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for increased productivity and improved land
quality. Soil moisture utilization for enhanced
crop production can be improved through maximizing
the capture, infiltration and storage of
rainfall water into the soil. An absorptive, organic
matter-rich and biologically diverse soil can be
achieved through the application of the four principles
of Conservation Agriculture as described
above.
This 257-page book represents the first Italian
publication describing these principles, technologies
and methodologies. It uses clear terminology,
and provides numerous practical examples of the
use of CA to reduce soil erosion and increase
productivity in both annual and perennial crops.
The book has three sections. The first section deals with the agronomic and environmental
concepts and principles of CA as an integrated production system for
water and soil management and conservation. There is also a general overview of
CA experience in Italy, Europe and worldwide. The Visual Soil Assessment
(VSA) method is also described as a practical tool for soil quality monitoring.
The second section describes integrated management systems in CA (annual
cropping systems, crop rotation techniques, and guidelines for transition from
conventional to conservation agriculture). This is followed by strategies for the
adoption of CA in Italy for several annual crops such as durum and winter wheat,
corn, soybean, sunflower, canola, vegetables, field horticulture and fruit crops, as
well as long-term crops such as olives and viticulture. Suggestions are given to
help farmers make the transition from conventional to conservative agriculture.
The third section describes in one chapter developments in the mechanical tools
and equipment for CA. In particular it reports on new technologies for machinery
such as no-tillage, and shallow and deep methods of minimum tillage. The next
chapter provides an economic analysis of costs and profitability of CA. The concluding
chapter highlights the energetic-economic comparative advantages of
CA, based on a study conducted in Italy for annual crops (corn, wheat and soybean).
The book provides an in-depth discussion of the most important issues in soil
erosion phenomena that to a large degree are responsible for the landscape we see
today in Italy. Erosion accounts for the formation of plains, valleys and plateaux,
the levelling of mountains, and the accumulation of the material that has been
eroded from them. Despite the importance of erosion in creating the very areas of
our country now used for modern agriculture, accelerated erosion, in which soil
erosion outpaces land formation, can have detrimental, even disastrous conse-