Permaculture / Cultivating Sustainability

Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy that integrates land, resources, people, and the environment in a sustainable and regenerative way. It aims to create self-sufficient agricultural systems modeled on natural ecosystems. 

Here are some key principles of permaculture:

Observe and Interact - By observing natural patterns and interactions, we can design sustainable systems.

Catch and Store Energy - This involves capturing and storing resources when they are abundant for use in times of need.

Obtain a Yield - Ensure that you are getting useful rewards as part of your work.

Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback - We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.

Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services - Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.

Produce No Waste - By valuing and making use of all the resources available, we minimize waste.

Design from Patterns to Details - Observing patterns in nature and society provides insights for designing efficient systems.

Integrate Rather Than Segregate - By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they support each other.

Use Small and Slow Solutions - Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.

Use and Value Diversity - Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment.

Use Edges and Value the Marginal - The most interesting events often occur at the edges, where different environments meet. The interface between things is where the most valuable, diverse, and productive elements often exist.

Creatively Use and Respond to Change - We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing and then intervening at the right time.

Permaculture Abundance / Land Equivalent Ratio

The Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) concept is considered for situations where intercropping must be compared with growing each crop sole. The need to use different standardizing sole crop yields in forming LERs is discussed, and a method of calculating an ‘effective LER’ is proposed to evaluate situations where the yield proportions achieved in intercropping are different from those that might be required by a farmer. 

The possible importance of effective LERs in indicating the proportions of crops likely to give the biggest yield advantages is discussed. Sustainable intensification of agriculture is needed to meet higher future food demands while mitigating agriculture’s ecological footprint. Intercropping is a strategy for increasing agricultural productivity per unit of land that is based on ecological mechanisms for improved resource capture. 

Here we use meta-analysis of the intercropping literature to study how the productivity of mixed systems is affected by intercrop system design and species traits. We at CCRES are focused on the effects of temporal niche differentiation between species, intercropping patterns, and relative densities. Thus, enhanced within-field crop diversity can make an important contribution to sustainable increases in food production.