21
votes
How are hillsides farmed?
The way hillsides are farmed generally depends on the steepness of the hillside. Gentle slopes can be farmed the same way flat land is farmed.
Steeper slops require the hillside to be divided into ...
- 20.3k
13
votes
Accepted
How are hillsides farmed?
Terrace farming is widespread in the Orient but it is backbreakingly labour intensive. In UK we don't do it, partly because we don't grow our own rice. Depending on how steep the hill is, we either ...
- 4,453
7
votes
Accepted
Did the Neolithic Revolution have an effect on the earth's climate?
Raising herd animals would likely contribute more than mere farms. Many farms simply produce feed for animals anyway, and this can lead to an inflated population which can wreck havoc when released ...
- 214
7
votes
Accepted
How can agricultural ammonia lead to PM2.5 production in the atmosphere?
Acid/Base Chemistry
Gaseous ammonia (NH$_3$) acts as a base when it dissolves in water. The reactions are below.
NH$_3$(g) + H$_2$O(l) $\rightleftharpoons$ NH$_3$(aq)
NH$_3$(aq) + H$_3$O$^+$(aq) $\...
- 2,641
7
votes
How are hillsides farmed?
Some people use swales on hillsides for farming. Swales are basically a trench that runs along contour lines of a slope and is used to slow water runoff and increase infiltration into the ground. They'...
- 71
7
votes
How are hillsides farmed?
It entirely depends on what crops you're farming. Note for example how many vineyards (especially European ones, from my observation) are located on steep hillsides. In other places, such as the US ...
- 1,658
6
votes
Which crops are especially sensitive to atmospheric ozone?
I could find a relatively recent review by Mills et al. (2007) that lists sensitivity to ozone for several crops. Among the most sensitive were (table 1)
Watermelons (albeit with very few data points ...
- 994
6
votes
The Dust Bowl: how's the recovery of all that topsoil going?
Soil is not a single uniform material. When wind erosion takes hold, as in the infamous 'dust bowl' of the 1930s, it is the uppermost A horizon, and to a lesser extent the B horizon that is mainly ...
- 14.1k
5
votes
Is it true that aquaponics yield crops with a lower nutritional value than soil-agriculture?
First look at the article, is cites no sources and is not written by an an expert. It is written without peer review and does not seem to understand how to measure nutritional content (brix is only a ...
- 6,465
4
votes
Accepted
How does soil fertility differ between Scandinavia and Russia
I don't know much about Scandinavia in the 1500's, and in particular, how much was forested. However, one can say that the whole area was previously glaciated, with much of the topsoil being eroded ...
- 14.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Was Russia's original territory unfavorable for agriculture?
The area outlined covers several climatic zones. The northeastern part was, and to some extent still is, permafrost at shallow depth, so obviously this was not good for agriculture. Further south most ...
- 14.1k
4
votes
Accepted
How significant is organic cotton agriculture to the USA's total global ecological footprint?
The ecological footprint is the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources. A global hectare (gha) from ...
- 12.7k
4
votes
Which greenhouse gas does the most damage to crops?
Tropospheric ozone is a significant greenhouse gas (see e.g. IPCC AR4) and has well established negative effects on crop yields. For example, Van Dingen et al (2009) evaluated yield losses of up to ...
- 391
4
votes
Removing agricultural plastic film waste after 10+ years degradation
One issue that you've got is the area will be contaminated with fragments of plastic that are microscopic in size to large pieces and they will be at varying depths throughout the soil.
To most ...
- 20.3k
4
votes
Will global warming lead to agriculture in the Arctic?
The agricultural regions of Canada:
are located on suitable soil types:
Much of the unfarmed area is the Canadian Shield (shades of red below):
The current surface expression of the Shield is one ...
- 2,269
4
votes
Did the Haber-Bosch process enable the population explosion?
There are a number of factors that went/are going into the population explosion, food is only one vaccination and antibiotics are a big factor as well. within food fertilizer is again only one of ...
- 6,465
4
votes
How are hillsides farmed?
How do farmers plow on uneven terrain?
Simple answer - they don't.
if traditional farming techniques are used.
Traditional for who?
In rice farming areas, the tradition is terraces and paddies. ...
- 439
4
votes
What data of agricultural yield to use for India?
In case you cannot access official local data, I recommend the use of the IFPRI resource MapSPAM2010.
Quoting the description of the dataset:
Using a variety of inputs, IFPRI's Spatial Production ...
- 1,248
3
votes
Does the diameter of the earth decrease because of soil subsiding due to irrigation and rainfall over the years?
Disclaimer: this is probably TLWR, but you can absolutely apply some physical reasoning to arrive at the answer.
Changes in surface height of the earth are governed by the conservation of mass, i.e. ...
- 422
3
votes
Accepted
How to find molarity of a fertilizer?
You probably mean 50kgN/ha, which sounds like a plausible number for fertilizer application.
I don't know what you are doing exactly, but you need to know how much surface area your soil sample ...
- 1,184
3
votes
Which greenhouse gas does the most damage to crops?
Quantitatively hydrogen fluoride is insignificant, except when it is emitted from volcanic sources, in which case it is extremely toxic to crops - far more than any other natural gas. Possibly the ...
- 14.1k
3
votes
Can we store maize along with husk and kernal?
For the (1) you can store your whole maize for 8 - 12 years or 18 - 36 months if the maize is ground or chopped. Moreover the less moisture the maize has the more it can be stored. If you want to ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
Why are mixed crops cultivated in high latitude coastal environments?
It is called Companion planting, and it is actually fairly common with hand tended fields. It does not work well with mechanized agriculture which is why you don't see it much in large scale farming. ...
- 6,465
3
votes
What would be the effects of a large forest fire on soil in other places?
Falling ash is usually not a concern for agriculture. But the particulate matter (smoke) can harm agricultural products. Not through the soil, but by exposing the plants to smoke over long periods. ...
- 12.7k
3
votes
What would be the effects of a large forest fire on soil in other places?
After Saint Helens, forest managers thought to harvest timber in the area and replant it because they assumed nothing would ever grow again. Instead they left it alone and the eruption epicenter is ...
- 736
2
votes
The Dust Bowl: how's the recovery of all that topsoil going?
There's No way to ascertain the level of soil reclamation since the 1930's the Soil Conservation service keeps track which I assume you can learn online if they have their data. Agronomic libraries ...
- 736
2
votes
The Dust Bowl: how's the recovery of all that topsoil going?
Your first question is relatively simple.
We can rule out complete recovery (virtually impossible in such a short time span), which leaves two choices: partial recovery or no recovery at all. There ...
- 197
2
votes
Seeking details for the "historical rate" of arable land loss
EDIT -- Found the full report ... in Norway.
The quote you are trying to source was an oft repeated (1999-2002) talking point by Klaus Toepfer (Töpfer), head of UNEP. The oldest instance I can find ...
- 1,167
2
votes
Seeking details for the "historical rate" of arable land loss
It's a curious question.
I agree with Gordon Stranger, without context, (and a mention of some link to peer reviewed research, or at least, some kind of measurement), it's pretty meaningless.
I ...
- 5,667
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