growing onions more cheaplycetulare.ucanr.edu/files/137888.pdf · ”more with less” …...

Growing onions more cheaply

Jeff Mitchell

Department of Plant Sciences

University of California, Davis

California Garlic and Onion Symposium 2012

Agriculture Building Auditorium

UC Cooperative Extension Tulare County

February 13, 2012

Thank you for the opportunity to be with you this afternoon.

Partners

Tom TuriniKurt HembreeAnil Shrestha

Joe CoelhoPete Dominguez

John DienerScott Schmidt

Armando GalvanDan Munk

No-till onion experimentationPatos de Minos, BRAZIL

2006

High residue no-till establishedonion seedlings

Patos de Minos, BRAZIL2006

No-till tomato transplantingTurkey2009

Intensity of soil disturbance

Crop rotation

Co

nve

nti

on

al a

gri

cult

ure

Conventional MinimumTillage

Direct seeding

Sustainable agriculture

Surface crop retention

Sayre et al., 2012

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Conservation agriculture systems are based on three principles: minimum soil disturbance (meaning generally no-till) permanent soil cover (or the preservation of residues), and diverse rotations As the intensity of soil disturbance decrease, As surface residues and diverse rotations increase, One approaches the goals of conservation agriculture.

CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE

• … has developed to be a technically viable, sustainable, and economic alternative to current crop production practices,

• … is gaining acceptance in many parts of the world as an alternative to both conventional agriculture and organic agriculture

• … is the integration of ecological management with modern, scientific, agricultural production

Dumanski et al., 2006

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Conservation agriculture systems are now widely recognized as providing a robust, sustainable, and economic alternative to current crop production practices. They are seen as a quite legitimate alternative to both conventional agriculture and organic agriculture. And, they integrate ecological management with modern, scientific agricultural.


• … is not ‘business as usual,’ based primarily or solely on maximizing yields,

• … rather, it is based on optimizing yields and profits to achieve a balance of agricultural, economic and environmental benefits,

• …it advocates that the combined economic and social benefits gained from combining production and protecting the environment, including reduced input and labor costs, are greater than those from production alone.

Dumanski et al., 2006

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Conservation agriculture is not ‘business as usual,’ based largely or solely on maximizing yields often or sometimes at the expense of the soil or other ecosystem resources. It is rather, based on optimizing yields and profits to achieve a balance of agricultural, economic and environmental benefits, and It advocates that the economic and social benefits gained from combining production and sustainability goals are greater than those from production alone.


• Minimal soil disturbance

• Preservation of residues that provide permanent soil cover

• Diverse crop rotations

• Use of cover crops

• Integrated pest management

• Reliance on precision, highly efficient irrigation

• Controlled or limited mechanical traffic over agricultural soils

Presenter

Presentation Notes

In addition to these primary goals or principles, other principles or practices such as the use of cover crops, IPM precision, highly efficient irrigation in arid and semi-arid areas such as the SJV, and controlled or limited traffic, also known as CTF also are important.

”More with Less”

… agriculture in the future will have to sustainably produce more food, feed, fiber and energy on less land

through more efficient use of natural resources and with minimal impact

on the environment in order to meet growing population demands.

This will become a global imperative.

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Another aspect of conservation agriculture is the recognition that agriculture in the future will will have to sustainably produce more food, feed, fiber and energy on less land through more efficient use of natural resources and with minimal impact on the environment in order to meet growing population demands. This will become a global imperative.


…links production with sustainability.

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Simply put, conservation agriculture links production with sustainability. The connection with resource conservation, and particularly soil conservation, is deliberate and explicit.

USA 26.5

Canada 13.5

Australia 17

Europe 1

Kazakhstan 1

Africa 0.5

Brazil 26

Conservation Agriculture worldwide 117 Million ha

Argentina 26

Paraguay 2.5

China 1

tropical savannah

continental, dry

temperate, moist

temperate, moist

continental, dry

irrigated

smallholder

smallholder

smallholder

arid

aridlarge scale

large scale

large scale

large scale

large scale

large scale

subtropical, dry

tropical savannah

other LA 2

>50%

<25%

>70%

up to 90%Friedrich, 2012

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Conservation agriculture is practices in different climate zones and at different scales on every continent around the world. South America and Western Australia, but also Canada, lead the way and currently have the greatest % of acreage under conservation agriculture. Over 70% of Central South America, Over 90% of Western Australia, and Over 50% of Central Canada Are currently farmed using conservation agriculture.

Brazil

Harvest

Planting

Presenter

Presentation Notes

The practices and techniques of conservation agriculture are not limited to small landholder scale. Large, highly efficient farms around the world now use these approaches.

CA Adoption in percent by region worldwide

South America

North America

Australia,New Zealand

AsiaEurope

Africa

Friedrich, 2012

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Conservation agriculture in South America makes up nearly half of the world’s total CA acreage.��A sizable portion also comes from North America.

It is estimated that in less than a decade > 85% of the cultivated area will be under No-till.

(Derpsch & Friedrich, 2008)

25,0%

75,0%

70,0%

30,0%

No-tillConventional

69,0%

31,0%

75,0%

25,0%

Argentina Paraguay

USA Brazil

CA Adoption relative to total cropland

Presenter

Presentation Notes

About half of US acreage is farmed using CA, and More than 65% of crop acreage in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is also farmed using these systems. �It is estimated that in less than a decade, more than 85% of the area in these South American regions will be under no-till.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

Mil

lion

hec

tare

s

Fonte: EMATER-RS, EPAGRI-SC, EMATER-PR, CATI-SP, FUNDAÇÃO MS, APDC (Cerrado)

Brazil - Area under CA from 1972 to 2006

Área 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.03 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.13 0.21 0.23 0.26 0.38 0.50 0.58 0.65 0.73 0.80 0.90 1.00 1.35 2.03 3.00 3.80 5.50 8.85 11.3313.37 14.97 17.4 18.7 20.2 21.9 23.6 25.5

72/ 73

73/ 74

74/ 75

75/ 76

76/ 77

77/ 78

78/ 79

79/ 80

80/ 81

81/ 82

82/ 83

83/ 84

84/ 85

85/ 86

86/ 87

87/ 88

88/ 89

89/ 90

90/ 91

91/ 92

92/ 93

93/ 94

94/ 95

95/ 96

96/ 97

97/ 98

98/ 99

99/ 00

00/ 01

01/.02

02/.03

03/.04

04/.05

05/.06

0

2000000

4000000

6000000

8000000

10000000

12000000

14000000

16000000

18000000

20000000

1977

/78

1978

/86

1986

/87

1987

/88

1988

/89

1989

/90

1990

/91

1991

/92

1992

/93

1993

/94

1994

/95

1995

/96

1996

/97

1997

/98

1998

/99

1999

/00

2000

/01

2001

/02

2002

/03

2003

/04

2004

/05

2005

/06

Argentina - CA from 1977 to 2006

Estimated farmer adoption of no-till in WA

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04

Ad

op

tio

n (

%)

(Surce: CAPECO-MAG)92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Thousend ha

Starting of GTZ/MAG Soil Conservation Project

Paraguay – CA area 1992-20011300

CA globally - history and adoption

Friedrich, 2012

Presenter

Presentation Notes

The trends of adoption of conservation agriculture in these regions have been quite literally nothing short of dramatic and fantastic. For Brazil, Argentina, Western Australia, Paraguay, and the US.

No Till RT/ST Mulch Till Subtotal Minimum Tillage

2004 5,265 690 51,150 57,105 64,613

2006 17,181 9,020 42,964 69,165 318,006

2008 27,308 121,055 79,434 227,797 416,035

2010 32,387 157,824 96,267 286,478 701,760

-

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

Acr

es

Increases in CT 2004 - 2010

Presenter

Presentation Notes

The tillage management trends our Workgroup has tracked over the past 8 years suggest quite similar, dare I say, “INEVITABLE” outcomes for the SJV.

100

Dustbowl

1930 20001950 1980 1990

50

Mill

. ha

History and Adoption of CA

1970Friedrich, 2012

Presenter

Presentation Notes

It is important and quite interesting to note, however, that although the concepts and motivations for conservation agriculture were indeed developed quite early, way back in the Dust Bowl era in the US, that things really only got started in the 1970’s in Brazil, and then really in the 1990’s , and more recently pretty much worldwide in the 2000’s. �It is thus, a quite old idea in one respect, but also a truly recent phenomenon in another.

Strip-till seeded onions in wheat cover cropMoses Lake, WA

2010

Center-pivot mechanized irrigation is used.Moses Lake, WA

2010

Labor required for drip tape removal and reinstallation

Our experimental context and field set-up

Eight seed lines across a 60” bed

Establishment with overhead irrigation

Commercial state-of-the-art dehydrator onion fieldunder center pivot irrigaton

Five Points, CA2011

Irrigation Amounts

• Overhead 14.1 inches

• Drip 13.6 inches

March – June 2011

Evidence of actual production

Commercial scale and equipment harvestingFive Points, CA

August 2011

Strip-tilling ahead of following transplanted broccoli cropFive Points, CA

2011

Onion Plant Populations

• OVERHEAD 49 / m2

• DRIP 33 / m2

The effect of irrigation on plant population was significant (P = 0.02).

There were no effects of tillage or interactions between irrigation and tillage.

There was no effect of irrigation or tillage on onion sizes.

• Small < 5.7 cm

• Medium < 6.2 cm

• Large < 7.2 cm

• X-Large < 8.4 cm

• XX-Large< 9.8 cm

Onion Yields 2010 - 2011

• Drip 29.3 tons/ac

• Overhead 37.3 tons/ac (P = 0.04)

• No effect of tillage

• No interactions between irrigation and tillage

Conclusions and next steps

• Figure in all costs

• Improve production practices

• Figure out seeding operations

• Is residue a problem in harvesting?

• The goal is increased competitiveness with sustainability.

growing onions more cheaplycetulare.ucanr.edu/files/137888.pdf · ”more with less” …...

Documents