Adopting climate-smart agricultural techniques
No-till or low-till conservation agriculture retains crop residues on the soil surface, and saves water that is otherwise lost through evaporation. It thus enhances crop yield relative to evapotranspiration, as more water is transpired by the crop, rather than being lost as evaporation.
Farm-management practices that enhance soil carbon concentrations sequester carbon, and thus reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Legumes are particularly valuable in increasing soil carbon storage, as monocrops or intercrops and in crop rotations.
Sustainable farming not only a matter of maximising yield, but also about reducing inputs of fertilisers and pesticides, and minimising offsite environmental impact.
Biography: Hans Lambers
I was born in the Netherlands; PhD (1979), and appointed Professor of Ecophysiology at Utrecht University (1985). In 1998, I migrated to Australia, where I was appointed Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Western Australia. There, I studied rhizosphere biology and mineral nutrition of Australian native species and crop plants, seeking to discover how some Australian plants acquire phosphorus from depauperate soil and use it very efficiently.
I have published >460 refereed articles, with an H index of 71, and feature on the current ISI Highly Cited list. In 2003 I was elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2012 to the Australian Academy of Science. I received Honorary Professorships from China Agricultural University (2002), Chinese Academy of Sciences (Research Centre for Eco- Environmental Sciences, Beijing) (2004), Shenyang Agricultural University (2018), and Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China. (2019). I received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Society of Root Research (2018) and was awarded a China 1000 Talent Fellowship (2018). I was appointed as Distinguished Professor at the National Academy of Agriculture Green Development at China Agricultural University in 2018.
