AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Producers have a responsibility to reverse past mistakes made in agriculture, according to Grain SA conservation agriculture (CA) facilitator, Dr Hendrik Smith.
Speaking at the recent LandbouweekbladRegenerative Agriculture Conference in Reitz in the Free State, Smith said agriculture historically played a large role in issues such as climate change, and was only surpassed by fossil fuel production as the largest producer of greenhouse gasses in the 1960s.
He said producers needed to take the carbon footprint of their production into account, and one of the first areas where they could make a difference was the soil health on their farms.
READ How to cure your soil after years of nutrient depletion
“About two tons of soil is lost to water erosion for every ton of maize produced. It isn’t sustainable. But in terms of crop production, grazing and soil recovery we can do something and replace carbon into the biomass,” he said.
