Perspectives for Agronomy: Adopting Ecological Principles and Managing Resource Use

381 Pages·1997·23.93 MB·English

by  M.K. van Ittersum and S.C van de Geijn (Eds.)

PERSPECTIVES FOR AGRONOMY
Adopting Ecological Principles
and Managing Resource Use
Developments in Crop Science
Volume 1 Oil Palm Research, edited by R.H.V. Corley, J.J. Hardon and B.J. Wood
Volume 2 Application of Mutation Breeding Methods in the Improvement of Vegetatively
Propagated Crops, by C. Broertjes and A.M. van Harten
Volume 3 Wheat Studies, by H. Kihara
Volume 4 The Biology and Control of Weeds in Sugarcane, by S.Y. Peng
Volume 5 Plant Tissue Culture" Theory and Practice, by S.S. Bhojwani and M.K. Razdan
Volume 6 Trace Elements in Plants, by M.Ya. Shkolnik
Volume 7 Biology of Rice, edited by S. Tsunoda and N. Takahashi
Volume 8 Processes and Control of Plant Senescence, Y.Y. Leshem, A.H. Halevy and C. Frenkel
Volume 9 Taigu Genic Male-Sterile Wheat, edited by Deng Jingyang
Volume 10 Cultivating Edible Fungi, edited by P.J. Wuest, D.J. Royse and R.B. Beelman
Volume 11 Sugar Improvement through Breeding, edited by D.J. Heinz
Volume 12 Applied Mutation Breeding for Vegetatively Propagated Crops, by C. Broertjes and
A.M. van Harten
Volume 13 Yield Formation in the Main Field Crops, by J. Petr, V. Cern~, and L. Hrugka
Volume 14 Origin of Cultivated Rice, by H. Oka
Volume 15 Nutritional Disorders of Cultivated Plants, edited by W. Bergmann
Volume 16 Hop Production, edited by V. Ryb~t~ek
Volume 17 Principles and Methods of Plant Breeding, by S. Borojevi~
Volume 18 Experimental Morphogenesis and Integration of Plants, by J. Sv eb/mek, Z. Sladl~ and S.
Proch~tzka
Volume 19 Plant Tissue Culture: Applications and Limitations, by S.S. Bhojwani
Volume 20 Weather and Yield, edited by J. Petr
Volume 21 Plant Physiology, edited by J. Sebfinek
Volume 22 Reproductive Adaption of Rice to Environmental Stress, by Y. Takeoka, A.A. Mamum,
T. Wada and P.B. Kaufman
Volume 23 Natural Rubber: Biology, Cultivation and Technology, edited by M.R. Sethuraj and
N.M. Mathew
Volume 24 Irrigated Forage Production, by A. Dovrat
Volume 25 Perspectives for Agronomy, edited by M.K. van Ittersum and S.C. van de Geijn
Developments in Crop Science 25
PERSPECTIVES FOR
AGRONOMY
Adopting Ecological Principles
and Managing Resource Use
Proceedings of the 4th Congress of the European Society for Agronomy,
Veldhoven and Wageningen, The Netherlands, 7-1 1 July 1996
Edited by
M.K. VAN ITTERSUM
Wageningen Agricultural University, Department of Theoretical Production Ecology,
Box 430, 6700 AK Wageningen, The Netherlands
P.O.
S.C. VAN DE GEIJN
Research Institute for Agrobiology and Soil Fertility (AB-DLO),
P.O. Box 14, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands
ELSEVIER
Amsterdam - Lausanne - New York - Oxford - Shannon - Singapore - Tokyo 1997
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Partly reprintedf rom the European Journal of Agronomy, Vol. 7/1-3
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Preface
Since the Second World War, agricultural devel- Agriculture with such broadened objectives
opment has been characterised by a strong increase in requires new systems at a range of aggregation levels.
land and labour productivity in large parts of Europe It requires different analyses, synthesis of knowledge
(Porceddu and Rabbinge, 1997), strongly stimulated and a different type of intervention at the policy level.
by policy (e.g., Common Agricultural Policy of the Agriculture with broadened objectives requires a dif-
EU). The level of self-sufficiency has been surpassed ferent agronomy. It calls for detailed knowledge con-
for nearly all agricultural products. The strong cerning the functioning and production of agricultural
increase in productivity leading to the present situa- plants and crops and their ecological relationships. In
tion characterised by over-production, has been addition, it calls for synthesis and design of new
attended by changes in farm structure, a decrease in ideotypes and genotypes, new production technolo-
agricultural employment, social, budgetary and eco- gies, cropping systems, farming systems and agro-
nomic problems at the regional and European Union ecological land use systems. Basic knowledge at
level and by environmental deterioration. This situa- field, plant and lower levels of integration should
tion contrasts with a situation of relatively low pro- be used and synthesized in the design of new systems
ductivity, socio-economic and environmental prob- at higher levels that meet a set of explicit objectives.
lems in mainly Southern and Eastern parts of Europe, These new systems should then be evaluated for their
and with a major problem and at the same time a effectiveness at the various levels. This type of agro-
challenge for the next century at a global level: nomic research will often be of an interdisciplinary
food production and security for a doubled popula- nature with agronomists working together with bree-
tion with a more affluent diet. ders, physiologists, soil scientists, economists and
Agricultural development has evolved from an sociologists.
activity with mainly one-dimensional, productivity To fulfil this new role, agronomy has a range of
aims, into a multi-dimensional issue with environ- sophisticated tools at its disposal. To fully exploit the
mental, agricultural, economic and social objectives. potential of these tools, they should not be used sepa-
Agriculture should adopt ecological principles and it rately, but in combination. A new agronomy should
should optimize the use of resources, i.e., agriculture tailor the tools to the type of questions and benefit
should 'ecologize', and at the same time it should from the synergism of:
meet social and economic objectives. Agricultural empirical and experimental research, be it in
-
development is an important issue within the frame- laboratories, climate chambers, greenhouses or in
work of what is called sustainable development. The the field to diagnose and analyse problems and to
notion of sustainable development calls for explicit test new designs;
consideration of each of the mentioned objectives and mathematical modelling techniques to summarize
-
for consideration of the problem at several aggrega- knowledge, to test hypotheses and to identify
tion levels. The situation in (a part of) Europe cannot knowledge gaps;
be isolated from the situation at country or global - prototyping on experimental and commercial farms
scale; problems and solutions at field level should to design and implement new crop rotations and
also consider, for instance, plant and crop rotation farming systems; and
level. - model-based explorations to improve systems
vi
understanding and identify a wide range of put forward as a promising tool to design and imple-
options. ment new farming systems. Indicators are presented
During the Fourth Congress of the European that support evaluation of farming systems. Finally
Society for Agronomy, held in Veldhoven-Wagenin- the contribution of model-based explorations in
gen, The Netherlands, 7-11 July 1996, the new per- developing new farming systems is considered. A
spective for agronomy emerged. Various keynote discussion follows on the notion that development
addresses, session themes, and oral and poster con- of sustainable farming systems is not a matter of
tributions demonstrated the need for a new role of one-way research delivery, but rather a process in
agronomy and its tools (Van Ittersum et al., 1996). which researchers and target groups should coop-
The special issue of the European Journal of Agron- erate, learn and develop in true interaction. This
omy and the Proceedings Book of the Fourth ESA- applies especially as the operationalisation of sustain-
Congress (Van Ittersum and van de Geijn, 1997) pre- ability requires value-driven choices calling for a
sent a set of case studies illustrating the various agro- continuous interaction between society, its organisa-
nomic tools that can be used for specific questions. tions and farmers on the one hand, and the scientists
The case studies are grouped in sections illustrating and designers on the other.
relevant subquestions in developing an agriculture We hope that the activities of the European
with broadened objectives. The papers were selected Society for Agronomy and the Proceedings of its
such that the various subquestions were represented Fourth Congress will stimulate to serve the new per-
in the Proceedings. This implies a non-random sam- spectives of agronomy, i.e., to adopt ecological prin-
ple from the contributions during the Congress, since ciples, to optimally manage the use of resources and
the number of contributions addressing the level of to meet social and economic objectives.
cropping system, farm and agricultural land use was
limited. Nevertheless, we think that agronomy should Martin K. van Ittersum
consider these levels of scale in its analysis and Wageningen Agricultural University
design because questions of stakeholders often con- Department of Theoretical Production Ecology
cern these levels. P.O. Box 430
After an introductory paper on the role of agron- 6700 AK Wageningen
omy in research and education in Europe, the second The Netherlands
section presents case studies addressing issues con-
cerning agricultural land use, food security and envir- Siebe C. van de Geijn
onment. The next set of papers addresses crop Research Institute for Agrobiology and Soil Fertility
physiological aspects in relation to growth factors (AB-DLO)
such as radiation, CO 2, temperature and water. P.O. Box 14
Experimental research and simulation modelling are 6700 AA Wageningen
used in mutual interaction. One important outlet for The Netherlands
the generated and integrated knowledge is the ideo-
typing of crops.
References
Improving resource-use efficiency in agriculture
positively affects economic, environmental and agri-
Porceddu, E. and Rabbinge, R., 1997. Role of research and educa-
cultural objectives. Many papers presented during the tion in the development of agriculture in Europe. Eur. J. Agron.,
Congress have directly or indirectly addressed this 7: 1-13.
issue. A set of papers particularly focusing on nutri- Van Ittersum, M.K., Venner, G.E.G.T., van de Geijn, S.C. and
Jetten, T.H. (Editors), 1996. Book of Abstracts, Volume I and
ents and organic matter is presented in this volume.
II. Fourth Congress of European Society of Agronomy, 7-11
Again, a combination of experimental and modelling
July, 1996, Veldhoven, The Netherlands, 736 pp.
research is used to enhance understanding of the sys- Van Ittersum, M.K. and van de Geijn, S.C. (Editors), 1997. Per-
tem and identify options for improvement. spectives for Agronomy - Adopting Ecological Principles and
The final section addresses the design of integrated Managing Resource Use. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, in press.
and ecological arable farming systems. Prototyping is
vii
Acknowledgements
The editors gratefully acknowledge logistic and technical assistance of Loes Helbers, Irene Gosselink and
Guido Venner in processing the flow of manuscripts. We also sincerely thank the reviewers of the manuscripts for
contributing to the maintenance of the scientific standard of the papers:
D. Auclair G.M.J. Mohren
L. Bastiaans J.D. Mumford
F. Bonciarelli H. Naber
C.J.H. Booij J.J. Neeteson
M.G.R. Cannell B. Nicolardot
J.G. Conijn S.E. Ogilvy
J.B. Dent J.E. Olesen
P. Dijkstra F.W.T. Penning de Vries
M. Donatelli J.R. Porter
P.A.I. Ehlert G. Russell
B. Gerowitt M. Schenk
J. Goudriaan H. Schnyder
D.J. Greenwood J.J. Schr6der
P. Gregory C.A. Shand
J.J.R. Groot A.L. Smit
J. Hassink J.-F. Soussana
A.J. Haverkort J.H.J. Spiertz
G. Hoogenboom E.A. Stockdale
C. Jambert P.C. Struik
B.H. Janssen H.F.M. Ten Berge
S.C. Jarvis N. Van Breemen
J. Kubat P. Van Halteren
P.J. Kuikman H. Van Keulen
E.A. Lantinga E.N. Van Loo
D.W. Lawlor M.A. Van Oijen
J.F. Ledent W.H. Van Riemsdijk
D.K.L. MacKerron J.A. Van Veen
L. 't Mannetje J. Vos
H. Meinke D.C. Whitehead
K. Mengel A.P. Whitmore
J.M. Meynard F.G. Wijnands
S. Mikkelsen D. Younie
M.I. Minguez J.C. Zadoks
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ix
Table of contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................................................. v
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... ................................ vii
Section I INTRODUCTION
Role of research and education in the development of agriculture in Europe
E. Porceddu and R. Rabbinge ....................................................................................................................... 3
Section 2 AGRICULTURAL LAND USE, FOOD SECURITY AND ENVIRONMENT
Land use transformation in Africa: three determinants for balancing food security with natural resource
utilization
P.A. Sanchez and R.R.B. Leakey .................................................................................................................... 19
Agro-ecological characterisation, food production and security
P. Bullock. ..................................................................................................................................................... 29
The potential benefits of agroforestry in the Sahel and other semi-arid regions
H. Breman and J.J. Kessler. .......................................................................................................................... 39
Chemical crop protection research and development in Europe
R. Neumann .................................................................................................................................................... 49
Emissions of CO2, CH4 and N20 from pasture on drained peat soils in the Netherlands
C.A. Langeveld, R. Segers, B.O.M. Dirks, A. van den Pol-van Dasselaar, G.L. Velthof and A. Hensen .......... 57
Section 3 CROP PHYSIOLOGY AND IDEOTYPING
Effects of CO2 and temperature on growth and yield of crops of winter wheat over four seasons
G.R. Batts, J.I.L. Morison, R.H. Ellis, P. Hadley and TR. Wheeler. ........................................................... 67
Use of in-field measurements of green leaf area and incident radiation to estimate the effects of yellow
rust epidemics on the yield of winter wheat
R.J. Bryson, N.D. Paveley, W.S. Clark, R. Sylvester-Bradley and R.K. Scott. ................................................... 77
Simulating light regime and intercrop yields in coconut based farming systems
3'. Dauzat and M.N. Eroy ................................................................................................................................. 87
Improving wheat simulation capabilities in Australia from a cropping systems perspective: water and
nitrogen effects on spring wheat in a semi-arid environment
H. Meinke, G.L. Hammer, H. van Keulen, R. Rabbinge and B.A. Keating. .................................................... 99
Comparison of CropSyst performance for water management in southwestern France using submodels
of different levels of complexity
C. O. Stockle, M. Cabelguenne and P. Debaecke ......................................................................................... 113