of the programme is to improve gross margins and reduce pest damage.

With just over 5,000 farms, Israel achieves a high degree of self-suffi­ciency in food. This requires inno­v­a­tive solu­tions, espe­cially when it comes to irri­ga­tion. We present some of them in this article.

Galina Peycheva-Miteva's family owns land in Bulgaria. When she decided to step into the busi­ness, she had no formal agri­cul­tural educa­tion – which is some­thing she used to her advan­tage. And she is convinced that regen­er­a­tive agri­cul­ture is the way forward.

The Belmonte family has been using John Deere machinery on their farm for more than 40 years. Almost all of their trac­tors and combines have been of the green and yellow variety for a long time now. With their passion for agri­cul­ture, dedi­ca­tion, and commit­ment, they have become a well-estab­lished family busi­ness which primarily produces maize for animal feed.

Vari­able rate seeding is not only about increasing yields and reducing costs. It is also about responding adequately to declining precip­i­ta­tion caused by climate change. A visit to French farmers and contrac­tors who are imple­menting this tech­nique provides some insights.

Farmer Thomas Björk­lund in Sköldinge, Sweden, previ­ously pioneered farm prac­tices which have become estab­lished trends. Now, he has teamed up with medical doctor Kerstin Fred­lund to turn indige­nous grain vari­eties into super­food via a hydrothermal process.

Humus loss, erosion, nitrates, pesti­cides in flowing waters and ground­water, as well as the desire for greening and the onset of climate change are giving broad support to inter­crop­ping. We present a portrait of twelve impor­tant types of catch crops. 

If you always fight weeds with the same herbi­cide, you will prob­ably soon be faced with a resis­tant popu­la­tion. Arable farmer Wilhelm Heine from Baden-Würt­tem­berg knows that this is not fun. Four types of sustain­able herbi­cide resis­tance manage­ment helped him to get black­grass, which had become resis­tant on some of his farm­land, under control again.

Catch crops expand crop rota­tion, enrich soil life and ensure suffi­cient nutrient supply. After several decades of neglect, arable farming has redis­cov­ered them. Their selec­tion, whether as a monocrop or a mixture, depends on many factors. 

Bios­tim­u­lants are growing in popu­larity, with increasing scien­tific evidence to prove that they work. But for many farmers, the concept remains myth and magic - so what are they really all about?

Zambian farmer Stephen Chinyama depends on several means to make a good living. We offer a sneak peek into a day in the life of a man running his family busi­ness with acumen, good risk manage­ment and a talent for impro­vi­sa­tion.

Farmers in Sweden, France and Germany are striving to retain water when there is plenty avail­able so they can use it during dry summer months. Water is stored in ponds, marshes, or in the ground. The Furrow reports.

The family-run organic farm Bio Alberti combines tradi­tional farming with modern processing tech­niques – and produces goods both for the nearby village and the global market­place.

On a test site at the Univer­sity of Halle, crop cultivation endurance tests have been running for more than 140 years. Created by Julius Kühn in 1878, several plots of the 'eternal rye crop' have been grown in a field ever since, providing guid­ance for future agri­cul­tural prac­tice. 

The tradi­tional free­hold is no longer the only form of owner­ship in Danish agri­cul­ture. One alter­na­tive consists of the Go-Gris I/S part­ner­ship in eastern Jutland, which is owned in equal shares by three young and two senior farmers.

When Russia is mentioned, most people think of cher­nozem soils and vast wheat fields. Few people are aware that buck­wheat reveals a great deal about the Russian soul. This becomes clear at the very latest when you sit down to eat. Because Russian cuisine without buck­wheat is unthink­able.