No‐till System Participatory Quality Index in land management quality assessment in Brazil

Abstract

Soil fertility is the result of interactions between the physical and chemical soil attributes, affecting its biological component, which in turn feeds back to the physical and chemical soil attributes. The No-Till System (NTS) is the main modality of Conservation Agriculture, essential to achieving farming sustainability and conserving soil fertility. However, farmers often fail to adopt the three principles of NTS: (a) minimum mechanical soil disturbance, (b) permanent soil cover and (c) plant diversification; therefore, the system currently requires a quality measurement. The NTS Participatory Quality Index (PQI) is a tool to qualify and monitor the farm system and requires the participation of the farmers themselves. The aim of this study was to assess key soil quality attributes associated with the implementation of PQI methodology during a large-scale dissemination campaign in areas under NTS in Paraná State, Brazil (Paraná River Watershed 3), in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the PQI as a tool to drive the improvement of farmers' management. Spearman's correlation coefficients were established between PQI scores and the chemical and physical soil attributes, as well as the indicators incorporated into the PQI. Data were obtained in the Paraná River Watershed 3 from 40 areas of farmland under different farm systems. Crop rotation was the primary management approach that improved soil and agricultural management quality under Brazilian conditions, and confirmed in the study region. The NTS PQI provided a way to evaluate soil management quality in the areas assessed. The rapid soil structure diagnosis proved to be a good tool for assessing soil structure.

Farm systems, soil chemical properties, and clay dispersion in watershed áreas

“…The NTS met the basic assumptions of permanent soil cover, crop rotation, and minimum soil disturbance (Nunes et al, 2020). The other farm systems grouped as the following descriptions.…”

“…In the NTS, the continuous input of organic wastes is essential to the maintenance of the soil structure (Silva et al, 2014) and to increase the stability of the aggregates (Silva et al, 2011). The NTS has as its three main principles the minimum soil disturbance, crop rotation, and permanent soil cover, either by straw or living plants (Nunes et al, 2020). However, it is not always completely implemented, which results in the reduction of its benefits as a conservation practice (Silva et al, 2014).…”

“…To monitor the quality of management systems and reduce the degradation risks of the agricultural production systems, the no-tillage system participatory quality index (IQP) was proposed by the Federação Brasileira de Plantio Direto e Irrigação (FEBRAPDP) (Metodologia…, 2011), in partnership with Itaipu Binacional, to predict the potential impacts of future scenarios in a qualitative or demonstrative way (Roloff et al, 2011). In addition, the tool results in the recommendation of improvements for management practices, with the differential feature of the active participation of producers themselves in the monitoring of the NTS quality (Nunes et al, 2020).…”

Editorial for the special issue on “opportunities and challenges in no‐till farming”

“…(a) Farmers may often fail to adopt the principles and practices followed in NT. To tackle this problem, Nunes et al, 2020 focused on the three pillars of the NT system – minimum mechanical soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and plant diversity – and implemented a participatory quality index (PQI) in Brazil, which enabled the farmers to self‐assess and monitor soil management in an NT area. The tool was trialled on 40 areas of farmland under different farm systems in the Paraná River Watershed.…”

Intensification of no‐till agricultural systems: An opportunity for carbon sequestration

“…Conservation agriculture (CA) (i.e., minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop rotation) is a major initiative promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN) and other institutions to recover SOC and provide climate change adaptation and mitigation (Jat et al, 2014). No-till (NT) agriculture is the basic component of CA by addressing at least two of its three principles (i.e., planting through soil cover with minimum soil disturbance) (Nunes et al, 2020). Several studies already showed that NT significantly increases SOC at the soil surface in a wide range of soils, climates, and cropping systems (West and Post, 2002;Ogle et al, 2005).…”