Today's global cultivated area has been strongly degraded. Agriculture should not only be high yielding, but also sustainable. Agriculture contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Promoting agricultural practices that mitigate climate change by reducing GHG emissions is important; but those same practices also have to improve farmer production and income and buffer the production system against changes in climate. Conservation agriculture (CA), based on minimal soil disturbance, permanent ground cover and crop rotations is a management system that achieves these goals. CA improves soil aggregation, infiltration is generally higher and runoff reduced, thus soil moisture is conserved and more water is available for crops in CA compared to conventional systems. Temperature fluctuations are smaller in CA. The residue retained on the soil surface provides residue-borne pathogens and beneficial soil micro-flora species with substrates for growth, and pathogens are at the soil surface, where spore release may occur. This can induce major changes in disease pressure in CA systems. However, functional and species diversity are also increased, creating more possibilities for integrated pest control. Water and wind erosion is also reduced by CA since the soil surface is protected and water runoff is lowered as more water enters the soil profile. CA-based systems drive on a set of principles that have to be adapted to each specific situation. It is unlikely that complex, multi -component technologies such as CA-based systems can be successfully scaled out through traditional linear models of research and extension: instead they require the development of innovative systems to adapt technologies to local conditions. Therefore, there is need for adaptive research and extension systems that install working examples of CA within the different agro-ecological areas and farming systems.

Conservation Agriculture Program

Text in English

INT2813|CSAY01

CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection