FAO is monitoring the global adoption of Conservation
Agriculture. The data presented above is the result of an ongoing
collaboration between FAO’s Conservation Agriculture and
AQUASTAT programmes, and presents the latest values available
for all countries that report Conservation Agriculture practices.
This script automatically displays new data as updates become
available and can be considered the most up-to-date repository
for global implementation of conservation agriculture. The reported
areas comply with the CA
definition, with the following quantifying parameters:
1. Minimum Soil Disturbance: Minimum soil disturbance refers to
low disturbance no-tillage and direct seeding. The disturbed area
must be less than 15 cm wide or less than 25% of the cropped area
(whichever is lower). There should be no periodic tillage that
disturbs a greater area than the aforementioned limits. Strip
tillage is allowed if the disturbed area is less than the set
limits.
2. Organic soil cover: Three categories are distinguished: 30-60%,
>60-90% and >90% ground cover, measured immediately after
the direct seeding operation. Area with less than 30% cover is
not considered as CA.
3. Crop rotation/association: Rotation/association should involve
at least 3 different crops. However, repetitive wheat or maize
cropping is not an exclusion factor for the purpose of this data
collection, but rotation/association is recorded where practiced.
Paper presented to IV World Congress
on Conservation Agriculture
New Delhi, India, February 2009
Global Overview of Conservation Agriculture Adoption
Rolf Derpsch, Consultant Asuncion, Paraguay
rolf.derpsch@tigo.com.py
- www.rolf-derpsch.com,
Theodor Friedrich, FAO/Rome
Abstract
No-tillage/Conservation Agriculture (CA) has developed to a technically
viable, sustainable and economic alternative to current crop production
practices. While current crop production systems have resulted
in soil degradation and in extreme cases desertification, the
adoption of the No-tillage technology has led to a reversion of
this process. Soil erosion has come to a halt, organic matter
content, soil biological processes and soil fertility have been
enhanced, soil moisture has been better conserved and yields have
increased with time. Data presented ten years ago at the 10th
ISCO Conference in West Lafayette, Indiana, showed a world wide
adoption of the No-tillage technology of about 45 million ha (Derpsch,
2001). Since then the adoption of the system has continued to
grow steadily especially in South America where some countries
are using CA on about 70% of the total cultivated area. Opposite
to countries like the USA where often fields under No-tillage
are tilled every now and then, more than two thirds of No-tillage
practiced in South America is permanently under this system, in
other words once started, the soil is never tilled again. In the
last years a big expansion of the area under No-tillage has been
reported in Asia, especially in China and Kazakhstan where more
than a million ha have been reported in each country. But also
in Europe there is progress in the adoption. There are about 650.000
ha of No-tillage being practiced in Spain, about 200.000 ha in
France and about 200.000 ha in Finland. No-tillage based conservation
agriculture systems gain also increasing attention in Africa,
especially in Southern and Eastern Africa. In many countries the
area is still low due to the high percentage of small scale farmers,
but the numbers are increasing steadily as well. Up to now No-tillage
has expanded to more than 100 million ha world wide, showing its
adaptability 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 3000
m altitude, from extremely rainy areas with 2500 mm a year to
extremely dry conditions with 250 mm a year. The wide recognition
as a truly sustainable farming system should ensure the growth
of this technology to areas where adoption is still small as soon
as the barriers for its adoption have been overcome. The widespread
adoption also shows that No-tillage can not any more be considered
a temporary fashion, instead the system has established itself
as a technology that can no longer be ignored by politicians,
scientists, universities, extension workers, farmers as well as
machine manufacturers and other agriculture related industries.
Key words: World wide Conservation Agriculture / No-till adoption.
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