Oregon State University scientists have found a resource to increase agricultural production on dry, unirrigated farmlands, it is simply solar panels or an array as a group of solar panels on farm land is called. A new kind of farming in itself ?)
In a study published Thursday in the journal PLOS One, a research team in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences serendipitously discovered that grasses favored by sheep and cattle thrive in the shade of a solar array installed in a pasture on the OSU campus.
The results of the OSU study indicate that locating solar panels on pasture or agricultural fields could increase crop yields, said corresponding author Chad Higgins, an associate professor in the Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering.
“There are some plants that are happier in shaded environments,” he said. “The amount of water that went into the making those plants is tremendously smaller than in the open field. You get double the yield, less water .
For a couple of years now, I've have visions of ancients teaching us how to survive climate change, on growing food in rough conditions, where to live, and underground housing to protect from heat and storm surges.
This week, I learned about a model farm in France that has made stunning advances in growing large amounts of food per square meter.
They don't use tractors, it's all by hand, and they grow different plants altogether in combinations that maximize soil moisture, humus, and biodiversity for a huge per square meter output.
It is permaculture on steroids and the founder got his ideas from pre-industrial farming.
I would like to try their techniques on my small plot.
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/permaculture-bec-hellouin-farm-france/
@jeanne-mayell Thank you for sharing this article! Very exciting! I have been experimenting for several years with companion planting in covered raised beds here in Bend, Oregon, on a very small scale and with some pretty good luck. Our climate is challenging for gardening - 3600 feet elevation, high desert, cold, short growing season. I also save seeds from what I grow, gradually working my way back toward Heritage-type crops. It’s fun to share what I grow, as well as what I learn from trying different techniques.
I am increasingly of the belief that "the future of farming" is mostly the past of farming.
My current mental health busy-work is a series of hugulkultur berms -- chopped up branches and twigs buried in leaves and pine needles, with a layer of silt from our creek, which I am slowly dredging by hand.
Our 3.5 acres of Carolina Piedmont are a weird hodgepodge of ideas culled from all sorts of influences, and while I am excited by things like seeing sheep and goats grazing beneath solar arrays, what really gets me excited is seeing stands of berries on the edge of an orchard, with alleys planted with perennial herbs and bee forage, and pockets of veggies popping up willy-nilly all over the place in unexpected locations.
I know not everyone can afford that much land, but one of the images I have seen that has impressed me most deeply over the last couple of decades is a picture of an apartment hi-rise in Nairobi where every single balcony has hanging sacks of growing potatoes, squash, etc. and the vacant lot next to it is full of amaranth, corn, and melons. We can feed the hungry and be kind to the Earth and we don't need inventions so much as we need commitment in order to do so.