Non Lavorazione e Lavorazioni Ridotte: primi risultati sperimentali in Provincia di Cremona

[Autom. eng. transl.] In the Rural Development Program (PSR 2007/2013) of Lombardy, the measure 214 concerning “agri-environmental payments” is operative, or rather those rewards destined to repay the lower incomes or the higher costs deriving partially from the straws and the stalks, so that the soil remains uniformly covered after processing. The agri-environmental motivations of the measure lie in the fact that with conservative agriculture we obtain: 1- an improvement in the state of health of the soil, through the increase of its endowment of organic substance; 2- better air quality, thanks to the reduction of atmospheric CO2 and its sequestration in organic soil; 3- an efficient use of water, due to the increase in the porosity of the agricultural land and the ability to infiltrate water into the soil; 4- the reduction of the drawbacks of conventional intensive agriculture, such as the compaction and erosion of the soil, the risks of environmental pollution, the disappearance of biodiversity, etc. These and other agri-environmental benefits, including those ecosystem services on which it is not possible to dwell here for the sake of brevity, are maximum when non-processing is adopted, while they become increasingly blurred when opting for reduced processing, depending on their degree of relevance to conservative techniques. To raise awareness and make the farmers of Cremona aware of the application of measure 214 / M, starting from 2011, comparative trials between Conservative and Conventional Agriculture are held at the Cervi Ciboldi farm in Luignano di Sesto Cremonese. The research is promoted by the Lombardy Region and the Province of Cremona, with the collaboration of AIGACoS (Italian Association for Agronomic and Conservative Soil Management) and the scientific support of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Catholic University of Piacenza-Cremona. The main purpose is to evaluate the effects of non-processing on crop productivity and soil quality from the voluntary assumption of multi-year commitments with a strong agri-environmental character. Measure 214 is divided into various actions, such as rotation and fertilization plans, organic, integrated and extensive productions, maintenance of hedges or rows, wooded buffer strips and, as a novelty in 2011, introduction of Conservative Agriculture techniques. This last action, signed M, has been very successful among Lombard farmers, totaling 23,000 ha and 438 applications in two years of application, of which almost 70 in the province of Cremona. Action M consists in the adoption of direct sowing (not processing, no-tillage) or minimum tillage, techniques that have been widely practiced in the Americas and Australia for decades, which provide for total abandonment or a significant reduction in the number and of the intensity of the workings of the land, in synergy with a correct management of the crop residue and the alternations. In fact, the action M prescribes for the action on direct sowing, in addition to the certification of the correct execution of the technique, the prohibition of self-succession of the crops, except in particular cases, and the removal only