Efficiency Farming

 A report was recently released by a coalition of agricultural, food and environmental groups called the Keystone Alliance. This first of its kind report shows promising trends in reducing the environmental footprint of U.S. crop production. The group looked at land, water and energy use, soil loss and climate impact in four crops including wheat since 1987. Marty Matlock, Area Director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainability at the University of Arkansas says that production agriculture is becoming increasingly efficient.

 (Matlock) “We’re getting more crops, more bushels per acre, more bushels per gallon of water, more bushels per pound of nitrogen, more bushels per pound or gallon of pesticide use, more bushels per pass of the tractor on the field. All of that means we have less impact on the land.

 The initial index shows that soil loss per unit of output has declined by between 30-70% for the four crops evaluated. Energy use is down between 40-60%, irrigated water use is down 20-50%, while carbon emissions have dropped 33%. Applying its cumulative data, the Keystone Alliance is developing an online calculator to help individual growers assess the sustainability of their operations where dramatic improvements in the measured variables have been observed.