Advances In Conservation Agriculture Volume 2: Practice And Benefits Hardcover 2

Kassam, Amir

This collection reviews ways of optimising Conservation Agricultural (CA) practices and their benefits. Chapters summarise research on optimising soil management, crop nutrition and irrigation, as well as weed, insect pest and disease management. The book also reviews ways of optimising the environmental and social benefits of adopting CA practices. Chapters discuss carbon and biodiversity management, the ways CA can promote ecosystem services as well as the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques to monitor and improve CA. There are also chapters on improving the economic and broader social benefits of CA for farming communities.

1786762684

9781786762689

English

Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Ltd

21 January 2020

498

Professor Kassam is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading (UK) and Moderator of the FAO-hosted Global Platform for Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice (Global CA-CoP). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK) and has received an OBE from the British Government for services to tropical agriculture and to rural development. Prof. Kassam is Chair of the International Conservation Agriculture Advisory Panel for Africa (ICAAP-Africa), Member of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) and Vice-Chair of the Conservation Agriculture Association for the UK (CA-UK). He is former Chair of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK), the FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance Europe Foundation and the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA). He has held senior positions at international organisations such as the FAO and CGIAR and has worked with many national and international programmes on sustainable agricultural development. He has published widely on Conservation Agriculture. Professor Kassam is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading (UK) and Moderator of the FAO-hosted Global Platform for Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice (Global CA-CoP). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK) and has received an OBE from the British Government for services to tropical agriculture and to rural development. Prof. Kassam is Chair of the International Conservation Agriculture Advisory Panel for Africa (ICAAP-Africa), Member of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) and Vice-Chair of the Conservation Agriculture Association for the UK (CA-UK). He is former Chair of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK), the FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance Europe Foundation and the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA). He has held senior positions at international organisations such as the FAO and CGIAR and has worked with many national and international programmes on sustainable agricultural development. He has published widely on Conservation Agriculture. In 1987, Scott finished his Ag Degree at the University of Manitoba. After graduation he worked on farms in Australia and Ireland for 1.5 years before coming home to partner with his father in the family farm at Dand, Manitoba in the SW corner of the province. At that exact same time, he also started a career as an Ag Rep beginning in May 1989 in Killarney MB, then the Ag Rep in Boissevain MB starting in 1995, and then MAFRI Research Farm Manager in Melita MB in 2005 (all located in SW Manitoba as well). This represented a 23.5 year career for Scott with Manitoba Agriculture as an ag extension specialist. He left the government in 2011 to help start a new company that invests in Farm Land and new Agricultural Technologies. This company is called Fall-Line-Capital Inc. and is based in San Francisco, California but works throughout the USA. Scott still balances full-time farming back home in Manitoba for 6 months in the summer along with 6 months of living and working in California every winter. Fall Line invests in Farmland but also in the latest Ag Technologies. They currently have invested in 16 new startup companies that are all still alive and doing well, which some would say is truly exceptional in the world of venture capitalism. Scott continues to enjoy international speaking opportunities, and contributing to Agronomy books and publications, most recently with the FAO/United Nations, the University of Adelaide, No-Till Farmer Magazine, and The Western Producer. Scott's unique perspectives have provided him with extensive and valuable experiences in zero-till agriculture, crop diversification, farmland development and investment, and general farming knowledge from many parts of the world. Scott has a keen interest in farm machinery and adapting equipment to work effectively in 0-till in many different environments, especially on the Northern Plains of North America.

Amir Kassam

2