Conservation Agriculture

• It requires some initial technical knowledge to plan the crop rotations, and planting times, and to efficiently manage pests and control weeds.
• Conservation Agriculture works best on rice-wheat systems or rice-wheat-cotton systems because they are less exposed to weed seeds. These systems work best because they allow practitioners to save water, use less fertiliser, and reduce soil crusting.

Material required

• Hand-held dirt  ripper tool
• Hand hoe
• Hand jab planter or animal-drawn direct planter (for seed planting) or planting stick (stick with sharpened point used to create holes to plant the seeds)
• Wheelbarrow to transport mulch
• Shallow weeder, zamwipe, hand push weeder (for superficial weeding)
• Slasher, machete, billhook (to remove weed, and cover crop for pre-planting operation)

Stages of implementation

1. Evaluate the land: Check the soil quality, climate, and landscape to see if it's suitable for conservation agriculture.
2. Plan the crops: Choose crops that work well in the area and won't harm the soil.
3. Prepare the land: Use practices like no-till or reduced-till planting to prepare the soil.*
4. Cover the soil: Use cover crops, mulching, or intercropping to keep the soil covered and prevent erosion.**
5. Rotate crops: Rotate crops to prevent diseases, and pests, and to keep the soil healthy.
6. Manage pests and diseases: Use techniques like crop rotation, intercropping, biological control, and selective pesticide use to manage pests and diseases.
7. Use appropriate technology: Use technology that reduces resource waste and environmental impact.
8. Maintenance: It requires some initial technical knowledge to plan the crop rotations, and planting times, and to efficiently manage pests and control weeds. To control weeds, use mulching to cover the soil and prevent weeds from sprouting. Additionally, plant some cover crops. To manage pests it is recommended to facilitate intercrop plants with species that keep pests away. It is also possible to use particular herbs in the mulching to obtain a desired effect (for example, use plants that keep away pests. Some practitioners recommend the use of biopesticides (such as neem biopesticides). 
9. Monitor and adjust: Keep an eye on crop yields, soil quality, and environmental impact, and adjust as needed

*No tillage or minimum tillage is the most common conservation agricultural practice for annual crops. This approach entails managing the land without disturbing the soil, or with the least disturbance. Digging and turning soil with machinery overexposes it to air, causing a rapid oxidation of the organic substance, which in turn compromises the soil structure. However, to facilitate water infiltration into the soil, more gentle practices such as soil ripping can be used. 

**Conservation agriculture also imposes to sow the new crop over previous crop residues, in order to keep a permanent soil coverage. Permanent ground cover is a widely used practice for perennial crops, thanks to which, the soil surface between rows of crops is covered and thus protected from erosion. For the cover, it is possible to use either sown cover crops, spontaneous vegetation or inert crops, i.e. pruning residues or tree leaves (see also Mulching and techniques used in the Kitchen gardens). Besides the constant cropland cover, conservation agriculture is based on three pillars:

• Minimum soil disturbance (i.e. minimum or no tillage), just enough to allow the seed to get into the ground.
• Permanent organic soil cover (by using either previous crop residues or a cover crop specifically planted to cover the soil)
• Crop rotation, with varied sequences and associations, also including legumes

For a detailed step-by-step on how to adopt conservation agriculture, please click here.

This intervention contributes to:

Estimation of the costs included in the  intervention in Kenya; The costs are all in US $ and taken for the year 2012; (Source)

1. Farming and conservation agriculture in Kenya

Description
The conservation agriculture intervention in Kenya is part of an FAO programme in 2015, where more than 26,000 farmers adopted conservation agriculture in the eight counties; 3,500 of them now have market linkages with contracts and are developing cottage industries. The three key principles that drove the project in Kenya are minimum soil disturbance, soil cover and crop rotation. As part of the programme, local farmers undertook an education programme in conservation agriculture, which enabled them to improve their farming practices on their pieces of land. An immediate increase in the yield of agricultural production has been observed, with an average of 25% for all farmers included in the project. For information on the implementation of the project and step-by-step instructions, please click here. Furthermore, this link provides more information on conservation agriculture and sustainable value chain approach in Kenya, which has been growing in the past few years. Finally, if you are interested in conservation agriculture in general in Kenya, please click here.

2. Conservation agriculture: Bringing sustainable farming to Malawi

Description
The Malawi population is highly reliant on agriculture in their everyday lives, and climate change-related impacts are threatening their livelihoods. Close to 80% of the population in Malawi works in farming. Maize, by far the most widely grown crop, is particularly susceptible to climate change and catastrophic weather events such as Cyclone Idai, which struck in March 2019. With the help of Concern Worldwide, an ongoing programme has been launched to help farmers make a transition to more sustainable farming practices, one of which is conservation agriculture. Local farmers mostly women from the Chituka village have been attending `field school”, where conservation agricultural practices are being taught for local implementation. The benefits of conservation agriculture not only contribute to better farming practices and food autonomy but also enable the independence of local communities to become more financially independent. For more information on the project and the benefits the Malawi population are reaping, please click here. Furthermore, if you want to learn more about the challenges conservation agriculture faces in sub-Saharan Africa, please click here.

3. Rice-wheat cropping system under conservation agriculture, India 

Description
The rice-wheat system in India is the world’s largest agricultural production system, covering an area of 12.3 million hectares (Mha). Traditional puddle-transplanted rice helps in ponding water, reducing percolation losses, and controlling weeds, but it can adversely affect soil structure and increase energy requirements for field preparation for subsequent crops. Conservation agriculture (CA) and crop diversification or intensification in the rice-wheat cropping system are emerging needs for ensuring food security in South Asia. Technologies tested in West Bengal reflected the superiority of unpuddled transplanted rice (UPTR) over puddled transplanted rice in terms of production economics, resource-use efficiency, and productivity.  The paper reports that while CA-based sustainable intensification practices did not significantly affect rice yields, subsequent wheat and maize yields increased by ~5% compared to conventional farming practices. Zero tillage and bed planting technologies have also shown several advantages in rice-based systems across the Indo-Gangetic plains. However, there is large variability in crop yields across different parts of the eastern Gangetic plains due to varied soil types, management levels, and soil quality parameters such as pH, organic matter, and nutrient status. Overall, the study underscores the potential of conservation agriculture practices to enhance the productivity and sustainability of the rice-wheat system in the eastern Indian plains, aligning with the need for food security and resource conservation in South Asia.

Webinars 

• Webinar on conservation agriculture in the context of rice-wheat cropping system 

External sources 

• Conservation Agriculture in combination with trees has also been proven to be effective. Click here if you want to know more about it.
• Here you can find more examples of conservation agriculture from the WOCAT database.
• If you want to know more about conservation agriculture worldwide and have an insight on the lesson learned, here is an interesting article. 

Guides 

• Click here for a useful training guide on conservation agriculture for extension agents and farmers.
• To have more examples of possible ways of seeding in a no-tillage scenario give a look at this guide.

Videos 

• If you want to know more about the benefits of conservation agriculture, watch this video.
• If you want to know more about the benefits of conservation agriculture, watch this video.
• The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable farming
• Conservation agriculture in cropping systems
• The three pillars of conservation agriculture