FARMSCAPING

Farmscaping: old, new, everywhere?

Getting animals to do the work for you. It might sound lazy, it might sound slightly mad, but this approach to farming and growing makes eminent sense.

Farmscaping is the latest attempt to get nature itself farming.

(image from WSU here)

�Farmscaping is a whole-farm, ecological approach to increase and manage biodiversity with the goal of increasing the presence of beneficial organisms� according to Professor Geoff Zehnder of Clemson University.

�Many pest populations can be managed by enhancing the efficacy and local abundance of the existing community of natural enemies through modification of the environment.�

He continues: �Farmscaping methods include the use of insectary plants, hedgerows, cover crops, and water reservoirs to attract and support populations of beneficial organisms such as insects, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, bats, and birds that parasitize or prey upon insect pests.

Insectary plants like mustards interplanted with market crops provide pollen and nectar to attract and maintain beneficial insects in the crop landscape.�

He also refers to trap crops as an example of extended farmscaping: �host plants that are more attractive to the pest than the cash crop that are planted near the cash crop to trap pests, thus reducing pressure and damage to the cash crop.�

In farmscaping, beneficial organisms are considered � and managed - as �mini-livestock�. They need �adequate supplies of nectar, pollen and plant-feeding insects and other arthropods as food to sustain and increase their populations. Flowering plants provide many of the food resources natural enemies need�.

However, this should not be done in an ad hoc way: �creating a farmscape of flowering plants picked at random may favor pest populations over beneficial organisms.�

Thus, he recommends being especially methodological about it: �use a range of selection criteria to determine appropriate botanical composition.�

Amongst the benefits are: reduced need for pesticides and savings in pest management costs; increased habitat and wildlife diversity on the farm; adaptability of farmscaping to farm plans; erosion control/soil building; value adding.

The latter comes from the fact that �farmscape plants like cut flowers and medicinal plants can be sold at market to generate added income for the farm� he suggests.

Examples of this approach are many. In Texas, a trap crop of black-eyed peas were grown for a Pecan crop, to hinder stink bugs. The growers determined for every dollar they spent establishing and maintaining the trap crops, they prevented $9.01 in kernel damage from stink bugs.

In Israel, birds of prey are now being being used instead of pesticides - kestrels for the daytime and owls at night.

A research project in the University of Georgia has just begun, which uses floral farmscaping with a 21,000 plant organic broccoli crop.

The experiment involves planting two sets of broccoli plants using organic methods. One set has flowers � such as yarrow and dill � in the middle, and the other set does not.

The flowers are intended to attract predatory insects like lady beetles that feed on harmful insects such as caterpillars and other pests that destroy crops.

The flowers also provide food and shelter for the insects that would naturally use broccoli for these resources and, in the process, ruin the crop.

In research quite directly applicable to the Irish situation, hedgerows are also useful for natural pest management.

Steve D Wratten (University of Southampton) and colleagues published research in 2004 in the journal Biomedical and Life Sciences. His research suggested that, along with various other benefits, hedgerows and can also impede crop damaging flying insects.

This research assessed the relative presence of types of pollen in hover flies, to assess how certain barriers performed, namely poplar trees and fencing. They found that �the poplar boundary restricted the movement of the flies, but the fence had no effect�.

With resources like fossil fuels and phosphate running out, farming will have to start to get creative with plants and animal biodiversity to keep feeding people profitably.

It is only a matter of time.