A permanent farming system is a farm, where you crop every year continuously and forever without shifting to another farm. Due to its nature, there is need for extra efforts by farmers to apply some measures that would help the soil to continue to be productive and free from wind and water erosion.

Permanent farming is being practiced due to insufficient land to meet demands. However, the land could be worked with farm animals just to reduce farm labour and to improve farm yield. Permanent farm land is highly predisposed to fire, wind and water erosion.

This article however advanced measures of how to overcome any of the above menaces;

The Elements of Permanent Farming System

A permanent farming system is a farm, where you crop every year continuously and forever without shifting to another farm.

The new permanent farming system has a lot of elements as stated by Glover and Reganold (2010), and all geared towards improving permanent farming system. The improvement can be achieved through:

Making Contour Bonds (trig ridges) along contour lines to prevents erosion;

Planting of permanent and seasonal crops, reinforcing the contour bonds and producing a lot of food.

It also brings about producing increasing income;

Small ridges prepared by oxen between the contour bonds to prevent erosion and provide optimum growing conditions for seasonal crops;

Mixed cropping and crop rotation of seasonal crops conserves the soil, protects the crops against diseases and guarantees good yields;

Planting of legumes in order to improve the soil fertility for higher yields;

The use of oxen for farm work just to reduce the labour burden on man and accelerate farm work;

With the draft oxen, you can increase the size of your farm, your production and your income;

Keeping of draft oxen in the cowshed during the night protects the oxen and allows the production of cowdung;

Use of cowdung and green manure reduces the expense of mineral fertilizer, improves the soil and increases the yields, and

Vegetable gardening improves the family diet and produces additional income by marketing of surplus vegetables.

Reasons for Practicing Permanent Farming System

Reasons and Benefits for Practicing Permanent Farming System

There are many reasons why farmers practice or get engaged in permanent farming system. The reasons and importance are used interchangeably. The report on permanent crop establishment narrated that the reasons include;

Due to population explosion, there is scarcity of land for farming. This system helps in meeting up with the demand for farming land.

The system helps to reduce or ease farm labour especially when a farmer is when shifting to a new farm. This is because, the farmer would have a lot of work to do in terms of clearing and de-stumping.

Such a permanent farm is better protected against bushfires;

A permanent farm allows continuous production and this helps in producing continuously and thus ensuring food security.

This type of farming creates the best use of land; by simply planting those permanent crops that are sure will do well in the land.

Due to the fact that permanent farm is usually a large one and centered in one place, it therefore reduces transport or walking time of the farmer, and

After some time, the farmer knows his/her permanent farm very well and with this knowledge, he/she can know which crops to grow on which plot of his/her permanent farm.

Reasons why Farmers Use Draft Animals in Permanent Farms

The traditional ways of farming which involves the use of cutlasses and hand-hoe is tedious and not very efficient. To overcome the level of inefficiency in farming can be achieved with the use of draft animals.

With the use of draft animals most of the farm operations like clearing, plowing, harrowing, planting, ridging, weeding, moulding and transportation can be mechanized. In a precise manner, Permanent Crop – Wikipedia stated that with the use of draft animals the farmer can;

Reduce the labour burden on the farmer and farm work therefore becomes easier;

Accelerate working operations by having the farm work becoming faster;

Use of draft animals can help to increase the size of the farmers farm land, thus leading to increases in production of the farm;

Keeping and use of draft animals can produce manure which can be used in improving of soil fertility (without buying and use of mineral / inorganic fertilizer) and consequently increase in yields of the farm, and

The farmers that own the work animals can do contract labour to help other farmers and consequently increase their own farm income.

Conservation of the Soil

The soil is a living thing like man, animal and plant. So there is need to protect it using proper or recommended management techniques.

Conservation of soil means, keeping its power active or keeping it fertile in order to produce food.

If you don’t protect it against soil diseases or if you overwork your soil without adding soil food (nutrients), it will have no power or ability to produce crops well and such soil will die. Among the different enemies of the soil, the most important are fire and erosion.

Need to Protect the Soil against Fire

Destruction of soil by fire can be caused by the farming method applied by the farmer. Such fire can burn the organic matter of the soil. Due to the devastating effects of fire, there is need to protect the soil against fire.

Some of the reasons according to a report on Principles of Permanent Agriculture why the soil should be protected against fire are:

Fire can destroy the crops in the farm if not controlled. This will result to losses and drop in yield of the farm. Large outbreak can lead to food insecurity.

Fire can also destroy the sheds of animals. This condition will lead to shortage in animal source of protein intake.

Fire also destroys organic matter (grass, crop debris, etc.) in the soil. This organic matter are very important as food / nutrients to the crops / plants and need not to be burnt or should be protected.

Fire will also destroy the life in the soil such as microbes which act like a stomach and change organic matter into plant food. The microbes help in the decomposition of organic matter of the soil for its use.

Fire can as well destroy the structure of the soil. The soil will lose its strength and will easily be carried away by wind and water; and

Fire can attack and destroy the texture of the soil, thereby making loamy fertile soil into sandy unfertile soil.

Measures of How to Protect the Soil against Fire

There are different measures that can be applied by the farmer that could help to protect the soil against fire and its devastating effects. Some of the measures include:

Practicing fire dressing to avoid bush fire in your farm. This involves keeping away any material that can burn from the farm.

If you clear your farm at the beginning of the dry season the organic matter can be buried and this will help to guide against fire outbreak, bush fire cannot enter your farm because bare soil cannot burn.

Crop residues (like maize stalk, rice straw, etc.) should not be left in the farm after harvesting of crops has been carried.

Need to Protect the Soil against Erosion

Apart from fire, erosion can destroy your soil. Permanent crop establishment report stated that we have different types of erosion; these are water and wind erosion. If the soil is carried away by water, we call it water erosion. If the soil is carried away by wind, we call it wind erosion.

Only running water on sloppy land can carry away soil. Again, the steeper the slope, the more power the water develops and the more soil it washes away. We have to stop the power of running water to prevent water erosion. This can be achieved through:

To stop running water on a slope, we have to cultivate along contour lines (contour line is an imaginary line running across the slope) and build dams or ridges along the contour lines.

A contour line is an imaginary line running across the slope, where all points on this line are on the same level of altitude. This means: If you make a dam according to this line, water will stop and will not continue in any direction but will seep into the soil.

Do not cultivate in the direction of the slope. Water flows fast between the ridges and carries away the soil; Plant along contour lines when ridges are made across the slope water cannot run and carry away the soil.

The soil can also be mulched to protect it from direct hit of the rain drops that could cause splash erosion.

Making of terracing across slopes can also help in breaking down water currents, thus reducing erosion and its impact.

Apart from permanent crops which guarantee a long-term income, you can plant seasonal crops that are also fast-growing like: beans, soya beans, ground nuts, corn, bitter leaves, pepper, okra, etc. to help protect the soil against erosion before the establishment of the permanent crops, and;

Farmers should also practice the style of planting on ridges made across slopes. This practice helps to prevent erosion between the contour bonds.

How to Protect the Soil against Wind Erosion

Wind can impact on the plant or crop positively when it is gentle and cool. On the other hand, wind can be dangerous and can attack the soil when;

It is powerful
The soil is bare, and
When the soil structure is damaged.
To break the power of the wind,

The farmers have to establish wind breaks. This involves the planting of tall trees that would grow and break the strength of the wind.

The trees can be establish at the comers of your farms. Trees and hedges can also serve as a living fence for your farms, to protect them against destruction by cattle.

A well-established contour bond with permanent crops can reduce the power of the wind.

In addition, one can plant crops that can help to mulch the soil. With that, the soil will not be exposed and so wind cannot be able to do any harm to it.

Planting of crops that can form canopy on time would as well help to cover the soil from being attacked by strong wind.

The practice of mixed cropping system with a high plant population and double cropping to have a good soil protection would go a long way in protecting the soil from wind erosion.

Planting on Ridges

Ridges are defined as the lines along which two sloping surfaces meet which diverge towards the ground. Where farm is concerned, a ridge is like a raised or tilled soil along certain line.

Ridges help to protect the crop against flood and also improve the yield. The different ways ridges help to protect the plants and improve its yield according to Glover and Reganold (2010) are:

Ridges provide the crops with a better seed bed.

With ridges, air and water are stored better in the soil. They both help to promote the growth of the crop.

Growing crops on ridges make the crops to germinate better;

Ridges also make the roots of the young plants to develop better.

Ridges can easily be filled with a lot of manure for higher yields.

Weeding is easier on ridges, especially when you use the ridger.

The soil on ridges dries off faster and prevents especially fungal diseases from spreading.

Harvest of root and tuber crops is easier when crops are planted on ridges.

Planting on ridges is another way of controlling soil erosion.

In summary, a permanent farming system is a farm, where a farmer crops every year and forever without shifting to another farm. The system impacts much pressure on the soil but can be remedied through the application of manure and the use of draft animals to help reduce farm labour.

The soil is affected by wind and water erosion and this do destroy the soil texture and structure as well as its nutrient level. Nevertheless the menace of soil erosion can be controlled by planting of cover crops, planting of trees and plant crops along contour lines.