Conservation Agriculture and Soil Quality– An Overview

Conservation Agriculture Improves Soil Quality, Crop Yield, and Incomes of Smallholder Farmers in North Western Ghana

Conservation agriculture (CA) practices are being widely promoted in many areas in sub-Saharan Africa to recuperate degraded soils and improve ecosystem services. This study examined the effects of three tillage practices [conventional moldboard plowing (CT), hand hoeing (MT) and no-tillage (NT)], and three cropping systems (continuous maize, soybean-maize annual rotation, and soybean/maize int...

Soil and crop management under conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

Carbon mitigation strategies and mechanisms have been globally implemented in an attempt to prevent catastrophic climate change. Kyoto targets require reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and increases in carbon sequestration. Although a number of carbon neutral technologies have been adopted such as bio-fuel and alternative energies, these currently fail to meet global requirements. An innov...

Assessing Soil Quality in Organic Agriculture

An overview of the status, trends and challenges of freshwater fish research and conservation in Malaysia

Freshwater fish biodiversity is a precious natural asset in terms of economic, cultural and scientific interest. And yet, the inland freshwater ecosystem in Malaysia is declining at a far greater rate than terrestrial ecosystems in the tropics. What happened, and what is being done to address the crisis? This paper extracts findings from the latest literature and explores overarching issues per...

Conservation agriculture systems for Malawian smallholder farmers: long-term effects on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality

Conservation agriculture (CA) systems are based uponminimal soil disturbance; crop residue retention and crop rotation and/or intercrop association are increasingly seen to recycle nutrients, increase yield and reduce production costs. This study examines the effects of CA practices on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality under the conditions encountered by smallholder farmers in t...