Purpose

Strip cropping reduces soil erosion by reducing the effective slope length in undulating country. This is achieved by growing in strips and in an alternating fashion a minimum of two different crops along a slope. The crops usually differ substantially in their planting and harvesting date, thereby ensuring that at any time at least half of the slope is covered by vegetation. Strip cropping permits crop rotation, maximises the use of rainfall and allows for the use of modern machinery.

Components that may be affected:          Soil acidity; Soil salinity; Soil nitrogen and Soil phosphorus.

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Some characteristics of strip cropping as a sustainable management practice were investigated by Cary et al. (2002). The results are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Characteristics of sustainable management practices as assessed by Cary et al. (2002)

Sustainable practice	Geographic applicability	Relative advantage	Risk	Complexity	Compatibility	Trialability	Observability
(Ideal rating)	(high)	(high)	(low)	(low)	(high)	(high)	(high)
Strip cropping	medium

• Geographic applicability—refers to relative appropriateness of a practice, in terms of whether it is effective or adapted to only specific localities or, more universally, across many localities.
• Relative advantage—relates to the financial advantage or other convenience or personal advantage to the farm business or the adopter.
• Risk—refers to uncertainty about likely benefits or costs associated with a sustainable practice, the effectiveness of the practice, when the benefits might be realised and the social acceptability of the practice.
• Complexity—implies that a practice comprises more than one or two simple elements and that its elements interact with each other and, in sometimes complicated ways, with elements of the farming system into which it is to be incorporated.
• Compatibility—refers to the extent to which a practice fits in with existing farm practices, knowledge or social practice.
• Trialability—where practices can be implemented on a small or pilot scale, decisions can be more easily made about the value of a new practice without the risks associated with full implementation.
• Observability—practices where the impact or advantage is easily observable or the outcome quickly realised are more likely to be adopted.

Indicator

Results

The 2001-02 Resource Management Survey, cariied out by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), estimated that five per cent of broadacre and dairy industry farms in the high rainfall and sheep-wheat zones regularly used strip cropping in 2001-02 (ABARE 2002). The survey is carried out intermittently and may be repeated in the future (Nelson et al. 2004). Additional survey data from research and devlopment corporations and grower groups may be available.

Table 2: Estimated percentage of farms using the management practice

^{Source- ABARE 2001-02 Resource Management Survey.} 

^{Note: RSE = Relative standard error; Population (farms) = 38502,  Sample (farms) = 579}

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VARIABLE	DESCRIPTION
Population	Estimated number of broadacre and dairy industry farms in the selected category with an EVAO greater than $22 500.
Sample	Number of broadacre and dairy industry farms that responded to questions in the 2001-02 Resource Management supplementary in the selected category.
Strip cropping	Strip cropping is part of farm management practices (wheat-sheep and high-rainfall zone only)

 

References

ABARE (2002) 2001-02 Resource Management Survey: Data Package 2001-02. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Canberra. Website- http://www.abareconomics.com/ame/lrm2/lrmalt.asp. Accessed 14/05/2007.

Cary, J. Webb, T. and Barr, N. (2002) Understanding landholders capacity to change to sustainable practices: Insights about practice adoption and social capacity for change. Bureau of Rural Sciences, Canberra, p. 17.

Nelson, R., Alexander, F., Elliston, L. and Blias, A. (2004) 2001-02 Resource Management Survey: Natural Resource Management on Australian Farms report. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Canberra. Website- http://abareonlineshop.com/PdfFiles/PC12675.pdf. Accessed 14/05/2007.