Reduction of mechanical tillage, promotion of soil organic matter through permanent soil cover appear to be the most promising approach to revert the soil degradation process and the other environmental effects of conventional agriculture, achieving at the same time a high agricultural production level on a truly sustainable basis. The approach is best been described as "conservation agriculture" and replaces mechanical soil tillage by "biological tillage".

Conservation Agriculture is a concept that involves besides the different technical areas of agriculture also sociological aspects of community development and gender issues as well as more global environmental areas like biodiversity. Besides providing promising perspectives for one of FAO's major goals, the sustainable food production, FAO is due to the broad range of technical expertise ideally suited to put the concept into practice and to promote it on a global scale. The FAO conservation agriculture workgroup consists of representatives from the Agricultural Engineering Branch(AGSE), the Land and Plant Nutrition Management Service (AGLL), the Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC), the Plant Protection Service (AGPP), the Animal Production Service (AGAP), the Women in Development Service (SDWW) and the monitoring and co-ordination service for the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS). Description of the Conservation Agriculture Programme:

* Objective: Improvement of the sustainability of tillage based cropping systems through better Land Husbandry based on principles of reduced or zero-tillage and permanent soil cover.