Please join us for the weekly BAE seminar
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
1:10 2 pm, 2045 BAINER HALL
Topic: Water Use: Efficient Tillage, Residue and Irrigation Management
Presenter:
Jeffrey Peter Mitchell, Cooperative Extension Specialist
Department of Plant Sciences
University of California, Davis
Abstract
While the adoption of conservation agriculture systems that make use of no-tillage and high residue farming techniques has become widespread in several regions around the world, very little use of these approaches has been made in Californias traditional high value and very diverse cropping systems. Recent research and successful farmer experience with these approaches in a number of cropping contexts in California, however, has shown their economic value and potential to address several resource concerns and there is now an upswing in their adoption. The Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) Center has been an important clearinghouse for experience on conservation agriculture in California and now has over 2,100 farmer, university, NRCS, private sector and other agency members who are working to develop information on these systems. The adoption of conservation agriculture systems in California, however, has not resulted from a largely single motivation such as erosion control or increased capture and storage of rainfall as has happened in many other areas. Rather, it has been various combinations of economic as well as resource conservation benefits that have tipped the balance for early adopters.
Bio
Jeff Mitchell is a Cooperative Extension Cropping Systems Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences Science at the University of California, Davis. His research and extension education programs focus on conservation tillage systems and their potential benefits for air, water and soil resource management, soil quality assessment and interpretation, and the development and evaluation of sustainable crop production systems. He serves as Chair of the University of Californias Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center which currently has over 2100 UC, USDA Agricultural Research Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service, public agency, private industry and farmer members and affiliates. He received his undergraduate degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles, and his MS and PhD degrees from UC Davis. Before beginning his graduate studies, he served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana, in Southern Africa. He has been involved with several long-term cropping systems projects including the Biologically Integrated Farming Systems program in the Central San Joaquin Valley (SJV) and the Sustainable Agriculture Farming Systems Project in the Sacramento Valley. He is currently involved with many pioneering farmers throughout the Central Valley on a variety of conservation agriculture systems. In a broader context, he is also working with several SJV farmers to develop conservation farming systems that encompass other aspects and technologies as well. He also teaches courses on agronomic and vegetable crop systems at the University of California, Davis.
Coffee and cookies will be served.
