L'agriculture paradoxale ou l'art de produire plus avec moins

Abstract

Paradoxical Agriculture or the Art of Producing More While Using Less. All over the world, agriculture is facing a host of major challenges, which must be overcome if we want to feed humanity sustainably over the next few decades. The amount of available arable land per capita is falling, together with soil quality. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to provide everyone with water, with the water supply becoming less reliable in many regions of our planet. At the same time, there is a tendency for the price of inputs to increase. We must overcome these challenges, while protecting the quality of our natural resources and reducing poverty. Studies conducted on irrigated perimeters in Northern Pakistan, which were previously dominated by traditional flooded rice cultivation, show that combining the principles of conservation agriculture and the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) developed by De Laulanié (1993) may represent an attractive alternative. This approach might enable us to produce more while using fewer resources. This new production method was described as "paradoxical agriculture" by Sharif (2011). It is based chiefly on the creation of permanent raised beds and precision mechanical weeding using the appropriate agricultural machinery. The raised beds are created by compacting the bottoms of the furrows that separate them. These techniques make it possible to aerate the soil effectively and limit the percolation of irrigation water, by forcing it inside the raised-beds where it is absorbed by the roots of the cultivated plants. As with the SRI, fertilisation can be mainly organic. Initially developed for the cultivation of rice, this new production method has been used successfully for the cultivation of other plants (potatoes, wheat, carrots, etc.). It makes it possible to significantly increase yields, while reducing crop water requirements by 70%. Similar results can be obtained, without using sophisticated machines, in rice intensification systems, but on far smaller plots. A great deal of research is being conducted, in order to explain how it could be possible to produce more but with fewer inputs. Improved soil aeration, combined with an adequate water supply for the plants and the slow release of nutrients, which are stored in organic form in the soil, represent possible explanations for these amazing performance gains. Those who wish to know more about the principles and methods used for paradoxical agriculture can consult the website: www.pedaver.com. I hope you will enjoy reading this new edition of Tropicultura.