Sowing conservation agriculture
in northern Mexico

With help from CIMMYT and through direct demonstrations for farmers, conservation agriculture practices are spreading from farmer to farmer in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora State, northwestern Mexico. Thanks to support from the Mexican government and grain marketers, local farmer unions are providing new sowing implements, designed by CIMMYT, that work for a range of crops and conservation agriculture practices.

Technician Training course At a recent CIMMYT course geared toward machinery technicians and sponsored by Fundación Produce Sonora, over 30 participants learned about conservation agriculture, weed control, optimal planting dates for sorghum, and gained hands-on practice in the field. “We want to train the technicians so they are ready to support the winter wheat planting next November,” said Govaerts. To ensure their familiarity with the multi-use, multi-crop planters, participants were divided into teams and had to re-assemble the planters after they were taken apart. Led by Obregón field assistants Jesús Gutierrez and Manuel Ruíz Cano, technicians re-configured the planters to sow wheat in two rows on 80 cm beds or one row of maize. Together with Obregón station superintendent Rodrigo Rascón, Gutierrez and Ruíz Cano are working as a technical support team to help farmers in the Yaqui Valley with summer planting.

Many people use this road, and a lot of people know me,” says farmer Mayo Felix. “Some of them will stop their cars, get out, and have a look at the permanent beds and crop residues on my field. They ask me or one of the field workers what we’re doing and we explain. It’s a way of disseminating conservation agriculture.” The curiosity of Felix’s neighbors shows how conservation agriculture practices can spread from farmer to farmer. “When I’m not in the mood, I don’t go to the field because I get a sore throat,” he jokes.

Luckily, Felix had a microphone as he spoke to around 50 people who attended a recent CIMMYT field day to promote conservation agriculture (CA) practices with farmers in the region. The event also drew professors, students, machinery technicians, researchers, representatives from the private industry, and organizations working with CIMMYT.

Please do not disturb…the soil
“Conservation agriculture practices work to conserve the soil, water, and other resources on which farmers depend,” says Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT cropping systems management specialist, and organizer of the farmer CA day. “Simply put, you reduce soil disturbance to a minimum, do suitable crop rotations, and keep a cover of crop residues on the soil’s surface.”

The approach has been slow to catch on in Mexico, despite proven benefits such as significant cost and time savings, more stable yields over the medium and long term, and improved soil structure and health. Previously, farmers may not have had access to the appropriate machinery or may have hesitated to switch to a new system, according to Govaerts.

CIMMYT has been working with partners “Fundación Produce Sonora” (a Sonora state farmers’ organization) and the farmer unions “Patronato para la Investigación y Experimentación Agrícola del Estado de Sonora” and “Asociación de Organismos de Agricultores del Sur de Sonora" (AOASS), as well as the Mexican National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP), to spread CA through farmer demonstration days and appropriate machinery.

“With support from our partners, we have prepared five on-farm demonstrations, each of five hectares sown on permanent raised beds and five hectares on conventional plots,” said Govaerts. “This way, farmers can see that conservation agriculture can be adapted for different soils and farming systems in the Yaqui Valley, cutting their costs 20-30%, as well as improving yields for maize, wheat, safflower, and other crops.”

Plowed (not CA) raised beds for wheat originated in Mexico’s Yaqui Valley. In the early 1990s CIMMYT scientists worked with Valley farmers to develop a permanent bed planting system that integrated raised beds with residue retention, reduced tillage, and irrigation in the furrows between beds. The tremendous benefits of bed planting and its ready adoption by Mexican wheat farmers led CIMMYT to promote its use in South Asia, China, Central Asia, Turkey and other parts of the world.

All recent on-farm demonstrations were sown with a tractor-drawn implement developed by CIMMYT wheat agronomist Ken Sayre and the Mexico-based cropping systems management team over the past 15 years. The prototype implement is the first that can create or re-form raised beds, apply fertilizer in various ways, and sow both large- and small-seed crops directly into unplowed land and residues.

“Farmers who use the multi-crop, multi-use planter on permanent beds will need fewer tractor passes, which means savings in diesel fuel and fewer carbon emissions going into the atmosphere,” says Rodrigo Rascón, who is actively involved in the project and station superintendent at CIMMYT’s Cuidad Obregón wheat research facility. “Farmers can also use the new planter for conventionally-tilled beds,” he says.

With CA principles and fewer machinery passes Felix saved 20 days and cut his production costs. “I was able to sow at the optimal time,” he said. “In an intensive rotation this is very important and leads to better yields.”

Participants learned about the need to make beds equidistant and to distribute crop residues evenly so plants come up at the same time.

A vote of confidence from the Mexican government
A local company is manufacturing the implements and farmer unions are buying them, with 14 to be released this summer. More farmers in the region will have the opportunity to use the implements as the Mexican agriculture secretariat (SAGARPA) is supporting farmers’ adoption of planters through the national wheat marketers organization (CONATRIGO), according to Govaerts. “We’re going to start another program to give training to technicians,” he says (see box).

“We are working with CIMMYT because there is a national partnership agreement and it is a serious institution that has already worked with this technology,” said Héctor Aguilar of CONATRIGO. “We are using the Center’s backing and support to convince farmers of the utility of conservation agriculture.”

Some farmers have been reluctant to leave crop residues on their fields and use CA principles, fearing increased infestations of pests. In the past, many burned crop residues to get rid of pests and start the second crop as fast as possible, according to Felix. With CA, the populations of soil micro-organisms and crop pests and diseases may change, and even increase initially, says Govaerts, but the soil eventually settles into a new, more natural, equilibrium and pests, diseases, and weeds become less of a problem. “When you leave crop residues on the field, the microorganisms eat the residues, and steadily release nitrogen. Farmers can thus use less fertilizer,” he explains.

But does it yield well?
During the recent farmer CA demonstration day, participants watched as Manuel López de Lara’s wheat, grown using CA principles, was harvested in real time so participants could see for themselves if the yield stacked up to irrigated wheat grown using conventional methods. As the day drew to a close, CA was pronounced the winner, providing one ton more grain per hectare than the conventional practice. “I’m very convinced about using conservation agriculture,” said López de Lara, who saved about 60 USD per hectare while Felix saved around 100 USD per hectare. “It’s more economical and leaves more money in my pocket.”

For more information: Bram Govaerts, cropping systems management specialist (b.govaerts@cgiar.org)

Here are some examples of how CIMMYT is studying and promoting conservation agriculture in Mexico and in other developing countries.

Bringing Conservation Agriculture Home to Mexico

Innovation in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: Calling at the door of the poor

Stemming the loss of African soils’ life blood