Policy pathways for perennial agriculture

Perennial agriculture refers to agricultural systems in which perennial crops are a central strategy for producing farm products and ecosystem services. Perennial agriculture offers a range of ecosystem services, including improved soil health and biodiversity, high carbon sequestration rates, agroecosystems better adapted to climate change, improved water quality, and economically viable products. Shifting U.S. agriculture to be perennial-focused will require a range of support structures, including federal policy changes. Federal policymakers should support perennial agriculture by establishing safety nets like those available for annual crops, centering perennial practices in cost-sharing conservation programs, facilitating market opportunities, and investing in perennial agriculture research and development

Perennial vegetables: A neglected resource for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and nutrition.

Perennial vegetables are a neglected and underutilized class of crops with potential to address 21st century challenges. They represent 33-56% of cultivated vegetable species, and occupy 6% of world vegetable cropland. Despite their distinct relevance to climate change mitigation and nutritional security, perennial vegetables receive little attention in the scientific literature. Compared to widely grown and marketed vegetable crops, many perennial vegetables show higher levels of key nutrients needed to address deficiencies. Trees with edible leaves are the group of vegetables with the highest levels of these key nutrients. Individual "multi-nutrient" species are identified with very high levels of multiple nutrients for addressing deficiencies. This paper reports on the synthesis and meta-analysis of a heretofore fragmented global literature on 613 cultivated perennial vegetables, representing 107 botanical families from every inhabited continent, in order to characterize the extent and potential of this class of crops. Carbon sequestration potential from new adoption of perennial vegetables is estimated at 22.7-280.6 MMT CO2-eq/yr on 4.6-26.4 Mha by 2050

Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual (NRAES-177)

This 154 page publication (NRAES-177) and accompanying poster (NRAES 204) were originally published by the Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service (NRAES, previously known as the Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service), a multi-university program in the Northeast US disbanded in 2011. Plant and Life Sciences Publishing (PALS) was subsequently formed to manage the NRAES catalog. Ceasing operations in 2018, PALS was a program of the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University. PALS assisted university faculty in publishing, marketing and distributing books for small farmers, gardeners, land owners, workshops, college courses, and consumers.Reviews the do’s, don’ts, how’s, and why’s of crop rotation and its many applications, such as improving soil quality and health, and managing pests, diseases, and weeds. Expert organic farmers helped develop crop rotation guidelines for a variety of field conditions and crops. Discusses crop rotation when transitioning to organic farming. Describes problems and opportunities with rotation sequences for 52 crops including vegetables and fruits. It contains a rotation planning guide and 13 sample crop rotations. Intended for farmers, educators, students, and advisors. The book (NRAES 177) is also useful for conventional farms and will be most applicable for the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada. It will also be useful in other parts of the US, Canada, and even Europe. An accompanying 2 foot by 3 foot poster (NRAES 204) is also provided, based on Appendix 2: Crop Sequence Problems and Opportunities, in the book. It can be used with the book to develop crop rotation sequences for all farms