St. Louis, Missouri
January 30, 2008Farmers
are adopting best management practices in record numbers,
according to a survey just released by the Conservation
Technology Information Center (CTIC) and The Fertilizer
Institute (TFI). The National
Corn Growers Association (NCGA) hailed this survey as
further evidence that growers are doing the right thing.
Among the results:
- More than three-quarters
of those responding have conservation plans.
- Three out of five have
fully adopted nutrient management plans.
- More than half of row crop
producers who responded to the survey have fully adopted
conservation tillage, nutrient management, grassed waterways
and integrated pest, disease and weed management.
“Our growers know that
successful farming requires proper stewardship of our land, air
and water,” said David Ward, Chairman of NCGA’s Production and
Stewardship Action Team. “This further confirms that we are
seeing positive trends, and we continue to employ increased
fertilizer efficiency and reduced use of pesticides and
herbicides.”
NCGA promoted this new CTIC/TFI
survey to its membership, and approximately 2,000 farmers
nationwide responded to the survey in late 2007, representing
2.5 million acres of farmed cropland. Survey respondents had an
average of 29 years of farming experience, and 75 percent of
those answering the survey farm a corn-soybean rotation or a
corn-soybean-wheat rotation. Seventy-nine percent had at least
some college education.
Last year, NCGA joined a new
agricultural sustainability initiative managed by the Keystone
Center. One of the goals of this effort is to increase
productivity to meet future nutritional needs while decreasing
impacts on the environment, including water, soil, habitat, air
quality and climate emissions, and land use.
Click here for more information on the CTIC/Fertilizer
Institute survey.
Click here for more information on the Keystone
initiative.
Click here for more information on NCGA and
conservation.
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