I commend the Global Soil Partnership for a well-meaning working draft of te Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management. I feel that the draft is on the right track, building on earlier work done by FAO on soil health, Save and Grow, Conservation Agriculture etc.
The draft makes an excellent case, in the first half of section 4, for sustainable soil managemnet to be based on soil and landscape health management and implemented for production through the linked agroecological principles of Conservation Agriculture along with complementary practices of crop, nutrient, pest, water, farm power and mechanization management.
The draft unwittingly turns on itself in the second half of section 4 (the last four paragraphs) and casts doubts on what it has proposed in the first half of section 4. The draft would be helped considerably from inputs from colleagues who have actual field experience of implementing the adoption of soil health management through Conservation Agriculture which is now spreading at an annual rate of 10 Mha globally incluidng in Africa and Asia. The constraints mentioned are made out to be much stronger than they actually are.
The first half of section 4 is based almost verbatum on the text from Save and Grow (FAO, 2011) and Kassam et al (2011), but cites references 8 and 9 which have had little to do with this text which was orginally drafted in 2010 when FAO was preparing the Save and Grow publication. Section 4 needs to redrafted. The Guidelines are not a record of an inconclusive debate, but an informed desired 'road map' of engagement to be followed by all stakeholders.
Section 5 seems to me to be too restricted and weakest. It is the job of all concerned (instutions, groups and individuals) in the public, private and civil sectors, and particularly the farmers and their rural communities to implement the Guidelines and not just through the GSP.
In addition to the referneces that are cited, several more references should be cited which provide more evidence and support to the Guidelines. Refernce 10 has been discredited for several reasons but mainly because the dataset compiled for the meta-analysis is a mixed bag of decontextualized data from conservation tillage, minimum or reduced tillage, no-till and Conservtaion Agriculture. The data is mainly from the USA, and the meta analysis is a good example of how not to do meta analysis.
I have tried to edit the draft and have suggested references that could be considered for inclusion. I have used the marked up copy from Theodor Friedrich which I attach herewith, along with a book chapter on sustainable soil management, and a paper on the global spread of Conservation Agriculture. I will forward two other papers (regarding sustainable intensification, and policy and institutional support for CA adotion and uptake) in a separate contribution.
I will be happy to provide any clarification needed on any suggested changes made in track mode.
Thank you for the opportunity for sharing ideas and making an input into this very important Guidelines.
Dear Colleagues,
I commend the Global Soil Partnership for a well-meaning working draft of te Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management. I feel that the draft is on the right track, building on earlier work done by FAO on soil health, Save and Grow, Conservation Agriculture etc.
The draft makes an excellent case, in the first half of section 4, for sustainable soil managemnet to be based on soil and landscape health management and implemented for production through the linked agroecological principles of Conservation Agriculture along with complementary practices of crop, nutrient, pest, water, farm power and mechanization management.
The draft unwittingly turns on itself in the second half of section 4 (the last four paragraphs) and casts doubts on what it has proposed in the first half of section 4. The draft would be helped considerably from inputs from colleagues who have actual field experience of implementing the adoption of soil health management through Conservation Agriculture which is now spreading at an annual rate of 10 Mha globally incluidng in Africa and Asia. The constraints mentioned are made out to be much stronger than they actually are.
The first half of section 4 is based almost verbatum on the text from Save and Grow (FAO, 2011) and Kassam et al (2011), but cites references 8 and 9 which have had little to do with this text which was orginally drafted in 2010 when FAO was preparing the Save and Grow publication. Section 4 needs to redrafted. The Guidelines are not a record of an inconclusive debate, but an informed desired 'road map' of engagement to be followed by all stakeholders.
Section 5 seems to me to be too restricted and weakest. It is the job of all concerned (instutions, groups and individuals) in the public, private and civil sectors, and particularly the farmers and their rural communities to implement the Guidelines and not just through the GSP.
In addition to the referneces that are cited, several more references should be cited which provide more evidence and support to the Guidelines. Refernce 10 has been discredited for several reasons but mainly because the dataset compiled for the meta-analysis is a mixed bag of decontextualized data from conservation tillage, minimum or reduced tillage, no-till and Conservtaion Agriculture. The data is mainly from the USA, and the meta analysis is a good example of how not to do meta analysis.
I have tried to edit the draft and have suggested references that could be considered for inclusion. I have used the marked up copy from Theodor Friedrich which I attach herewith, along with a book chapter on sustainable soil management, and a paper on the global spread of Conservation Agriculture. I will forward two other papers (regarding sustainable intensification, and policy and institutional support for CA adotion and uptake) in a separate contribution.
I will be happy to provide any clarification needed on any suggested changes made in track mode.
Thank you for the opportunity for sharing ideas and making an input into this very important Guidelines.
Sincerely,
Amir Kassam