.:: Lao Knowledge Base on Conservation Agriculture ::.
When farmers adopt DMC, major changes are necessary in their crop management patterns (fields) and in the organization and management of farms and the agrarian region. DMCs are relatively complex from a technical and intellectual standpoint—these new agricultural paradigms require relatively long development and adaptation periods, a substantial stakeholder network and major changes in peoples’ strategies and priorities, which may take a few years or as long as one or two generations. DMC is not simply a technical package that can be disseminated, it is a set of practices, methods, systems, etc., and the changes cannot be made from one day to the next! The change process may also be hampered by cultural and social barriers due to tight attachments to conventional farming practices (with tillage, ‘clean’ fields, etc.). This represents a major change in mindset for farmers, as well as for other associative, political and institutional stakeholders.
