What is conservation agriculture? Discuss its advantages in the wake of climate change leading to soil degradation. (150 words)
Answers
Conservation agriculture (CA) can be defined by a statement given by the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations as “a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together with high and sustained production levels while concurrentlyconserving the ...Specifically, conservation agriculture (CA) increases the productivity of: Land - Conservation agricultureimproves soil structure and protects the soil against erosion and nutrient losses by maintaining a permanent soil cover and minimizing soil disturbance.Conservation Agriculture provides a number of advantages on global, regional, local and farm level:
Sustainability. It provides a truly sustainable production system, not only conserving but also enhancing the natural resources and increasing the variety of soil biota, fauna and flora (including wild life) in agricultural production systems without sacrificing yields on high production levels.
Enhanced biodiversity. CA depends on biological processes to work, it enhances the biodiversity in an agricultural production system on a micro- as well as macro level.
Carbon sequestration. No till fields act as a sink for CO2 and conservation farming applied on a global scale could provide a major contribution to control air pollution in general and global warming in particular. Farmers applying this practice could eventually be rewarded with carbon credits.
Labour savings. Soil tillage is among all farming operations the single most energy consuming and thus, in mechanized agriculture, air-polluting, operation. By not tilling the soil, farmers can save between 30 and 40% of time, labour and, in mechanized agriculture, fossil fuels as compared to conventional cropping.