Water for Any Farm


Book Description

Written as a companion to the bestseller, Restoration Agriculture, this book will help farmers capture water in areas they want to, and avoid having water flow immediately to the low point. The result? Less water expense, healthier crops and livestock, and less erosion ... just to name a few. What you will read in this book is a distillation of over 25 years of on-the-ground experience working with and modifying the Yeomans' Keyline Plan. From the back yard suburbs to 10,000-acre ranches and everywhere in between, from permafrost mountainsides just shy of the Arctic Circle, to equatorial boulder fields of East Africa, areas with 300 inches of rain per year to those with less than 3 inches, I have personally installed systems based on the Keyline design methodology and its modified forms.What you will read in this book is tried and true. It is intended to give a sufficient background to any landowner so that they can optimize their water resource for higher site productivity, have greater drought resistance and just as importantly, to know deep in their heart that they have made even one little piece of earth a little more life-filled, livable and green.




Sustainable Water Management in Smallholder Farming


Book Description

Water is critical to all human activities, but access to this crucial resource is increasingly limited by competition and the effects of climate change. In agriculture, water management is key to ensuring good and sustained crop yields, maintaining soil health, and safeguarding the long-term viability of the land. Water management is especially challenging on smallholder farms in resource-poor areas, which tend to be primarily rainfed and thus highly dependent on unreliable rainfall patterns. Sustainable practices can help farmers promote the development of soils, plants and field surfaces to allow maximum retention of water between rains, and encourage the efficient use of each drop of water applied as irrigation. Especially useful for farmers' groups, agricultural extension workers, NGOs, students and researchers working with farmers in dryland areas, this comprehensive yet concise book is a practical and accessible resource for anyone interested in sustainable water management.




Practical Water-farming


Book Description




Water for Every Farm


Book Description

"Comprehensive whole farm design, amplified contour cultivation, water storage in farm dams, layout better farm roads, quick gravity irrigation, contour strip forests, subdivision design, healing erosion, solving salinity"--Cover.




Soil and Water Quality


Book Description

How can the United States meet demands for agricultural production while solving the broader range of environmental problems attributed to farming practices? National policymakers who try to answer this question confront difficult trade-offs. This book offers four specific strategies that can serve as the basis for a national policy to protect soil and water quality while maintaining U.S. agricultural productivity and competitiveness. Timely and comprehensive, the volume has important implications for the Clean Air Act and the 1995 farm bill. Advocating a systems approach, the committee recommends specific farm practices and new approaches to prevention of soil degradation and water pollution for environmental agencies. The volume details methods of evaluating soil management systems and offers a wealth of information on improved management of nitrogen, phosphorus, manure, pesticides, sediments, salt, and trace elements. Landscape analysis of nonpoint source pollution is also detailed. Drawing together research findings, survey results, and case examples, the volume will be of interest to federal, state, and local policymakers; state and local environmental and agricultural officials and other environmental and agricultural specialists; scientists involved in soil and water issues; researchers; and agricultural producers.




The Drought-Resilient Farm


Book Description

Rainfall levels are rarely optimal, but there are hundreds of things you can do to efficiently conserve and use the water you do have and to reduce the impact of drought on your soil, crops, livestock, and farm or ranch ecosystem. Author Dale Strickler introduces you to the same innovative systems he used to transform his own drought-stricken family farm in Kansas into a thriving, water-wise, and profitable enterprise, maximizing healthy cropland, pasture, and water supply. Ranging from simple, short-term projects such as installing rain-collection ollas to long-term land-management planning strategies, Strickler’s methods show how to get more water into the soil, keep it in the soil, and help plants and livestock access it.




Environmental Management of Air, Water, Agriculture, and Energy


Book Description

Environmental Management of Air, Water, Agriculture, and Energy brings together the most current state of knowledge on four major elements for sustaining life on planet Earth: air, water, food, and energy. It examines how green technology aids in mitigating the global water, energy, and climate change crises, including the use of electrostatic force and green infrastructure. The concepts of underwater vegetation and aquatic cultivation, as well as vertical farms, are presented to spark discussion on emerging water-energy-food nexus lessons, experiences, and opportunities. This book takes a comprehensive global-scale approach to examining potential future environmental scenarios and outcomes. Features: Analyzes the most recent research findings in each of the areas covered Synthesizes the state-of-the-art understanding Recommends ways to strive forward and to shape future research Serves as an educational tool for educators and students Supported by detailed examples and case studies, this book serves not only as an up-to-date source of information for environmental experts and researchers in the field, but also as an educational tool for relevant undergraduate and graduate courses. It is also suitable for industry professionals concerned with preserving planet Earth for generations to come.




Salt Water Farm


Book Description

Salt Water Farm takes a humorous look at a depression-scarred Massachusetts family, who resolve never to be caught financially vulnerable again and move to an abandoned farm in Greenland, New Hampshire. Living off the land, they realize they are amateurs and pretty soon animals rule. This unique family includes an eccentric grandfather who, in his heart, is torn between Mae West and Greta Garbo. The oldest daughter hates the isolation of the country at first, but can't resist the big salt water estuary behind the house. The story is dominated by one of the last great places, as The Boston Globe describes the Great Bay. When the Bay freezes over, the farm is overrun, day and night, by fanatical smelt fishermen. The Salt Water Farm itself is presently owned by The Nature Conservancy.




Restoration Agriculture


Book Description

Around the globe most people get their calories from "annual" agriculture - plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs - in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.




Full Moon Suppers at Salt Water Farm


Book Description

Full Moon Suppers at Salt Water Farm invites you to a series of magical, seasonal suppers where dear friends gather around a farm table to celebrate the bounty that the land and sea provide. This menu-driven cookbook offers twelve beautifully crafted meals derived from more than one hundred sold-out evening events at Salt Water Farm, the author’s cooking school in Maine. Even if you can’t make it to one of Annemarie’s monthly Full Moon Suppers, you can re-create them at home, beneath a full moon—or any night—for family and friends. Each supper includes a portrait of the month: its climate, its rewards, and its ritual kitchen tasks—and a menu inspired by those characteristics. A Full Moon Supper is not only a celebration of the earth and its bounty but a reward for the hard work that goes into food production. These meals pay respect to the elements, the conditions of the earth, soil, and sea, and seasonal traditions as we round the lunar cycle.