Permaculture for every farmer: how to battle drought

Abstract

Since the agricultural revolution of the 20th century the agricultural system has become too polluting and unsustainable. In order to change, policy makers and farmers need to come together to make the transition towards more sustainable but simultaneously high yielding agricultural practices. A permaculture approach could form the basis for this agricultural transition since its aim is creating a balanced world between humans and nature. In this review it was found that all permaculture principles can be grouped into 13 categories. And that the most important contemporary permaculture techniques for water management are: increasing the organic matter content, mulching, using keyline design, making swales, using mainly perennials, using native species, choosing multi-purpose plants and lastly practicing guild formation. If policy makers and conventional farmers would embrace the benefits of these techniques it would help alleviate some of the drought problems in warm temperate zones while simultaneously giving lots of other benefits to the environment.