India is hosting the 4th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture on 4-7 February 2009 in New Delhi. Earlier the congress was organized in Spain, Brazil and Kenya. The congress is aimed to address innovations in agriculture for realizing improved efficiency, equity and environment. More than 1000 delegates representing scientific community, policy advisors, farmers' organizations, corporate leaders and non-governmental organizations from different parts of the world, will gather to share the knowledge to conserve and judiciously use precious natural resources for overcoming the global food crises and alleviating poverty. World community is serious about the sustainability of agriculture, which is facing multiple and complex challenges. Conservation agriculture has the potential to deliver a host of benefits that are increasingly desirable in a world facing population growth, environmental degradation, rising energy costs, soaring food prices and climate change, among other daunting challenges.
The Congress is being organized by a multi-partner team coordinated by the African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT). Key partners in the organising team include FAO, GTZ, ICRAF-RELMA, CIMMYT, SADC, NEPAD, KCTI and CAAPAS. The Congress shall bring together key stakeholders including agricultural specialists, environmentalists, economists, farmers and farmer organisations, donors, private sector, training institutions, government and non-governmental organisations involved in agriculture and rural development.
This Congress endorses the Declaration of the First World Congress on ConservationAgriculture (CA) in Madrid (2001) and notes the remarkable advances made in the twoyears which succeeded it, both in area adopted (now totaling 72 million ha of annual cropsworldwide - an additional 7 million hectares since 2001- and at least a similar area of agroforestry/perennial crops) and the evolution of CA technology and its implementation inmany new farming systems in the 50 countries represented in the WCCA2. This congressstrongly believes that CA, comprising the universal principles of permanent soil cover,direct seeding or planting, minimum soil disturbance and pluri-annual crop rotation, is theprincipal road to sustainable agriculture and capable of helping solve the world’s hungerand environmental crises while improving the quality of life. CA can achieve food securityby reversing soil degradation, reducing agrochemical use and contamination, improvingfood quality, and conserving, preserving and enhancing the ...
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The 1st World Congress on Conservation Agriculture jointly organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) was held in Madrid, Spain in October 1st-5th 2001. The FAO CA workgroup supported the workshop through a letter of agreement with ECAF financially as well as technically through collaboration in the organization and technical committees, in the workshop co-ordination itself and in the technical programme through presentations. The FAO ADG AG (Fresco) gave a keynote speech, three other members of the CA workgroup participated. The Madrid Declaration and other information on the Madrid Congress are available on the ECAF (European Conservation Agriculture Federation) website.