Innovative Cropping Systems
VIDEO PROJECT
TO RECEIVE NATIONAL AWARD
The Colonial SWCD will receive the District Outreach
Award in Broadcast Media at the 2002 National Association
of Conservation Districts (NACD) annual meeting in Reno. NACD and the
Equipment Manufacturers Institute (EMI) jointly sponsor the District
Outreach award program each year.
The sixteen-minute video, entitled
"Continuous No-till Grain Production Systems," was
created to promote the advantages of continuous no-till in farm
management. Continuous no-till is the cornerstone of Colonial SWCD's
Innovative Cropping Systems project, which strives to decrease
agricultural pollution while maintaining or increasing current production
levels. Local farmers are featured on the video, sharing their
experience with continuous no-till.
Colonial SWCD, New Kent Cooperative Extension and Virginia Tech developed
and produced the video with financial support
from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the
York Watershed Council.
Three hundred copies of the video have been contracted and will be
distributed to Cooperative Extension, Natural Resources Conservation
Service, and SWCD offices.
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ICS
is a partnership between local farmers, Cooperative Extension, and
Colonial SWCD that promotes technologies designed to benefit both
individual farmers and their communities.
The popularity of ICS
among local farmers is due to it's balance of economic and environmental
benefits.
However, traditional
methods of farm management such as plowing and disking are hard to leave
behind. Many farmers hesitate to adopt no-till because of
perceived financial risk and resistance to change.
A grant program in
cooperation with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
allows Colonial SWCD to provide financial incentives to area producers
that encourage the abandonment of traditional methods in favor of ICS
techniques.
It is believed that once a
participant makes it through the five-year ICS contract period, the
results obtained through this type of management will convince him to
switch permanently.
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ICS
includes such practices as
Continuous no-till
Cropping rotations
Nutrient management
Integrated pest management |
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The
benefits of ICS include
Increased Soil Quality
Improved Water Quality
Higher Crop Yields
Reduced Soil Loss and Erosion
Decreased Costs to the Producer
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Parts of Renwood Farm in Charles City,
Virginia, have been managed using continuous no-till since 1987. Farmers
such as Stanley, David, and John Hula are helping to make ICS and conservation
farming a common practice in the Colonial SWCD.
"ICS represents a revolution
in pollution reduction that can be applied across the Coastal Plain and
Piedmont of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed at a fraction of the projected
cost of alternative options."
-Brian Noyes, Colonial SWCD Conservation Specialist
and ICS partner
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To learn about research to quantify the
benefits of ICS,
please click here.
Continuous no-till
has been added to the list of approved practices for
the Virginia Agricultural BMP Cost-share Program
Click here for more information
about the Cost-share Program
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