Knowledge Base

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

.:: Lao Knowledge Base on Conservation Agriculture ::.

Global Overview of CA Adoption Featured

Author(s)
Rolf Derpsch and Theodor Friedrich
Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization
Media Type
Conference
Publication Date
2009-02-04
File 1
Annexe17.pdf
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 iological 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 outh 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 nder 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 iincreasing steadily as well. Up to now No-tillage has expanded to more than 100 million ha world wide, showing its adaptability to all kindsof climates, soils and cropping conditions. No-tillage is now being practiced from the artic circle over the tropics to about 50ยบ 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.


Advanced Search