Conservation Agriculture

Implementation of Conservation Agriculture (CA) project is a process of multi-participation that involves actors from agricultural researchers and scientists, extension agents, private consulting firms, pioneer farmers, rural cooperatives, family members, peer farmers, etc. The social interactions between farmers and actors drive the CA development. Therefore, this study analyzes the social network structures and characteristics of various actors by social network analysis in seven processes of applying CA in Iran. The research sample was composed of farmers who participated in the CA project in three provinces of Fars, Golestan, and Khuzestan (n= 133). The research instrument was a questionnaire that was designed as a matrix. The findings showed that pioneer farmers, CA farmers, and family members were the main actors in the farmers' social network. It can be concluded that these actors were the main social power in applying CA principles by farmers and they constituted the mai...

While numerous studies have documented the benefits of conservation agriculture (CA) in South Asia, most focus on favorable environments where farmers have reliable access to energy supporting irrigation and inputs. The performance of CA in South Asia’s under-developed coastal environments is comparatively understudied. In these environments, farmers are increasingly interested in growing a second crop to meet food security and income generation objectives in rotation following the predominant monsoon season rice crop, though labor, energy costs, and investment constraints limit their ability to do so. We hypothesized that rotating rice (Oryza sativa) with maize (Zea mays) using conservation agriculture, or CA (i.e., strip-tilled maize followed by unpuddled transplanted rice), or seasonally alternating tillage (SAT, i.e., strip-tilled maize followed by fully-tilled, puddled rice with residues retained across rotations) would reduce costs and energy use, increase energy-use efficienc...

Societal Impact StatementFor millennia, humans have used plants and fungi, as foods, fuels, fibers, and medicines; and have developed techniques for improving their usefulness to our species, mostly through selection of desirable traits. With human populations forecast to rise, the availability of arable land likely to fall amid climate change and increasing urbanization, and modern communications technologies accelerating the dispersal of pathogens, further improvement is urgently needed. However, ensuring long‐term resilience involves conservation of existing genetic diversity in addition to selection. New technologies, particularly those based on molecular biology, are increasingly driving conservation and improvement strategies.SummaryHumans use plants and fungi for a wide range of purposes and, over millennia, have improved wild species by selecting for and combining genetic variation. Improvements in DNA sequencing technologies have enhanced our capacity to identify and manipu...

In the highlands of Madagascar, agricultural expansion gained on grasslands and cropping systems based on direct seeding with permanent vegetation cover are emerging as a means to sustain upland crop production. The objective of this study was to examine how such agricultural practices affect greenhouse‐gas emissions from a loamy Ferralsol previously used as a pasture. We conducted an experiment under controlled laboratory conditions combining cattle manure, crop residues (rice straw), and mineral fertilizers (urea plus NPK or di‐NH4‐phosphate) to mimic on‐field inputs and examined soil CO2 and N2O emissions during a 28‐d incubation at low and high water‐filled pore space (40% and 90% WFPS). Emissions of N2O from the control soil, i.e., soil receiving no input, were extremely small (< 5 ng N2O‐N (g soil)–1 h–1) even under anaerobic conditions. Soil moisture did not affect the order of magnitude of CO2 emissions while N2O fluxes were up to 46 times larger at high soil WFPS, indica...

Base sur des cas d'etude au Senegal, ce chapitre dresse le bilan de 15 annees de recherches sur le fonctionnement des sols d'agrosystemes associant plantes cultivees (milarachide) et arbustes natifs au Sahel. Les travaux, publies pour la plupart, ont montre que Guiera senegalensis et Piliostigma reticulatum redistribuent l'eau dans le sol, stimulent les microorganismes du sol et generent des ilots de fertilite au benefice de la culture associee. Ainsi, les rendements des cultures sont augmentes, y compris en absence de fertilisants : jusqu'a +137 % pour le mil en presence de P. reticulatum a Nioro-du-Rip. Cela justifie l'interet de maintenir ces arbustes dans les champs en appliquant une gestion agroecologique.

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is promoted worldwide on the basis of its contribution to economic, social, and environmental sustainability of agricultural production. In Ghana, despite the increasing interest in the promotion of CA and its practices, its rate of adoption is still low, mainly due to the conflicting evidences regarding its effectiveness. This paper contributes to the numerous debates by examining the impact of CA practices on hired labour, rates of inorganic fertilizers applied by adopters, maize yield, and profit of adopters. Using a cross-sectional data, a multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) model was employed to compute the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) and Average Treatment Effect on Treated (ATET) for yield, hired labour, inorganic fertilizer rate, and profit of adopters of CA practices. The study reveals that CA practices impact positively on hired labour employed on the farm, but have a negative impact on profits of adopters. No impact whatsoeve...

Depth distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions depends on the efficiency of agro‐technical managements. Information on depth distribution of SOC fractions mostly confined to the plow layer and scant in dry lands of Punjab, Pakistan. Therefore, a field experiment was laid out with moldboard plow (MP) (control), tine cultivator (TC), and minimum tillage (MT) as main plots, and cropping sequences fallow wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), (FW, control), mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) wheat (MW), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) wheat (SW), green manure wheat (GW), and mungbean‐chickpea (MC) (Cicer arietinum L.) as sub‐plots. Treatment effects were assessed for microbial biomass carbon (MBC), potentially mineralizeable carbon (PMC), particulate organic carbon (POC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), HCl insoluble carbon (HIC), and stratification ratio (SR) in Rawal series: Udic Haplustalf. Alfisols. The MBC concentration was the highest in MT system, at 15 to 30‐cm depth under MW and PMC co...

Farmers in Pamekasan Regency, especially in Pakong Subdistrict, use sloping land as agricultural land. The farmers generally have implemented conservation rules at different levels. This study aims to examine the factors that influence the application level of rice farming conservation on sloping land. The method used in this study is a questionnaire that concern with the level of conservation application and the factors that influence the adoption level of conservation farming. Meanwhile variables of Conservation farming include making terraces, making infiltration channels, planting terrace reinforcement plants, making water drainage channels and utilizing or using natural mulch. Furthermore the influencing Factors include land area (X1), farmer’s age (X2), formal education (X3), non-formal education (X4), land slope (X5), conservation farming knowledge (X6), knowledge of conservation methods (X7), and knowledge of the importance of conservation (X8). The result showed that 65.38%...

This assessment of research and extension in conservation farming in northern NSW was done as part of a systematic process of evaluating the economic, social and environmental impacts of major research, extension and education programs. The conservation farming program was a key area of investment by NSW Agriculture and an evaluation process fulfils accountability and resource allocation requirements. This analysis evaluates the investments by the former NSW Agriculture in conservation farming and reduced tillage programs from the late 1970s to 2002. The benefit-cost ratios (BCR) for no till only and no till plus reduced tillage practices up to 2002 were 4.1:1 and 9:1, respectively. The net present values (NPV) of the benefits from these efforts up to 2002 were $78 and $205 million, respectively. When program activities are extended to 2020 the BCRs were 11.4:1 and 20.5:1 and the NPVs were $302 million and $568 million, respectively. There are likely to be other benefits such as env...

Rice-wheat cropping system is one of the major cropping system practiced in South Asia on 13.5 m hectares area, 10.3 million hectares of which are in the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). The Indian Rice-Wheat Cropping System (RWCS) accounts for more than 70% of the country’s total grain production which is essential for ensuring national food security. Widely used RCT known as Zero Tillage (ZT) in which wheat is directly sown into the undisturbed soil after rice harvested. The Adoption of Furrow Irrigated Raised Bed System (FIRBS) in wheat production saves 30-40% water, seed use by 25-30% and nutrients use by 25% without reducing yield. The RCTs involve residue management (mainly residue retention), crop diversification and no- or minimum tillage with direct seeding and bed planting. AWD in rice save water by 10 to 30% while reducing seepage and deep drainage losses and Brown manuring is highly beneficial for weed control, water and soil conservation and nutrient supplementation. The cul...

This document reports on the concepts driving the scientific activities of FAO’s Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture Programme’s (MICCA) pilot projects in East Africa. It provides results from the research, briefly describes the analytical approaches used and concludes with key messages relevant to discussions on climate-smart agriculture (CSA). CSA links three critical issues that must be addressed to ensure a sustainable future. One, it supports society’s potential to sustainably increase agricultural productivity to support the rapidly growing population. Two, it builds the resilience of food systems and the adaptive capacity of farmers to climate change. Three, it aims to reduce the impact of food, fuel and fiber production on the climate system and combats climate change when appropriate. MICCA operates at the nexus between climate regulation and livelihood advancement. In October 2011, MICCA partners established two pilot projects in East Africa. The MICCA pilot projec...

The study was conducted with an objective of assessing best practice of moisture conservation and profitability of the cropping system. The experiment was executed at Agricultural Research Station, Tornala, Siddipet (Dt), Telangana State for three years (kharif, 2016 - kharif, 2018). The trial was laid out in split plot design with three cropping systems as main plots Viz., sole maize (SM), maize + pigeon pea in 4: 1 ratio (MP) and sole pigeon pea (SP) and three sub plots were allotted with moisture conservation practices viz., ridge and furrow (RF), flatbed followed by making ridge at 25DAS (FBR) and flatbed followed by making conservation furrow at 25 DAS (FBCF) along with regular farmers practice, flatbed method (FB).The results revealed that, among different cropping systems sole pigeon pea (SP) recorded significantly higher maize equivalent yields and net returns (4340 kg ha-1and Rs.33926 ha-1) compared to sole maize (SM) (3268 kg ha-1 and Rs.15366 ha-1) and maize+ pigeon pea i...

This study evaluated the impact of contrasting tillage and nitrogen management options on the growth, yield attributes, and yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in a conservation agriculture (CA)-based maize-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) system. The field experiment was conducted during the rainy (kharif) seasons of 2020 and 2021 at the research farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. The experiment was conducted in a split plot design with three tillage practices [conventional tillage with residue (CT), zero tillage with residue (ZT) and permanent beds with residue (PB)] as main plot treatments and in sub-plots five nitrogen management options [Control (without N fertilization), recommended dose of N @150 kg N/ha, Green Seeker-GS based application of split applied N, N applied as basal through urea super granules-USG + GS based application and 100% basal application of slow release fertilizer (SRF) @150 kg N/ha] with three replications. Results showed that bot...

In recent years, increasing water and labor scarcity & production cost, decreasing farm profitability and climatechange- induced variability are major challenges faced by the farmers of Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) in South Asia. Conservation agriculture (CA) based best-bet crop management practices may increase crop productivity, profitability and conserve the natural resources. In a 2-year (2012-2014) study, we assessed the effects of six combinations of tillage and crop establishment (TCE) and residue management options on crop & water productivity, profitability and soil thermal and moisture regimes in maize (Zea mays)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (MW) and maize-chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) (MC) rotations in Western IGP of India. The treatments consisted of both crops sown on permanent raised beds with residue (PB+R) and without residue (PB-R); zero tilled flat with residue (ZT+R) and without residue (ZT-R) and conventional tilled flat with residue (CT+R) and without residue (CT-...

In water scarce regions of South Asia, diversification of rice with maize is being advocated towards sustainability of cereal-based cropping systems. Adoption of innovative agronomic management practices, i.e., conservation agriculture (CA) and sub-surface drip irrigation (SSDI) are considered as key strategies for much needed interventions to address the challenges of water scarcity under projected climate change. Benefits from CA and SSDI concerning water economy are well-established, however, information about their complementarity and water budgeting in cereal-based systems are lacking. A field study was conducted with process-based model (HYDRUS-2D) to understand water transport, root water uptake and components of soil water balance in maize grown in rotation with wheat after five years of continuous adoption of conservation agriculture. In this study, altogether eight treatments comprising of 6 CA+ treatments (CA coupled with SSDI); permanent beds using sub-surface drip (PB-S...

EnglishMicrobial parameters are considered to be potential indicators of soil quality since soil microorganisms can respond rapidly to agricultural management systems. The effect of long-term fertilizer applications on soil, especially nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulphur (S), and micronutrients (m) can alter soil chemistry, microbial community structure and function. The purposes of this study were to analyse the long-term effect of chemical fertilizers on soil properties, microbiological communities and function in relation to grain yields in two growing seasons (2012-2013 and 2013-2014). All fertilization treatments were applied to a maize-wheat/soybean rotation under no-till farming system. Six fertilization treatments were evaluated: PS, NS, NP, NPS, NPSm, and CK (unfertilized control). Application of N, P, and S, with several exceptions, tended to increase both total and available nutrient in comparison with nutrient-deficient treatments. In both growing seasons, CK treatment...

Management practices that simultaneously improve soil properties and yield are crucial to sustain high crop production and minimize detrimental impact on the environment. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of tillage and crop nitrogen management on crop yield, N uptake and nutrient use efficiency. Rice is predominant in Typic Ustochrept soil of North West India. A two year field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of three tillage systems [conventional tillage (CT), furrow irrigated raised beds (FIRB) and reduced tillage (RT) and five rates of fertilizer N (0, 80, 120, 160 and 200kgNha) in rice crop was laid out in split plot design with three replication. Results indicated that the productivity of rice was significantly different in tillage systems. Response of fertilizer N was influenced by tillage systems, and crop response to fertilizer N was generally observed up to 160 kg N ha. Amount of N uptake in rice generally increased with N rate, but ti...

The interest of organic farmers in adopting conservation agriculture principles, including minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation has been growing since the early 2000s. However, currently there is no network for organic farmers practicing conservation agriculture, and a lack of knowledge on how organic farmers implement conservation agriculture in practice. Consequently, few technical references are available for organic farmers when they start applying conservation agriculture practices, in particular on controlling weeds without the use of herbicides. The main objectives of this study were: (1) to explore the diversity of conservation agriculture techniques (i.e., reduced tillage, no-tillage and green manures) practiced among European farmers, and (2) to identify farmers’ main strategies for implementing conservation agriculture and the agronomic and environmental factors that determine these strategies. Strategies were identified by analyzing survey res...

Lessons learnt from past experiences push for an alternate way of crop production. One such is Conservation agriculture (CA), which can be seen as a new way forward for conserving resources and enhancing productivity to achieve goals of sustainable agriculture. In recent past, progressive and significant efforts are made to develop, refine and disseminate conservation-based agricultural technologies across globe. Tremendous efforts on zero-till practices and surface management with crop residues for crop production were reviewed. This work was done at Department of Agronomy, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai -625 104, Tamil Nadu, India. A systematic cum integrative review of research work done in different parts of World, particularly in India was comprehended. Literature search was done during 2020. About 200 review and research papers were screened from various databases like TNAU e-library, ARCC journals, Google Scholar, Rese...

Despite the well-known potential of agroforestry systems to sustain livelihoods and ecosystem services, their targeted adoption in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa is low. To address this, we used questionnaires with 279 farmers to understand their socioeconomic characteristics determining the adoption of agroforestry technologies and to record the preferred tree species in the Koulikoro region of Mali and West-Central region of Burkina Faso. The result of a binary logistic regression showed that income, off farm activities, average number of owned sheep, cooperative membership, forage security, and maintained trees and shrubs fostered the adoption of agroforestry technologies. Contrarily, the adoption of agroforestry technologies was negatively influenced by household size and crop yield. Our data show that agroforestry parklands are the most popular agroforestry technology. The most common agroforestry tree species in the study region was Vitellaria paradoxa C. F. Gaertn. The dominance of V. paradoxa within these parklands may be partly explained by the tree's adaptation to severe drought and fire hazards, which are common to the study region. The study also revealed that smallholder farmers in Mali maintained trees on farms mainly for food security, whereas in Burkina Faso trees were mainly kept for maintaining soil fertility. We conclude that in all initiatives aimed at promoting the adoption of agroforestry in the study region, efforts should be made to consider farmers' socioeconomic characteristics, tree preferences, and perceptions (as identified in this study).

Low crop productivity, food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition; inadequate farming knowledge and skills, implements and inputs are characteristic of smallholder agriculture in Southern Africa. Many researchers argue that conservation agriculture can guarantee higher crop productivity, food security, improved livelihoods and environmental protection, better than the unsustainable traditional systems of slash and burn practices. In this paper, we present the results of a meta-analysis of over 40 academic publications to review ...

Human efforts to produce more food for increasing populations leave marks on the environment. The use of conventional agricultural practices, including intensive tillage based on the removal of crop residue, has magnified soil erosion and soil degradation. In recent years, the progressive increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has created global interest in identifying different sustainable strategies in order to reduce their concentration in the atmosphere. Carbon stored in soil is 2–4 times higher than that stored in the atmosphere and four times more when compared to carbon stored in the vegetation. The process of carbon sequestration (CS) involves transferring CO2 from the atmosphere into the soil or storage of other forms of carbon to either defer or mitigate global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. The present review discusses the potential of soils in sequestering carbon and mitigating the accelerated greenhouse effects by adopting different agricu...