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Welcome to the ProTerra Website |
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Your online resource for soil protection in Mediterranean olives and vines |
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ProTerra is a collaborative research project between academic institutions, NGO's and Industry, which has been designed to test agronomic approaches for soil and water conservation in Mediterranean perennial cropping systems (e.g. olives and vines). The project's key aim is to help reduce the extreme soil losses which are occurring under conventional soil management, using practical techniques which are compatible with the cropping systems. |
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Field trials have been installed in France , Italy , Portugal and Spain . Generally, the approaches tested are based on the use of non-selective herbicides (e.g. glyphosate and paraquat) to manage vegetative soil cover between crop rows; the vegetative cover consisting of either deliberately sown vegetation or naturally occurring weeds. These cover crops protect and strengthen the soil, increasing their ability to resist soil erosion and absorb water. |
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The outcomes of the approaches taken are compared with local conventional practice, which most commonly consists of soil tillage used to maintain weed free inter-rows, this tillage being the major reason for increased soil erosion risk. The approaches are compared in terms of soil erosion, water run-off and the economic consequences. Recently (2005) further assessments have started to compare crop quality and biodiversity. |
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The information generated is being disseminated to farmers and other stakeholders to persuade them of the agronomic, economic and environmental benefits of soil and water conservation. ProTerra, with its sister project SOWAP ( www.sowap.org ) is also engaged in Pan-European dissemination of the benefits of soil and water conservation. |
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© Syngenta 2005
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