The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture.
نویسندگان
چکیده
The paper focuses on conservation agriculture (CA), defined as minimal soil disturbance (no-till, NT) and permanent soil cover (mulch) combined with rotations, as a more sustainable cultivation system for the future. Cultivation and tillage play an important role in agriculture. The benefits of tillage in agriculture are explored before introducing conservation tillage (CT), a practice that was borne out of the American dust bowl of the 1930s. The paper then describes the benefits of CA, a suggested improvement on CT, where NT, mulch and rotations significantly improve soil properties and other biotic factors. The paper concludes that CA is a more sustainable and environmentally friendly management system for cultivating crops. Case studies from the rice-wheat areas of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia and the irrigated maize-wheat systems of Northwest Mexico are used to describe how CA practices have been used in these two environments to raise production sustainably and profitably. Benefits in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on global warming are also discussed. The paper concludes that agriculture in the next decade will have to sustainably produce more food from less land through more efficient use of natural resources and with minimal impact on the environment in order to meet growing population demands. Promoting and adopting CA management systems can help meet this goal.
منابع مشابه
Role of Conservative Agriculture on the Sustainability of Soil structure in Achieving Sustainable Management
Conservative agriculture is considered as an alternative to tackle the need for increased agricultural production based on sustainable agriculture activities with the aim of increasing production and product stability along with preserving the environment. Tillage is one of the most important factors affecting soil structure. Selection of appropriate tillage systems varies according to the cond...
متن کاملRole of Agricultural Extension Courses in Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture (Case Study: Wheat Farmers of Shoushtar Township)
Identifying role of extension system in adoption of new technologies have important role to developing favorable extension systems. For supporting sustainable agriculture in Iran needs extension systems to be carefully thought and accurately implemented. The purpose of this is analyzing role of extension activities in adoption of sustainable agriculture. Based on the results the attending agric...
متن کاملMultifunctional Agriculture: Agriculture Renewal as a Modern Paradigm for Agriculture and Rural Development
Multifunctional agriculture (MFA) has emerged as a key concept in science and politics with respect to the future of agriculture and rural development in the recent decade. Overall, MFA implies that in addition to their main function in production and support of rural livelihood, the agricultural activities have some other advantages for the environment including the conservation of water and s...
متن کاملEnhancing Crop-Livestock Systems in Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Production Intensification A Farmer Discovery Process Going to Scale in Burkina Faso Enhancing Crop-Livestock Systems in Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Production Intensification FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
متن کامل
Enhancing Farmer Productive Capacity: Case of Action Research Based Conservation Agriculture
The study sought to explore approaches for co-creation of conservation agriculture (CA) knowledge amongst farmers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government and specialist researchers. The aim of the study was to explore farmer initiated food security strategies among small holder resource poor farmers, through enhancement of farmers’ own productive capacity. The study was born out of th...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
دوره 363 1491 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2008