Agronomy Library > Soil Conservation

Its More than Conservation
Author: Peter Gamache
Date Created: April 04, 2008
Last Reviewed: April 09, 2008
Its more than conservation Soil conservation week is a reminder that soil is critical to our existence and many ancient civilizations collapsed in part because they destroyed their environment and allowed their soils to erode. Not so in Alberta. Alberta farmers manage vast tracts of land, and they do a good job of it while supplying society with food, fiber, fuel and environmental goods and services. They have learned how to prevent soil erosion by wind and water and are taking the next steps towards restoring and improving their soil and lands. Key to the soil conservation effort has been the advent and adoption of direct seeding (no-till). It’s a system where farmers leave crop stubble standing from harvest to seeding. At seeding they apply seed and nutrients in one pass, leaving the soil protected from wind and water erosion. The growth rate of no-till from 2001 to 2006 was about 776,000 acres per year. The 2006 Census of Agriculture shows that 27% of farmers no-till 48% of the annually cropped acres in Alberta. The 2001 data had 16.5% of farmers no-tilling 27% of the annually seeded acres. No-till acres have gone from about 5 million in 2001 to nearly 9 million in 2006. In addition farmers retain most of the crop residue on the surface (minimum tillage) on another 5.2 million cropped acres. It is quite a change from the 1980s dust storms to today’s protected fields. Little did farmers realize that when they decided to stop soil erosion, that they would also one day be improving their soils, storing organic matter, sequestering carbon, building soil biological life, increasing wildlife habitat and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Its more than conservation.