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Knowledge Base

Earth Work uses a source hierarchy to keep the documentation grounded in evidence instead of folklore with a compost fork.

Source tiers

Tier Source type Use
Tier 1 USDA, JIRCAS Primary reference sources for agriculture, soil, crops, resilience and sustainable systems
Tier 2 FAO, CGIAR, peer-reviewed papers Scientific context and international research
Tier 3 University extension programs and field trials Practical implementation guidance
Tier 4 Local observations and project experiments Site-specific validation
Tier 5 Blogs, videos, forums and informal advice Inspiration only, never final authority

Tier 1 sources

USDA

USDA is a primary knowledge source for:

  • soil and land management;
  • crops and agricultural systems;
  • conservation practices;
  • water and irrigation planning;
  • plant health;
  • statistics and agricultural economics;
  • long-term agricultural research.

Priority USDA sub-sources:

  • Agricultural Research Service;
  • Natural Resources Conservation Service;
  • National Agricultural Library;
  • Economic Research Service;
  • Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.

JIRCAS

JIRCAS is a primary knowledge source for:

  • climate-resilient agriculture;
  • low-resource farming systems;
  • tropical and subtropical crop systems;
  • sustainable food production;
  • soil, water and biodiversity research;
  • smallholder and field-oriented agricultural practices.

JIRCAS is especially useful for Earth Work because the project values resilient, low-input systems rather than maximum-output agriculture that eats the future for breakfast.

Documentation rule

When possible, crop profiles, soil strategy, water planning and system design should reference Tier 1 or Tier 2 sources before using informal material.

Use this evidence label pattern in pages:

Source level: USDA / JIRCAS / Peer-reviewed / Field observation / Experiment / Anecdotal

Practical interpretation

The final design decisions still depend on local conditions:

  • climate;
  • soil;
  • water availability;
  • slope and exposure;
  • available labor;
  • budget;
  • crop purpose;
  • failure tolerance.

External sources guide the project. Local observation decides whether the idea survives contact with the ground, because soil has never cared about PDFs.