Modern Cropping Systems and Technologies for Soil Conservation in Siberian Agriculture

Abstract

This chapter presents a concept and practicable solutions for effective and environmentally sound cereal-based cropping systems in Siberia. The work behind this was carried out in the framework of the international research project “KULUNDA, how to prevent the next global dust bowl?” We start with an analysis of the socio-economic and bio-climatic conditions and current practice for cereal cropping in Siberia. The climatic conditions of West Siberia were compared with those in the steppe regions of Canada. The adaption of current cropping practices based on South Canadian experiences, such as minimum tillage and direct seeding, seems to be promising for Siberia too. More reliable machinery for soil and crop management, exact seeding and spraying machinery in particular, will help to establish more robust crops which provide higher yield stability and better water use efficiency, and maintain soil fertility by protecting the soil against wind erosion. We designed and conducted field trials on three experimental sites in the Altai Krai of Siberia. These trials represent the outcomes of our analysis by combining the local expertise of Siberian scientists and farmers with experience from Canadian and Kazakh cropping practices and with proven and newly developed German technology for their realisation. The focus is on innovative technologies for soil conservation tillage operations and direct drill seeders. On 70 randomised plots, most modern no-till methods were compared with other variants such as modernized and conventional agricultural machinery, and with extremely out-dated methods of conventional technology. The latter variants include practices still dominating in Siberia: no crop protection and fertilisation as well as cereal monoculture and fallow. The initial results under very dry weather conditions confirm our concepts that conservation practices perform better when considering all aspects of soil protection, the performance of machinery, plant establishment and yield. Wider crop rotation can give higher economic stability and will help to get the cropping systems closer to natural conditions. Soils can be protected from wind erosion in an effective way using no-till systems, and the yield can be stabilized. Most modern seeding machines with wide row spacings and narrow, single depth-adjusted hoe opener systems are able to carry out shallow tillage in the seeding furrow only and to place the seed and fertiliser exactly at the adjusted depth. The running experiments will deliver more detailed data about crop management and yields, soil fertility and micro-economy in the coming two years. Though those more detailed data are still required, we may already conclude that our new approaches seem to confirm our hypotheses. They are soil conserving, practicable and effective, and have great potentials for broader application in Siberian agriculture.