What is a furrow? Another idea.

I have just watched this video by IFAD where Pablo Tittonell, Professor and Chair of the Farming Systems Ecology Group at Wageningen University explains the advantage of conservation agriculture in enhancing food security for farmers in the Global South.

The short lecture, which could be even considered reinventing the wheel for those of us that study these processes on the field, I think is very illustrative and could be certainly used in teaching our students the challenges and the solutions that smallholders deal with on a everyday basis.

What however triggered me to bring our readership´s attention to this video is the use that Prof. Tittonell does of the word "furrow". According to him a furrow is not a water canal or channel but a rut where seeds are planted. His take on the term goes along the argument by Prof Widgren, earlier on this blog, that furrow should not be used to define irrigation canals in Africa as it doesn´t fit into the existing engineering terminology hence not opening up for international comparisons.