Soil moisture monitoring is critical for managing water resources in an efficient manner. This applies to both irrigated and rainfed cropping systems. Water is increasingly becoming the most limiting resource needed to meet the food and fiber needs of a growing and more affluent population. Soil moisture monitoring can e.g. be used as a tool to assist irrigation scheduling. Irrigation management gives better crops, using fewer inputs, which increases profitability. Soil moisture sensors help with irrigation decisions.

Conventional tillage is the traditional method of farming in which soil is prepared for planting by completely inverting it with a tractor-pulled plough, followed by subsequent additional tillage to smooth the soil surface for crop cultivation. In contrast, conservation tillage is a tillage system that conserves soil, water and energy resources through the reduction of tillage intensity and retention of crop residue. Conservation tillage involves the planting, growing and harvesting of crops with limited disturbance to the soil surface.

Efficient use of nitrogenous fertilisers can reduce N₂O emissions from agricultural fields. In addition, by reducing the quantity of synthetic fertilisers required, improved management can also reduce CO₂ emissions associated with their manufacture. In this article a variety of fertiliser management technologies are discussed in brief, followed by a discussion on their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Pre-germinated seeds or seedlings are directly planted in soil or broadcast in flooded field under this technology. Rice cultivation is responsible for 10% of GHG emissions from agriculture. In developing countries, the share of rice in GHG emissions from agriculture is even higher, e.g., it was 16% in 1994.

Fertilisation with muriate of potash (MOP) can significantly reduce emissions of methane from flooded soils planted with rice. Rice cultivation is responsible for 10% of GHG emissions from agriculture. In developing countries, the share of rice in GHG emissions from agriculture is even higher, e.g., it was 16% in 1994.

Breeding for improved performance under environmental stresses involves activities which accumulate favourable alleles (different forms of a gene) which contribute to stress tolerance. Biotechnological contributions to crop adaptation to climate change do not only, or even mainly, concern the placement into the crop of one or more genes from an organism with which the crop could not normally breed (i.e. genetically modified crops).

The introduction of new cultivated species and improved varieties of crop is a technology aimed at enhancing plant productivity, quality, health and nutritional value and/or building crop resilience to diseases, pest organisms and environmental stresses. Crop diversification refers to the addition of new crops or cropping systems to agricultural production on a particular farm taking into account the different returns from value-added crops with complementary marketing opportunities. Major driving forces for crop diversification include:

Description

Crop rotation consists in sequentially producing plant species in a given location by alternating crops every year, every two years or every three years. This diversified production system prevents the build-up of pests and diseases as well as the exhaustion of the soil that usually occur with production of a single crop (or crops of a single family) in successive agricultural cycles.

Description

A greenhouse is a closed structure, covered with translucent materials, that creates optimal climate, water, pest control, soil fertility and ventilation conditions in order to attain high productivity more quickly, at lower cost and with less of an environmental impact. Climate variables inside the greenhouse are controlled with several devices and materials including, inter alia, shade mesh, windows and openings, forced ventilation and humidifiers.

Aeroponics

Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics). Unlike hydroponice, which uses a liquid nutrient solution as a growin medium and essential minerals to sustain plant growth; or aquaponics which uses water and fish waste, aeroponics is conducted without a growing medium.