scholarly journals Hocus pocus? Spirituality and soil care in biodynamic agriculture

2020 ◽  
pp. 251484862097092
Author(s):  
Anna Pigott
Keyword(s):  
Conventional Method ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Soil Biota ◽  
Community Supported Agriculture ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Biodynamic Agriculture ◽  
Care Demands

In this article, I participate in efforts to re-imagine soils as lively, complex, more-than-human ecologies, by turning to the largely sidestepped subject of spirituality in agriculture. Spiritual knowledge practices rarely sit comfortably alongside technoscientific, productivist accounts of soil health, and yet they can re-configure how soils are conceptualised and managed, with implications for relationships of care. Drawing on an extended period of learning with a Community Supported Agriculture project in south Wales, the article explores how care is cultivated through a non-conventional method of farming known as biodynamics, which incorporates astrological and spiritual principles. I suggest that biodynamic narratives and rituals encourage attentiveness to more-than-human agency and energy, to depth (not only underground but also above-ground influences of the air and celestial bodies), and to reciprocity between soil biota and humans. Biodynamic practices also make space for mystery, thereby resisting drives to measure and map, and offering possibilities for disrupting anthropocentric approaches to soil care. However, the example presented here also highlights how, despite biodynamic’s growing popularity, its spiritual elements have a tendency to be kept quiet, their presence sidelined by more familiar, secular, narratives. Nonetheless, I contend that if effective soil care demands more diverse knowledge practices than those that are currently obliterating critical soil communities at an alarming rate, then there can be much to learn from a touch of magic.

The Potential Impact of Climate Change on Soil Health, Soil Biota, and Soil Properties: A Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Shikha Sharma ◽  
Arti Mishra ◽  
Kartikeya Shukla ◽  
Pratiksha Kumari ◽  
Tanu Jindal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Biota ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Potential Impact

Corrigendum to: Soil indicators and their use by farmers in the Billabong Catchment, southern New South Wales

Soil Research ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
B. Kelly ◽  
C. Allan ◽  
B. P. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Management ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Health Need ◽  
Soil Indicators

'Soil health' programs and projects in Australia's agricultural districts are designed to influence farmers' management behaviours, usually to produce better outcomes for production, conservation, and sustainability. These programs usually examine soil management practices from a soil science perspective, but how soils are understood by farmers, and how that understanding informs their farm management decisions, is poorly documented. The research presented in this paper sought to better understand how dryland farmers in the Billabong catchment of southern New South Wales use soil indicators to inform their management decisions. Thematic content analysis of transcripts of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with farmers suggest several themes that have implications for soil scientists and other professionals wishing to promote soil health in the dryland farming regions of south-eastern Australia. In particular, all soil indicators, including those related to soil 'health', need to relate to some clear, practical use to farmers if they are to be used in farm decision making. This research highlights a reliance of the participants of this research on agronomists. Reliance on agronomists for soil management decisions may result in increasing loss of connectivity between farmers and their land. If this reflects a wider trend, soil health projects may need to consider where best to direct their capacity-building activities, and/or how to re-empower individual farmers.

Management practices to improve soil health and reduce the effects of detrimental soil biota associated with yield decline of sugarcane in Queensland, Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.E Pankhurst ◽  
R.C Magarey ◽  
G.R Stirling ◽  
B.L Blair ◽  
M.J Bell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Biota ◽  
Yield Decline

Should we manage soil organic carbon in Vertosols in the northern grains region of Australia?

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 261 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Farquharson ◽  
G. D. Schwenke ◽  
J. D. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Organic Carbon Content ◽  
Continuous Cropping ◽  
South Wales ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Carbon Concentrations

Two issues prompted this paper. The first was the measured soil organic carbon decline in fertile northern Australian soils under continual cropping using traditional management practices. We wanted to see whether it was theoretically possible to maintain or improve soil organic carbon concentrations with modern management recommendations. The second was the debate about use of sustainability indicators for on-farm management, so we looked at soil organic carbon as a potential indicator of soil health and investigated whether it was useful in making on-farm crop decisions. The analytical results indicated first that theoretically the observed decline in soil organic carbon concentrations in some northern cracking clay soils can be halted and reversed under continuous cropping sequences by using best practice management. Second, the results and associated discussion give some support to the use of soil organic carbon as a sustainability indicator for soil health. There was a consistent correlation between crop input decisions (fertilisation, stubble management, tillage), outputs (yield and profits) and outcomes (change in soil organic carbon content) in the short and longer term. And this relationship depended to some extent on whether the existing soil organic carbon status was low, medium or high. A stock dynamics relationship is one where the change in a stock (such as soil organic carbon) through time is related not only to the management decisions made and other random influences (such as climatic effects), but also to the concentration or level of the stock itself in a previous time period. Against such a requirement, soil organic carbon was found to be a reasonable measure. However, the inaccuracy in measuring soil organic carbon in the paddock mitigates the potential benefit shown in this analysis of using soil organic carbon as a sustainability indicator.These results are based on a simulation model (APSIM) calibrated for a cracking clay (Vertosol) soil typical of much of the intensively-cropped slopes and plains region of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and need to be interpreted in this light. There are large areas of such soils in north-western New South Wales; however, many of these experience lower rainfalls and plant-available soil water capacities than in this case, and the importance of these characteristics must also be considered.

Soil indicators and their use by farmers in the Billabong Catchment, southern New South Wales

Soil Research ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kelly ◽  
C. Allan ◽  
B. P. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Management ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Health Need ◽  
Soil Indicators

‘Soil health’ programs and projects in Australia’s agricultural districts are designed to influence farmers’ management behaviours, usually to produce better outcomes for production, conservation, and sustainability. These programs usually examine soil management practices from a soil science perspective, but how soils are understood by farmers, and how that understanding informs their farm management decisions, is poorly documented. The research presented in this paper sought to better understand how dryland farmers in the Billabong catchment of southern New South Wales use soil indicators to inform their management decisions. Thematic content analysis of transcripts of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with farmers suggest several themes that have implications for soil scientists and other professionals wishing to promote soil health in the dryland farming regions of south-eastern Australia. In particular, all soil indicators, including those related to soil ‘health’, need to relate to some clear, practical use to farmers if they are to be used in farm decision making. This research highlights a reliance of the participants of this research on agronomists. Reliance on agronomists for soil management decisions may result in increasing loss of connectivity between farmers and their land. If this reflects a wider trend, soil health projects may need to consider where best to direct their capacity-building activities, and/or how to re-empower individual farmers.

A Critical Review on Performance Indicators for Evaluating Soil Biota and Soil Health of Biochar-Amended Soils

2021 ◽  
pp. 125378
Author(s):  
Mingjing He ◽  
Xinni Xiong ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Deyi Hou ◽  
Nanthi S. Bolan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Biota ◽  
Amended Soils

scholarly journals Selection of experimental treatments, methods used and evolution of management guidelines for comparing and measuring three grazed farmlet systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 628 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Scott ◽  
C. A. Gaden ◽  
C. Edwards ◽  
D. R. Paull ◽  
R. Marchant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Phosphorus ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Experimental Period ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Management Guidelines ◽  
Rest Periods ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Target Values ◽  
Moderate Scale ◽  
Stocking Rates

The Cicerone Project was a collaborative effort by livestock producers, researchers and extension specialists, which aimed to explore the profitability and sustainability of grazing enterprises on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. A major part of the Project was the creation of a moderate scale, unreplicated farmlet experiment. The process of selecting the farmlet treatments and the design of the experiment involved considerable negotiation over an extended period in order to achieve ‘ownership’ by all those involved. The farmlets were designed to compare a typical farmlet (B) as the control with a second farmlet (A), which received higher levels of pasture renovation and soil fertility, and a third (C), which employed intensive rotational grazing management with short graze and long rest periods. Management guidelines were developed for all soil, pasture, livestock and grazing management decisions on the three farmlets. Whole-farmlet data are presented for the pastures sown, fertiliser applied, supplement fed, the stocking rates attained and the pattern of graze and rest periods over the experimental period from July 2000 to December 2006. Over the first 4 years of the trial, pastures were renovated on 71% of farmlet A while 8% of each of farmlets B and C were renovated. The rates of fertiliser applied to the three farmlets varied according to soil test values and the different target values for soil phosphorus and sulfur. In the first year of the trial (2000–01), the annual average stocking rates on farmlets A, B and C were 9.5, 7.9 and 9.1 dry sheep eqivalents/ha, respectively, whereas by the fifth year (2005), the stocking rates were 11.2, 7.8 and 7.4 dry sheep equivalents/ha, respectively. This paper provides details of the general methods used in the farmlet trial, of relevance to a series of related papers which explore all aspects of the farmlet experiment and its findings. It also reports on the selection and definition of the farmlet treatments and describes how the guidelines evolved over the duration of the trial in response to the practical realities of conducting this complex, agroecosystem experiment.

Agroforestry and Soil Health: Linking Trees, Soil Biota, and Ecosystem Services

2012 ◽  
pp. 315-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmundo Barrios ◽  
Gudeta W. Sileshi ◽  
Keith Shepherd ◽  
Fergus Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Health ◽  
Soil Biota

Fecundity, egg size and the influence of rainfall in an isolated population of malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 639 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Priddel ◽  
Robert Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Clutch Size ◽  
Egg Size ◽  
New South ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Isolated Population ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Mean

An isolated population of malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata) at Yalgogrin in New South Wales, Australia, was studied intensively between 1986–87 and 1998–99. During this period the population produced 124 clutches, comprising a total of 1705 eggs. The number of clutches per annum varied between 5 and 15. Eggs were laid between mid-August and mid-February, with 90% laid between the last week of September and the first week of January. The mean date of laying of the first egg of each clutch (±s.d.) was 21 September ± 13 days and the mean date of the last egg was 23 December ± 19 days. The mean duration of egg laying varied significantly between years (range 70–117 days) and was negatively correlated with the daily maximum ambient temperature in December. Cool temperatures and rain in early summer prolonged the laying season. The mean interval between laying was 6.4 ± 1.1 days (range 3–12 days), with eggs laid at a faster rate during the first half of the laying period. Overall, mean clutch size was 14.1 ± 5.8 (range 1–28). Large clutches were the result of an extended period of laying rather than an increase in the rate of laying. Mean clutch size was greatest when laying extended into mid-February. The best predictor of clutch size was rainfall between May and December – the interval spanning both nest construction and egg laying. The mean volume of all measured eggs (n = 1362) was 162.1 ± 9.0 mL (range 99–200 mL). Egg volume varied during the laying period, with those eggs laid early or late in the breeding season being smaller. Eggs at Yalgogrin were, on average, 10.5% smaller than those recorded at nearby Pulletop.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document