Integrated Crop Management Vol.17-2012 Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Crop Intensification: A Zimbabwe Case Study
Future food security relies not only on higher production and access to food but also on the need to address the destructive effects of current agricultural production systems on ecosystem services and increase the resilience of production systems to the effects of climate change. CA addresses the problem of low and erratic rainfall through the use of practices that reduce water losses and increase infiltration, and low soil nutrient status by increasing soil carbon and nitrogen through the use of organic soil cover and legumes in rotations and interactions. CA enables the sustainable intensification of agriculture by conserving and enhancing the quality of the soil, leading to higher yields and the protection of the local environment and ecosystem services. This publication describes the experiences of introducing and promoting CA as a practice for sustainable crop production intensification in farming communities across Zimbabwe by various stakeholders such as the Ministry of Agriculture, NGOs, FAO, CIMMYT and ICRISAT. The case study explains the adoption process and shows the impact of CA in terms of agricultural production, environment and ecosystem services, livelihoods and other socio-economic factors. The case study is directed to policy makers, scientists and environmentalists and should help decision making towards sustainable intensification concepts for agriculture.

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An on-farm Assessment of Carbon Monitoring and Mapping Scaling Up in No Till Fields
There is still a major uncertainty about the quantities which can be sequestered under specific agro climatic conditions and soil or crop management practices. This uncertainty is aggravated by an additional uncertainty about the most appropriate ways to measure the carbon sequestration in actual terms, particularly in farming situations with small holder farms. Soil carbon values show often a very high special variability, while the changes over time are usually very slow and small. However, if the potential of agricultural soils for sequestering carbon should be captured for climate change mitigation, it must be quantified, leading eventually also to monetary recognitions of the farmers contributing to such carbon sequestration through carbon payments. For this reason reproducible, reliable and feasible methods need to be developed to measure and demonstrate carbon changes in
agricultural soils. The present manual is based on long term practical field work. The author tried to adjust the IPCC methods for field scale and developing such methods for carbon monitoring on farm land and for up scaling the results as a contribution to larger carbon management schemes in agriculture.

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No-Till Agriculture in Southern Brazil - Factors that facilitated the evolution and the development of mechanization of the conservation farming
This publication is an account of the technical developments in no-tillage systems that took place in southern Brazil from the viewpoint of the principal actors in the process. Special emphasis is given to the mechanization of conservation agriculture, as it is in this area that the domestic agricultural machinery industry has played a key role adapting and developing indigenous technologies suited to different soil and climatic conditions as well as to the soil conservation management strategies practiced in the country. The ability to generate diverse, flexible and innovative technical solutions for different categories of farmers has put the agricultural machinery industry of Brazil amongst the leaders of the global market. International organizations are raising the awareness of conservation agriculture as an alternative to conventional practices in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean and for this reason understanding the evolution of the Brazilian experience of mechanizing no-tillage and conservation agriculture and identifying its determining factors is of fundamental importance to enable the expansion of the system in other regions of the world and to avoid repeating mistakes and possibly wasting resources.

Portuguese version

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Integrated Crop Management Vol. 16-2012 - Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation and Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Conservation Agriculture: A literature review
Soil organic matter plays a crucial role in maintaining soil health and its productivity potential. However, most of the world’s agricultural soils have become depleted in organic matter compared with their state under natural vegetation. This is because the dominant form of agriculture is based on tillage, which accelerates the decomposition of soil organic matter. Tillage-based production systems should therefore be transformed so that the future production intensification can be achieved sustainably, Conservation Agriculture, a system avoiding or minimizing soil disturbance, combined with soil cover and crop diversification, is considered to be such sustainable production system. However, there appears to be certain degree of uncertainty about the role of Conservation Agriculture in carbon sequestration and in reducing green house gas emissions. This publication presents a meta analysis of global scientific literature with the aim to develop a clear understanding of the impacts and benefits of traditional tillage agriculture and Conservation Agriculture with respect to their effects on soil carbon pools. The study attempts to reduce the existing uncertainty about the impact of soil management practices on soil carbon and is addressing scientists as well as policy makers to facilitate decision making regarding future farming models.

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Integrated Crop Management Vol.15-2012 - Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Crop Intensification in Karatu District, Tanzania Future global food security relies not only on high production and access to food but also on the need to address the destructive effects of current agricultural production systems on ecosystem services (Foresight, 2011) and increase the resilience of production systems to the effects of climate change. CA enables the sustainable intensification of agriculture by conserving and enhancing the quality of the soil, leading to higher yields and the
protection of the local environment and ecosystem services. The present publication describes the experiences of introducing Conservation Agriculture as a concept for sustainable crop production intensification in farming communities of Karatu District, Tanzania. The case study explains the adoption process nad shows the impact of conservation Agriculture in terms of agricultural production, environment and ecosystem services, livelihoods and other socio economic factors. The case study is directed to policy makers, scientists and environmentalists and should help decision making towards sustainable intensification concepts for agriculture.

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Integrated Crop Management Vol.14-2012 - Natural Resource Assessment for Crop and Land Suitability: An application for selected bioenergy crops in Southern Africa region
The pilot regional assessment carried out for Southern Africa and described in this publication was designed to help evaluate the crop and land suitability of bioenergy crops which are also food crops, namely: cassava, sugarcane, sweet sorghum, sunflower and oil palm under rainfed production conditions. By providing critical bioenergy crop adaptability and land resources information, along with extensive maps, to policy-planners and decision-makers for socioeconomic development, it is expected that national policy and development capacity will also be strengthened.
The crop and land suitability assessments provide an up-to-date GIS database for climate, soil, terrain and vegetation information, and includes critical data sets, methodological and analytical support and the integration of FAO's AEZ methodology, including an inventory of land resources and specific ecological and agronomic adaptability requirements for selected bioenergy crops under the tillage-based production systems and under Conservation Agriculture.
The assessment also enhances and expands the current ECOCROP database and its applications by adding more detailed information on bioenergy crops and using a mapping function to enable countries to better plan and decide on their agricultural strategy with respect to food and bioenergy crops.
This publication seeks to assist government and institutional policy-planners and decision-makers in identifying places where energy crops could be grown and in understanding the geographic (agro-ecological and economic) context of bioenergy supplies, at country and regional levels. It will not only increase awareness about the environmental challenges related to the production systems of bioenergy crops, but will also contribute to the development of new production practices and technologies for sustainable agricultural intensification and diversification in the context of the new FAO "Save and Grow" paradigm.

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Save and Grow - A policymaker’s guide to the sustainable intensification of smallholder crop production

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Integrated Crop Management Vol.13-2010 - An International Consultation on integrated Crop- Livestock systems for development - The way Forward for Sustainable Production Intensification A new kind of sustainable intensified agriculture based on CA is emerging and new production systems often also include trees grown as hedge rows to control grazing and provide habitats and fuel, or include such as at the community or trees as strip crops with annual crops rotated in adjacent strips. Trees in crop-livestock systems often add significant synergistic values. Innovations that can strengthen the multi-dimensional role of integrated crop-livestock-trees systems and their resilience are taking place and there is a need to share this knowledge more efficiently and to build jointly owned research and development programmes to achieve critical mass of expertise and financial resources focused on helping farmers in major agro-ecologies.
This proceeding of the electronic and face-to-face Consultation held early in 2010 is just a first step. AG is committed to facilitate effective development, focused on sustainable production intensification of crops and of livestock and their integrated systems – at the farm level and also area-wide integration -- such as at the community or watershed levels. We look to Embrapa, IFAD, World Bank, IICA, the CGIAR and many others to join with FAO to help set up a facility and shared program of work to move a better agriculture forward and to do so quickly; as every day is a hungry day for over a billion people.

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Integrated Crop Management Vol.12-2010 - Green manure/cover crops and crop rotation in Conservation Agriculture on small farms The objective of this publication is to offer a reference material for extensionists, professors, agronomy students, technicians in general, and for farmers themselves. Through information that is up-to-date and richly illustrated, it strives to facilitate the adoption and diffusion of No-Tillage, the use of green manures, and the practice of crop rotation on small farms.
The publication describes the principal species of green manures and, at the same time, informs in detail how to insert green manures into small farm production systems according to soil fertility and major crops. It also deals with the residual effect of green manures on main crops and analyzes the economic implications of these practices.

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Integrated Crop Management Vol.10-2010 - Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Crop Intensification in Lesotho Lesotho is a small mountainous country characterized by extensive land degradation and erratic climatic conditions. In recent years a growing number of development agencies have been promoting conservation agriculture (CA) as a means to enhance rural livelihoods through sustainable production intensification. The present case study prepared under the AGP Framework for Sustainable Crop Production Intensification draws on the data collected by FAO in 2006 and illustrates the impact of CA and more specifically the local version of CA, the likoti-system, on sustainable crop intensification in the south-eastern highlands of Qacha's Nek district and in the western lowlands of Butha-Buthe and Berea. According to these data, the adoption of likoti has brought about significant advantages compared to conventional tillage. The case study is directed to decision makers influencing national policies from a technical background, the development and environmental communities as well as readers interested in sustainable agriculture. It proves the case that Conservation Agriculture is also successfully being practiced in Africa and that it can be done even without external inputs.

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Integrated Crop Management Vol.7-2009 - Enhancing Crop-Livestock Systems in Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Production Intensification (Burkina Faso) This is a story about how FAO assisted groups of farmers in five farming communities in the moist savannah zone of South Western Burkina Faso to enhance their crop-livestock systems through Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices, including crop diversification, using an innovative farmer discovery process, to bring about agricultural intensification and improvement in livelihoods. FAO's assistance was delivered largely by working with national institutions, adding value to ongoing stakeholder resources and activities. It is a story of positive intensification outcomes brought about by adapting 'proven principles and practices' of CA and crop diversification into existing crop-livestock systems. FAO worked with a range of stakeholders including the farmers and their communities, and the research and extension stakeholders, to create convergence and enable a farmer-based discovery process to experiment with a set of fundamentally new principles and elements in their farming practices for integrated crop-livestock production intensification. The positive outcomes offer a real promise and an opportunity for bringing about a large scale impact on agricultural productivity and livelihoods in the moist savannah zone of West Africa, often referred to as the potential 'bread basket' because of the zone's high productivity potential for integrated crop-livestock production. The conceptual elements draw substantially from new innovations in sustainable intensification in similar agro ecologies in the savannas of Brazil. This publication describes the multi-stakeholder process which led the successful outcomes, and the opportunity for a greater change that now exists and should be harnessed for sustainable agricultural development, nationally and regionally.

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Scaling-up Conservation Agriculture in Africa: Strategy and Approaches This publication is an outcome of a Joint Workshop organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Soil Science Society (ASSS), Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the Africa Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) in Nanyuki, Kenya from 22 - 25 June 2008. A total of 22 participants from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Zambia, ASSS, ACT, JIRCAS and KENDAT attended the meeting.

During the Workshop, thirteen papers covering challenges for promoting Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in Africa, country experiences, CA development in large scale mechanized farms and support to surrounding small scale farmers, extension services to farmers, and farmer field schools were presented. Conservation Agriculture was endorsed as one of the best options to meet future food demands, prevent ecological degradation and ensure sustainable agriculture and rural development. If implemented well, CA methods can improve the efficiency of input, increase farm income, improve or sustain crop yields, and protect and revitalize soil, biodiversity and the natural resource base.

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An international technical workshop Investing in sustainable crop intensification: The case for improving soil health
FAO, Rome: 22-24 July 2008, Integrated Crop Management Vol.6-2008
This publication is a report of a Workshop that brought together people from a wide range of institutions - farmers, researchers, ecologists extensionists, policy makers, donors – from 40 countries who share a common concern about the non-sustainability of ways in which farm land is now being used and who are convinced that this must change. The Workshop focused on the growing evidence of success in the adoption and spread of Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems in developing countries. CA-based approaches to sustainable production intensification are highly relevant to the global response to rising food and energy prices, increasing soil and environmental degradation, pervasive rural poverty, climate change and increasing water scarcity. The main outcome of the Workshop is ‘A Framework for Action’. reflecting on actions that would help to upscale the take up of CA, thereby enabling land to be farmed more productively, profitably and sustainably.

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Visual Soil Assessment
The present publication on Visual Soil Assessment is a practical guide to carry out a quantitative soil analysis with reproducible results using only very simple tools. Besides soil parameters, also crop parameters for assessing soil conditions are presented for some selected crops. The Visual Soil Assessment manuals consist of a series of separate booklets for specific crop groups, collected in a binder. The publication addresses scientists as well as field technicians and even farmers who want to analyse their soil condition and observe changes over time.

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Tropical crop-livestock systems in conservation agriculture, The Brazilian experience, John N. Landers, Integrated Crop Management Vol. 5-2007
This publication describes how pasture, fodder and livestock production have been integrated into conservation agriculture systems in Brazil’s tropical zones. Vast areas of forest have been cleared in the tropical areas of Brazil for establishment of pastures that become unproductive once the native fertility of the soil is exhausted; this leads to yet more forest clearing. Integrated crop–livestock zero tillage systems allow for the sustainable production of high-yielding pasture without further deforestation; in this system, grazing livestock convert both pastures and crop residues into cash. The ability of pasture to build up the fertility and biological activity of the topsoil is well known. The economics of the system are discussed and its very positive ecological effects are described at length. This publication is geared towards agronomists, advanced farmers, extension workers and agricultural decision-makers throughout the tropics and subtropics. It is hoped that the many lessons learned and technologies developed in the Brazilian tropics can serve, with the necessary local adaptation, as a starting reference for other tropical (and subtropical) zones.

Proceedings of the Third World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, 3-7 October 2005, Nairobi, Kenya
Copies can be obtained from ACT
P.O Box 10375 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: +254 20 4444252 Fax: +254 20 4451391
KARI - NARL, Waiyaki Way, Nairobi, Kenya
Website: http://www.act-africa.org
Email: info@act-africa.org

Proceedings of the FAO/CTIC Conservation Agriculture Carbon Offset Consultation, held on 28-30 October, 2008, at the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
The proceedings as CD-ROM contain the workshop papers and power point presentations, background documents, agenda and list of participants as well as a framework for action and some short policy briefs, such as a One-page issue paper designed as a tool for conservation advocates to distribute to policymakers and influencers worldwide and a two-page summary document with background and supporting information about the importance of soil carbon sequestration in conservation agriculture

No-Till Farming Systems
WASWC Special Publication no. 3
Editors: T. Goddard, M. Zoebisch, Y. Gan, W. Ellis, A. Watson, S. Sombatpanit
http://www.waswc.org

Conservation Agriculture Case Studies - a series of case studies on conservation agriculture in 5 countries

Ghana

Kenya

Tanzania

Uganda

Zambia

This case studies on conservation agriculture are a joint project of the African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the Swedish SIDA funded Regional Land Management Unit (RELMA in ICRAF) and FAO. The booklets throw light on controversial issues such as the challenges farmers face in keeping soil covered, in gaining access to adequate equipment, in controlling weeds, and on the challenges projects and institutions face in implementing truly participatory approaches to technology development. The series illustrates the benefits of conservation agriculture systems and the enthusiasm with which many stakeholders are taking it up.

No-tillage Seeding in conservation Agriculture. 2nd Edition
This book is a much-expanded and updated edition of a previous volume, published in 1996 as "No-tillage Seeding: Science and Practice". The base objective remains to describe, in lay terms, a range of international experiments designed to examine the causes of successes and failures in no-tillage. The book summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of no tillage. It highlights the pros and cons of a range of features and options, without promoting any particular product. Topics added or covered in more detail in the second edition include: · soil carbon and how its retention or sequestration interacts with tillage and no-tillage · controlled traffic farming as an adjunct to no-tillage · comparison of the performance of generic no-tillage opener designs · the role of banding fertilizer in no-tillage · the economics of no-tillage · small-scale equipment used by poorer farmers · forage cropping by no-tillage · a method for risk assessment of different levels of machine sophistication.
(for ordering copies of the book)

Conservation Agriculture A manual for farmers and extension workers in Africa
This book is published by the FAO-supported African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) and the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR). the manual intends to:
1) explain what conservation agriculture is, and why it is important;
2) describe how to use conservation agriculture principles in the field;
3) highlight the issues and challenges that farmers and extension personnel may encounter when they adopt and adapt conservation agriculture;
4) suggest ways to adapt and disseminate this approach to farming and
5) provide examples of experiences with conservation agriculture in real life.
This manual is part of a larger effort to develop and promote conservation agriculture in Africa. It is designed to reflect the experiences and views of many conservation agriculture practitioners (farmers, researchers and support organizations) to respond to the looming hunger and environmental degradation in sub-Saharan Africa.
The manual is jointly produced and supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA); The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and FAO.

For ordering copies of the book
The manual is also available as CD-Rom

 

Scaling-up Conservation Agriculture in Africa: Strategy and Approaches This publication is an outcome of a Joint Workshop organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Soil Science Society (ASSS), Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the Africa Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) in Nanyuki, Kenya from 22 - 25 June 2008. During the Workshop, thirteen papers covering challenges for promoting Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in Africa, country experiences, CA development in large scale mechanized farms and support to surrounding small scale farmers, extension services to farmers, and farmer field schools were presented. Conservation Agriculture was endorsed as one of the best options to meet future food demands, prevent ecological degradation and ensure sustainable agriculture and rural development. If implemented well, CA methods can improve the efficiency of input, increase farm income, improve or sustain crop yields, and protect and revitalize soil, biodiversity and the natural resource base.

Proceedings of the International Workshop “Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Land Management to Improve the Livelihood of People in Dry Areas" The Workshop has been held at The Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD) from 7th - 9th May, 2007. The general objective of the workshop was to develop the awareness of conservation agriculture and pave the way for implementing conservation agriculture in the Arab region by bringing together scientists, policy makers and practitioners to share different knowledge, experiences and competencies and discuss opportunities, tools and adaptations in Arab countries. The proceedings encompass almost all papers of the workshop. A few presentations were replaced by others to finalize editing for publication. At the end of the proceedings, an abstract is added summarizing the results of the discussion.

Proceedings of the Workshop on Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa Harrison’s Conference Centre, cnr 12th Avenue and Wessels Street, Rivonia, Johannesburg April 2nd and 3rd, 2007.