About CA

What is Conservation Agriculture (CA)

Before defining what Conservation Agriculture (CA) is, many people associated with agriculture suggest that present day agriculture is facing an impending crisis due to multiple factors. The following is a list presented by the Noble Research Institute on their web site and also found on many others:

• Widespread soil erosion and decreasing land productivity in the face of climate variability or resource and environmental degradation.
• Declining population of agriculture producers.
• Unprecedented levels of farm debt and bankruptcies.
• Growing global population that is increasing the demand for food.

This section of this web site looks at various suggestions for reversing this issue. The main subject is Conservation Agriculture that was formally coined by the FAO (2008) as a concept for resource-efficient agricultural crop production based on integrated management of soil, water, and biological resources combined with external inputs. However, reduced tillage was introduced in the 1930’s in the US to combat the “Dust Bowl” tragedy.

CA is the main management system for this web site for addressing some but not all of these issues, but others are listed later. CA is a set of soil management practices that minimize the disruption of the soil's physical structure, composition, and natural biodiversity that can reverse soil degradation resulting from present intensive tillage of soil. Despite high variability in the types of crops grown and specific management regimes, all forms of conservation agriculture share three core principles. These include:

• maintenance of permanent or semi-permanent soil cover (using either a previous crop residue or specifically growing a cover crop for this purpose);
• minimum soil disturbance through tillage (just enough to get the seed into the ground) ;
• regular crop rotations to help combat the various biotic constraints. Recently, rotation has been changed to crop diversity by some authors. The latter term does not cover the issue of disease, insect and weed control associated with rotation that is important to CA and thus, we prefer to retain rotation instead of diversity. One of the main benefits of CA is improved soil health resulting from increased soil microbial diversity, but this is a result of all three core principles.

However, CA farmers also need to use other modern technology and best practices where available such as:

• utilization of green manures/cover crops (GMCC's) to produce the residue cover, if possible, but in intensive cropping systems in some sub-tropical climates, there is little space or time for a cover crop.
• no burning of crop residues. The residues are a vital component of CA but are left on the surface of the soil to protect the soil cover, but also to feed soil microbes. They are not incorporated into the soil with tillage.
• timely planting that results in better yields that is now possible if no tillage is done.
• integrated disease, weed, and pest management.
• use of improved genetic varieties of crops including good quality seed.
• water harvesting in rainfed areas and improved water management in irrigated areas. This can include permanent bed planting that enables sub-surface drip systems, and other water conserving practices.
• controlled/limited human and mechanical traffic over agricultural soils.
• policies that promote availability of credit, markets, knowledge, promote new younger farmers to replace aging ones, and incentives for the private sector to provide appropriate equipment, inputs, and other farmer needs.

When these CA practices are used by farmers one of the major environmental benefits is reduction in fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that helps with mitigation of Climate Change. But they also reduce the power/energy needs of farmers who use manual or animal powered systems and thus reduce the drudgery of farming for males and females.

Other Important Definitions

Conservation agriculture is largely the product of the collective efforts of a number of previous agricultural movements, including no-till agriculture, agroforestry, green manures/cover crops, direct planting/seeding, integrated pest management, and conservation tillage among many others. Yet CA is distinct from each of these so-called agricultural packages, even as it draws upon many of their core principles. This is because CA uses many of the available technologies in unison, resulting in something many believe to be much greater than the "sum of its parts."

The following terms are often confused with conservation agriculture while others have recently been introduced as sustainable farming options although all need to consider the CA management system as a component of these new system.

• No-till (NT)/ Zero till (ZT)
  NT and ZT are similar technical components used in conservation agriculture management systems that simply involve the absence of tillage/plowing operations on the soil; essentially placing the seed into un-ploughed soil. Crops are planted directly into a seedbed not tilled after harvesting the previous crop. Not everyone utilizing no-till technologies adopts the other two important components of CA, residue retention and rotation. There are an increasing number of research papers showing that these two other pillars of CA add additional benefits and better yields to the no-till component.

• Conservation tillage/ Minimum tillage/ Reduced tillage
  These are tillage operations that leave at least 30% of the soil surface covered by plant residues in order to increase water infiltration and cut down on soil erosion and runoff. “Conservation tillage” is an intermediate form of CA since it keeps some soil cover as residue from the previous crop. But some/minimal tillage is usually done. It was coined as a management system after the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930’s in the Mid-West areas of the USA. It was found to reduce erosion by protecting the soil surface from wind and rain erosion.

• Direct planting, direct drilling, plantio direto and siembra directa 
  These are terms used for NT/ZT in other countries like Australia and South America. They use special equipment (e.g. NT drill) to plant seeds directly into crop residues left on the soil surface without preparing a seedbed beforehand.

• Direct seeding
  This term is usually associated with growing a rice crop by seeding the crop into the soil like any other cereal crop without producing seedlings that are then transplanted into puddled soils in the main field. However, it can also be called NT or ZT if the rice seed are drilled without tillage into the main field.

• Organic farming
Organic agriculture does not permit the use of synthetic chemicals to produce plant and animal products, relying instead on the management of soil organic matter (SOM) and biological processes. In some parts of the world, farms must be inspected and certified before their food products can be sold as organic, indicating that no synthetic chemicals were used in producing them. But organic farming uses the principles of CA to some extent and one objective similar to CA is to maintain and improve soil health. Unlike organic farming, CA does allow farmers to apply synthetic chemical fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides if needed, but in an integrated way. Many farmers rely on using these to control weed and pest problems, particularly during the early transition years of NT/ZT adoption. As soil physical, chemical, and biological health improves over time; the use of agrichemicals can be reduced or, in some cases, phased out entirely.

CA is often used synonymously with ZT that is also believed to require heavy implements and large tractors. However, CA can be used by farmers with large or small holdings as follows:

• Manual systems can include practices that build hills (the traditional Iroquois Indian “Three Sisters” system) or basins (W.African Zai system) or use hand held planters (jabbar planters or matracas) or planting sticks to get seed into the ground without tilling the soil. Use of surface mulches is also an important component in these manual systems, suggesting that CA has been practiced by farmers for many years.
• Animal traction systems can be as simple as making a furrow for placement of seed (rippers) and nutrients to planters that can place seed and fertilizer even when residues are present.
• Tractor power systems range from low horsepower, two-wheel tractor systems to large, high horsepower 4-wheel tractors. They can be low cost no-till seeders manufactured by local artisans building on existing seed drills or expensive machinery developed by large tractor implement companies.

Farmers who do not own tractors can also avail of the tractor powered systems through use of hiring or service providers, a common system for plowing in many developing countries.

Other Definitions of Sustainable Systems (CA)

• Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) – was first coined in 2010 by the FAO and their web site is a useful link explaining this recent term.

The following FAO definition is also useful to understand what CSA is:
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an approach that helps guide actions to transform agri-food systems towards green and climate resilient practices. CSA supports reaching internationally agreed goals such as the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. It aims to tackle three main objectives: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions, where possible.
CSA supports the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031 based on the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all, leaving no one behind. What constitutes a CSA practice is context-specific, depending on local socio-economic, environmental and climate change factors. FAO recommends the approach is implemented through five actions points: expanding the evidence base for CSA, supporting enabling policy frameworks, strengthening national and local institutions, enhancing funding, and financing options, and implementing CSA practices at field level. (FAO Climate Smart Agriculture)

• Regenerative agriculture (RA). While they share much common ground, regenerative agriculture can be considered broader than conservation agriculture. One of the most relevant differences is that regenerative agriculture can be applied to animal farming and not just to crop agriculture. It is not a marketing trend, it is not new and was coined by Rodale Institute in the 1980’s but linked to Organic Agriculture.  It’s goal is to work with nature to maximize the ecosystem processes. It is not a prescription.

Regenerative agriculture strives to work with nature rather than against it. Regenerative agriculture is more than just being sustainable. It is about reversing degradation and building up the soil to make it healthier than its current state. It’s goal is to Improve land, livestock, livelihoods, and ecosystem services such as energy flow, the water and nutrient cycle, and community dynamics (Noble Research Institute)
There are 4 Basic Regenerative Farming Practices:

• Promote biodiversity. Cover crops and crop rotation are two of basic principles of sustainable agriculture that lead to greater biodiversity. ...
• Eliminate or decrease tillage. ...
• Reduce the use of artificial fertilizers. ...
• Use regenerative grazing management for livestock.

At its core, regenerative agriculture is the process of restoring degraded soils using practices (e.g., adaptive grazing, no-till planting, no or limited use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizer, etc.) based on ecological principles.

• Agroecological Agriculture – is a third sustainable agricultural system mentioned in the literature although it was developed many centuries ago. FAO has an overview of the definition and meaning of this system. The following presents an excerpt from their web site:

“Agroecology represents an overarching and comprehensive systems framework to guide public policies towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. It enhances public efficiency by fostering integrated and inter-ministerial policy design and implementation, bringing together agricultural and food sectors that are often disaggregated. It actively engages different stakeholders through inter-disciplinary mechanisms which favor a responsible and transparent governance of resources. As a result, agroecological transitions can support the simultaneous achievement of multiple sustainability objectives – economic, environmental, social, nutritional, health and cultural – holistically and in integrated manner at different levels and scales while being adapted for different environmental and cultural contexts.”
They go on to say “Agroecology is based on bottom-up and territorial processes, helping to deliver contextualized solutions to local problems with people at the center. There is no single way to apply agroecological approaches – it depends on local contexts, constraints and opportunities but there are common principles that have been articulated in the framework of the 10 Elements of Agroecology.”