Conservation Agriculture: Future of Agriculture and Agriculture for Future

Conservation Agriculture is a resource-saving agricultural system approach to achieve sustained production and environmental conservation together with acceptable economic profits through the interventions of minimal soil disturbance, continuous soil cover, and crop rotation (FAO, 2007). Conservation Agriculture, in the context of changing environmental circumstances, is a sustainable approach to improve food security while maintaining the environmental sustainability of smallholder, marginalized farmers, particularly women living in the marginal lands of Asia and Africa. The international conference Frontiers in Conservation Agriculture in South Asia and Beyond (Organized by SANREM CRSP, University of Hawaii, and LI-BIRD with support from USAID) was developed to share useful knowledge, practices, and outcomes of conservation agriculture related research and interventions for the promotion of innovative conservation agriculture approaches. The conference highlighted recent findings and current research on conservation agriculture in South Asia and beyond, with an emphasis on presenting interdisciplinary scientific knowledge that incorporates the agricultural, economic and social sciences in the following research themes: -Conservation agriculture production technologies -Economics of conservation agriculture -Soil effects of conservation agriculture -Gender, food security and other issues in conservation agriculture 44 participants from 5 countries and varous research and development institutions participated in the conference. 6 experts during the plenary sessions shared their experiences on conservation agriculture from various backgrounds such as NGO, research institutions, bilateral agencies, extension, and university. Dr. Pashupati Chaudhary, Acting Executive Director of LI-BIRD highlighted on the need of integration of various approaches, institutional and human resources building, integration in policy and research and piloting of conservation agriculture production systems to promote conservation agriculture for enhancing food security of small holder farmers. He also share experiences of LI-BIRD about conservation agriculture with focus on integrated home gardens, community biodiversity management, integrated hedgerow for sloping land management, and neglected and underutilized species for promoting Conservation Agriculture to their various impact groups. Dr. Adrian Ares, Director of Feed the Future [FtF] Food Security Innovation Lab: Collaborative Research on Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management [SANREM] focused on increasing need of enhancing food security and income of small holder farmers in the world. Dr. Ares briefed about the focus species of FtF such as maize, rice, pulses and high value vegetables. In this context, he highlighted the importance of SANREM that focuses system through science based program. He shared the success stories of conservation agriculture in various countries of SANREM that are helpful to reduce land degradation due to the use of external inputs and chemical agriculture. Still, Dr. Ares shared some of the challenges of Conservation Agriculture such as related to agronomy related to cropping options, socioeconomy related to adoption by communities and societies, institutional barriers such as governmental policies and institutional capacities, multidisciplinary that requires various experts and expertise, and challenges of scaling up. Dr. Dil P Sherchan, Cereal System Initiatives in South Asia [CSISA] program of USAID shared lessons learned of the project including opportunities and challenges. According to him, CSISA is currently implementing conservation agriculture based resource conservation technology in 16 districts of Nepal. They have found an increase in adoption of conservation agriculture technology over the time. These technologies include zero tilled wheat production, direct seeded rice, and etc. Compared to traditional agricultural operations, conservation agriculture technologies are beneficial as labor shortage is a major constraint in Terai region of Nepal for crop production. Conservation agriculture technologies have also helped farmers to exploit fallows. According to their experiences, Mung and Zero tillage are offering good opportunities for farmers to exploit fallows. However, Dr. Sherchan briefed some challenges in its promotions due to challenges of weed management, land fragmentation, limited machinery, fuel competition, and limited capacity. Dr. M.L. Jat, Senior Scientist, CIMMYT, in his plenary speech boldly put benefits of conservation agriculture to mitigate the challenges of food security and glbal climate change and in the context when there is a need of improved management practices to reduce yield gap and crop management. He also stressed the need of participatory and multi-stakeholder approach to deal with transition phase when moving from the traditional or modern farming system to conservation agricultural production system. He believed on promoting conservation agriculture through local adoption, partnership, and doing adaptive research. And that is why Dr. Jat confidently said for a higher adoption of conservation agriculture over time due to its high water use efficiency, no conflict with livestock, benefits of residue to deal with water stress, and improving carbon sequestration. Hence, he focused on the need of optimizing the system for weed management, nutrient management and water management through adoption of conservation agriculture. Regarding constraints, Dr. Jat raised the issues of adoption constraints due to less access to conservation agriculture machinery and also the mindset of researchers, extension agencies and farmers. However, his main thrust was Conservation Agriculture is an agriculture of future and the future of agriculture. Mr. Hom Raj Bista, Senior Agriculture Officer, District Agriculture Development Office [DADO] Dhading, Government of Nepal talked about national context of agricultural cultivation that uses frequent cultivation leading to increased rate of soil erosion. He said an opportunity of conservation agriculture in Nepalese context to address labor migration and increase farm productivity as Nepalese farmers need more yield per unit land. Mr. Bista suggested to carry out more research with respect to farm income, plant residue management, local needs, local climate change and mechanization of conservation agriculture. According to him, in line with agricultural policy of Nepal, conservation agriculture has potentiality to be integrated and translated in local level through integrated management of resources. Dr. Chittaranjan Ray, Professor of University of Hawaii highlighted on the need of promoting conservation agriculture in the marginal and soil erosion affected lands of developing countries like Nepal, India, Africa and other areas of the world. Altogether 23 papers were presented on 4 themes namely: Conservation agriculture production technologies, Economics of conservation agriculture, soil effects of conservation agriculture, and gender, food security and other issues in conservation agriculture. Besides, 12 posters were also displayed. 6 participants of the conference visited ICIMOD Knowledge Park on next day to see various conservation agriculture related technologies demonstrated for mountain ecosystems. The conference was held on Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur, Nepal on 26 March 2013. Reference: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 2007. Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department. Rome, Italy Available from http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/ [accessed on 20 Dec 2012]