Conservation agriculture: implementation guidance for policymakers and investors
Conservation agriculture is an approach to agricultural management based on three principles: (i) Minimum soil disturbance (ii) Retention of crop residues or other soil surface cover (iii) Use of crop rotations. The idea of minimizing soil disturbance was introduced in the 1930s as a soil conservation system to counter the Dust Bowl in the United States, but the term Conservation Agriculture (CA) was not coined until the 1990s. Only recently has CA been promoted on the basis of its climate adaptation and mitigation benefits. CA is now widespread in parts of the world. In the tropics, Brazil has the longest experience with CA, where the principles have been practiced since the 1970s and CA now covers over 30 million hectares. African farmers have adopted CA in the last 15 years, but at slower rates. Read the whole document HERE
