United States Agency for International Development

Over the past half-century, agricultural production gains have provided a platform for rural and urban economic growth worldwide. In African countries, however, agriculture has been widely assumed to have performed badly. Foresight commissioned analyses of 40 projects and programmes in 20 countries where sustainable intensification has been developed during the 1990s–2000s. The cases included crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture and novel policies and partnerships. By early 2010, these projects had documented benefits for 10.39 million farmers and their families and improvements on approximately 12.75 million ha. Food outputs by sustainable intensification have been multiplicative—by which yields per hectare have increased by combining the use of new and improved varieties and new agronomic—agroecological management (crop yields rose on average by 2.13-fold), and additive—by which ...

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Sustainable intensification in African agriculture

In 1999 no-tillage farming, synonymous of zero tillage farming or conservation agriculture, was adopted on about 45 million ha world wide, growing to 72 million ha in 2003 and to 111 million ha in 2009, corresponding to an growth rate of 6 million ha per annum. Fastest adoption rates have been experienced in South America where some countries are using no-tillage farming on about 70% of the total cultivated area. Opposite to countries like the USA where often fields under no-tillage farming are tilled every now and then, more than two thirds of the area under no-tillage systems in South America is permanently not tilled; in other words once adopted, the soil is never tilled again. The spread of no-tillage systems on more than 110 million ha world-wide shows the great adaptability of the systems to all kinds of climates, soils and cropping conditions. No-tillage is now being practiced from the artic circle over the tropics to about 50o latitude south, from sea level to 3 , 000 m altitude, from extremely rainy areas with 2 , 500 mm a year to extremely dry conditions with 250 mm a year. No-till farming offers a way of optimizing productivity and ecosystem services, offering a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits to the producer and to the society. At the same time, no-till farming is enabling agriculture to respond to some of the global challenges associated with climate change, land and environmental degradation, and increasing cost of food, energy and production inputs. The wide recognition of no-till farming as a truly sustainable system should ensure the spread of the no-till technology and the associated practices of organic soil cover and crop rotation, as soon as the barriers to its adoption have been overcome, to areas where adoption is currently still low. The widespread adoption globally also shows that no-tillage farming cannot any more be considered a temporary fashion or a craze; instead largely through farmers’ own effort, the system has established itself as a farming practice and a different way of thinking about sustainable agro-ecosystem management that can no longer be ignored by scientists, academics, extension workers, farmers at large as well as equipment and machine manufacturers and politicians. Keywords: w orld-wide no-till adoption , zero tillage adoption , conservation agriculture, soil health, climate change, ecosystem services DOI: 10.3965/j.issn.1934-6344.20 1 0.0 1 .0-0 Citation: Rolf D erpsch , Theodor F riedrich , Amir K assam, Li H ongwen . Current status of adoption of no-till farming in the world and some of its main benefits . Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 20 1 0; 3 ( 1 ): <span style="line-height: 140%; font-family:

Current status of adoption of no-till farming in the world and some of its main benefits.

Sustainable intensification in agricultural systems

Conservation Agriculture (CA) comprises the practical application of three interlinked principles, namely: no or minimum mechanical soil disturbance, biomass mulch soil cover and crop speci...

Global spread of Conservation Agriculture

Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been practised for three decades and has spread widely. We estimate that there are now some 106 million ha of arable and permanent crops grown without tillage in CA systems, corresponding to an annual rate of increase globally since 1990 of 5.3 million ha. Wherever CA has been adopted it appears to have had both agricultural and environmental benefits. Yet CA represents a fundamental change in production system thinking. It has counterintuitive and often unrecognized elements that promote soil health, productive capacity and ecosystem services. The practice of CA thus requires a deeper understanding of its ecological underpinnings in order to manage its various elements for sustainable intensification, where the aim is to optimize resource use and protect or enhance ecosystem processes in space and time over the long term. For these reasons CA is knowledge-intensive. CA constitutes principles and practices that can make a major contribution to sustainable production inten...

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The spread of Conservation Agriculture: justification, sustainability and uptake

Conservation Agriculture (CA) in its many local adaptations has been practiced for more than three decades. In year 2013 it was deployed on some 155 million hectares worldwide on both large and small farms. In most cases, it has led to yield, economic and environmental benefits, and thus would appear to deserve greater policy and institutional support to accelerate opportunities for adoption and uptake. CA represents an alternate approach to the sustainable intensification of agriculture and differs fundamentally from modern approaches based largely on intensive tillage and purchased inputs that often disrupt ecosystem functions. CA incorporates a number of apparently counterintuitive and often unrecognised elements that simultaneously promote soil health, productive capacity and ecosystem services. Important constraints appear to be preventing wider-scale adoption of CA. Experience across many countries has shown that the adoption and spread of CA requires a change in commitment and behaviour of all stakeholders. For farmers, social mechanisms that encourage experimentation, learning and adaptation to local conditions are a prerequisite. For policy-makers and institutional leaders, transformation of tillage to CA systems requires that they fully understand the large economic, social and environmental benefits that these systems offer. Such transformations call for sustained policy and institutional support that provides both incentives and ‘motivations’ to encourage farmers to adopt components of CA practices and improve them over time. Here, we summarise the key institutional and policy requirements. Many of these apply widely to other forms of more sustainable agriculture.

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The spread of Conservation Agriculture: policy and institutional support for adoption and uptake

At present, the predominant form of agriculture is based on the interventionist approach, in which most aspects of the production system are controlled by technological interventions (such as soil tilling, curative pest and weed control with agrochemicals) and the application of synthetic mineral fertilisers for plant nutrition. However, there are now many production systems with a predominantly ecosystem approach, underpinned by healthy soils, and characterised as “Conservation Agriculture”, that are not only effective in producing food and other raw materials economically, but also more sustainable in terms of environmental impacts. Their further development and spread merit deeper support with the development of suitable policies, funding, research, technologies, knowledgediffusion, and institutional arrangements.

Production systems for sustainable intensification: Integrating productivity with ecosystem services

Underpinning conservation agriculture's benefits: the roots of soil health and function

https://tatup.de/index.php/tatup/article/download/769/1404

Francis Shaxson

Papers

The spread of Conservation Agriculture: justification, sustainability and uptake

The spread of Conservation Agriculture: policy and institutional support for adoption and uptake

Production systems for sustainable intensification: Integrating productivity with ecosystem services

Underpinning conservation agriculture's benefits: the roots of soil health and function

Production Systems for Sustainable Intensification