Abstract
The intensification of tillage agriculture has been aimed to increase crop yields. However, this has also been causing degradation of agricultural lands and natural resources. In this regard, Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an alternate paradigm, which integrate the conservation into agriculture and make that regenerative, conserving and resilient than the conventional tillage agriculture. CA is, thus, an ecosystem approach to improve and sustain productivity, and increase profits and resource base. In this chapter, some aspects of conservation that are integrated into agriculture when practicing CA are described. The potential of CA in improving productivity, economic, social and environmental benefits to farmers and the society at large have been discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
ANA (2011) Programa Produtor de Água (Programme for water producers). http://www.ana.gov.br/produagua/
Anderson RL (2015) Integrating a complex rotation with no-till improves weed management in organic farming. A review. Agron Sustain Dev 35:967–974
Basch G, Kassam A, Friedrich T, Santos FL, Gubiani PI, Calegari A, Reichert JM, dos Santos DR (2012) Sustainable soil water management systems. In: Lal R, Stewart BA (eds) Soil water and agronomic productivity. Advances in Soil Science. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 229–289
Carvalho M, Basch G, Calado JMG, Barros JFC (2012) Long term effect of tillage system and crop residue management on soil carbon content of a Luvisol under rainfed Mediterranean conditions. Agrociencia (Special Issue):183–187
Corsi S, Friedrich T, Kassam A, Pisante M, de Sà JM (2012) Soil organic carbon accumulation and greenhouse gas emission reductions from conservation agriculture: a literature review. Integrative Crop Management 16. FAO, Rome
Derpsch R (2003) Published with slight changes as a special publication by no-till on the Plains Inc., Underst Process Water Infiltr 2(3):1–4
Duiker SW (2017) Planting green – a new cover crop management technique. Field Crop News. https://extension.psu.edu/planting-green-a-new-cover-crop-management-technique
FAO (2008) Investing in sustainable crop intensification: the case for improving soil health. Integrated crop management, vol 6. FAO, Rome
FAO (2009) Enhancing crop-livestock systems in conservation agriculture for sustainable production intensification: a farmer discovery process going to scale in Burkina Faso. Integrated crop management, vol 17. FAO, Rome, p 42
FAO (2011) Save and grow: a policymaker’s guide to the sustainable intensification of smallholder crop production. FAO, Rome, 102p
FAO (2012) Conservation agriculture and sustainable crop intensification in Karatu district, Tanzania. Integrated crop management, vol 15. FAO, Rome
FAO (2013) Forest management and conservation agriculture experiences of smallholder farmers in the eastern region of Paraguay. Integrated crop management, vol 18. FAO, Rome
FAO (2016) Save and grow in practice: maize, rice and wheat. FAO, Rome
Farooq M, Siddique KHM (2015) Conservation agriculture. Springer, Basel
Freixial R, Carvalho M (2010) Aspectos prácticos fundamentales en la implantación de la agricultura de conservación/siembra directa en el sur de Portugal. In: Proceedings of the European Congress on conservation agriculture: towards agro-environmental climate and energetic sustainability. Madrid, pp 361–369
Gibbs HK, Salmon JM (2015) Mapping the world’s degraded lands. Appl Geogr 57:12–21
González-Sánchez EJ, Ordoñez-Fernández R, Carbonell-Bojollo R, Veroz-Gonzalez O, Gil-Ribes J (2012) Meta-analysis on atmospheric carbon capture in Spain through the use of conservation agriculture. Soil Tillage Res 122:52–60
Gonzalez-Sanchez EJ, Mkomwa S, Conway G, Kassam A, Ordonez-Fernandez R, Moreno-Garcia M, de Repullo-Ruiberriz TM, Gil-Ribes J, Basch G, Veroz-Gozalez O, Trivino-Tradas P, Holgado-Cabrera A, Miranda-Fuentes A, Carbonell-Bojollo R (2017a) Making climate change mitigation and adaptability real in africa with conservation agriculture. European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF), 143p
Gonzalez-Sanchez EJ, Moreno-Garcia M, Kassam A, Holgado-Cabrera A, Trivino-Tradas P, Carbonell-Bojollo R, Pisante M Veroz-Gozalez O, Basch G (2017b) Conservation agriculture: making climate change mitigation and adaptability real in Europe. European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF), 154p. https://bitly.com/
Gullickson G (2018) Planting into green cover crops. Successful farming. https://www.agriculture.com/crops/soybeans/planting-into-green-cover-crops
Haugen-Kozyra K, Goddard TM (2009) Conservation agriculture protocols for green house gas offsets in a working carbon markets. In: Paper presented at the IV World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, 3–7 February 2009, New Delhi, India
ITAIPU (2011) Cultivando Agua Boa (Growing good water). https://www.itaipu.gov.br/
Jat RA, Sahrawat KL, Kassam AH (eds) (2014) Conservation agriculture: global prospects and challenges. CABI, Wallingford, 393p
Kassam AH, Friedrich T, Shaxson TF, Pretty JN (2009) The spread of conservation agriculture: justification, sustainability and uptake. Int J Agric Sustain 7(4):292–320
Kassam A, Basch G, Friedrich T, Shaxson F, Goddard T, Amado T, Crabtree B, Hongwen L, Mello I, Pisante M, Mkomwa S (2013) Sustainable soil management is more than what and how crops are grown. In: Lal R, Stewart RA (eds) Principles of soil management in agro-ecosystems. Advances in soil science. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Kassam A, Mkomwa S, Friedrich T (eds) (2017) Conservation agriculture for Africa: building resilient farming systems in a changing climate. CABI, Wallingford
Kassam AH, Friedrich T, Derpsch R (2018) Global spread of conservation agriculture. Int J Environ Stud. Published online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2018.1494927
Khan ZR, Midega CAO, Pittachar JO, Murage A, Pickett J (2017) Climate-smart push-pull: a conservation agriculture technology for food security and environmental sustainability in Africa. In: Kassam AH, Mkomwa S, Friedrich T (eds) Conservation agriculture for Africa: building resilient farming systems in a changing climate. BABI, Wallingford, pp 151–166
Lalani B, Dorward P, Holloway G, Wauters E (2016) Smallholder farmers’ motivations for using conservation agriculture and the roles of yield, labour and soil fertility in decision making. Agric Syst 146:80–90
Lalani B, Dorward P, Holloway G (2017) Farm level economic analysis – is conservation agriculture helping the poor? Ecol Econ 141:144–153
Landers J (2007) Tropical crop-livestock system in conservation agriculture: the Brazilian experience. Integrated crop management, vol 5. FAO, Rome
Li H, He J, Bharucha ZP, Lal R, Pretty J (2016) Improving China’s food and environmental security with conservation agriculture. Int J Agric Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2016.1170330
Lindwall CW, Sonntag B (eds) (2010) Landscape transformed: the history of conservation tillage and direct seeding. Knowledge impact in society. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
Mello I van Raij B (2006) No-till for sustainable agriculture in Brazil. In: Proceedings of world association of soil and water conservation, P1, pp 49–57
Montgomery DR (2007) Dirt: the erosion of civilizations. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles
Nkonya E, Mirzabaev A, von Braun J (eds) (2016) Economics of land degradation and improvement – a global assessment for sustainable development. IFPRI and ZEF. Springer, Cham
Owenya MZ, Mariki LW, Kienzle J, Friedrich T, Kassam A (2011) Conservation Agriculture (CA) in Tanzania: the case of the Mwangaza B CA farmer field school (FFS), Rhotia Village, Karatu District, Arusha. Int J Agric Sustain 9(1):145–152
Pretty J (2002) Agri-culture: reconnecting people, land and nature. Earthscan
Sims B, Kassam A (2015) East Anglia branch visit to Tony Reynolds at Thurlby Grange farm: no-till farming in the Lincolnshire fens. TAA Agric Dev 26:51–52
Soane BD, Ball BC, Arvidsson J, Basch G, Roger-Estrade FMJ (2012) No-till in northern, western and south-western Europe: a review of problems and opportunities for crop production and the environment. Soil Tillage Res 118:66–87
Swift MJ, Bignell DE, Moreira FMS, Huising EJ (2008) The inventory of soil biological diversity: concepts and general guidelines. In: Moreira FMS, Huising EJ, Bignell DE (eds) A handbook of tropical soil biology: sampling and characterization of below-ground biodiversity. Earthscan, London, pp 1–16
Thierfelder C, Bunderson WT, Jere ZD, Mutenje M (2015) Development of conservation agriculture (CA) systems in Malawi: lessons learned from 2005 to 2014. Exp Agric 52(4):579–604. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0014479715000265
Vlek PLG, Khamzina A, Tamene L (eds) (2017) Land degradation and the sustainable development goals: threats and potential remedies. CIAT publication no. 440. International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Nairobi, Kenya, 67p. Available at: http://bit.ly/2rrkxiQ
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kassam, A. (2019). Integrating Conservation Into Agriculture. In: Farooq, M., Pisante, M. (eds) Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23169-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23169-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23168-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23169-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)