Track 2‐7‐1: Seed Production, Storage, Quality, Testing, Quarantine and Marketing Systems
Description
Up to the 1980’s marginal soils in the central grasslands of South Africa were successfully ploughed for crop production, but unfortunately those soils soon proved to be uneconomical. Due to high input costs, low maize prices, and unreliable rainfall, the Department of Agriculture soon implemented the “soil conversion scheme” to promote the conversion of those ploughed marginal soils to permanent pastures. Regardless of the implementation the soil conversion scheme, many farmers unfortunately just abandoned some of these marginal fields, not establishing permanent pastures. This led to many hectares of unproductive previously cultivated fields, referred to as abandoned fields. It was noted that such abandoned fields do not recover to the same potential as the natural grassland of those areas. Therefore, it was decided to investigate a few such fields at a single location in a semi-arid climate of the Free State province, South Africa. The aim was to gain some knowledge on the dynamics of such disturbed ecosystems and identify the restoration potential of such situations. Amongst others, the soil seed bank was investigated to quantify the soil seed bank potential of abandoned fields, and why climax grass species do not establish voluntarily on these disturbed areas. The main aim was to quantify the differences in the soil seed bank between abandoned fields and natural grasslands, by investigating the research question: are there any climax grass species in the soil seed bank of abandoned fields available for grassland restoration?
Included in
Soil Seed Bank Study on Abandoned Fields and Semi-Arid Grassland, South Africa
Up to the 1980’s marginal soils in the central grasslands of South Africa were successfully ploughed for crop production, but unfortunately those soils soon proved to be uneconomical. Due to high input costs, low maize prices, and unreliable rainfall, the Department of Agriculture soon implemented the “soil conversion scheme” to promote the conversion of those ploughed marginal soils to permanent pastures. Regardless of the implementation the soil conversion scheme, many farmers unfortunately just abandoned some of these marginal fields, not establishing permanent pastures. This led to many hectares of unproductive previously cultivated fields, referred to as abandoned fields. It was noted that such abandoned fields do not recover to the same potential as the natural grassland of those areas. Therefore, it was decided to investigate a few such fields at a single location in a semi-arid climate of the Free State province, South Africa. The aim was to gain some knowledge on the dynamics of such disturbed ecosystems and identify the restoration potential of such situations. Amongst others, the soil seed bank was investigated to quantify the soil seed bank potential of abandoned fields, and why climax grass species do not establish voluntarily on these disturbed areas. The main aim was to quantify the differences in the soil seed bank between abandoned fields and natural grasslands, by investigating the research question: are there any climax grass species in the soil seed bank of abandoned fields available for grassland restoration?
