Conservation Agriculture and Its Applications in South Asia

Although agriculture is an essential occupation needed to feed the world's population, it often has negative environmental impacts when practiced without regard to the condition of the soils that it depends on. Intensive modern food production systems are often accompanied by numerous adverse impacts on soil systems: loss of soil organic matter (SOM), erosion by wind and/or water, reduced soil biological diversity, physical degradation, poor nutrient-use efficiency, groundwater pollution, declining water tables, salinization and waterlogging, greenhouse gas emissions, with accelerating effects on global warming, air pollution, loss of biodiversity, and decline in factor productivity. The challenge in the next few decades will be to keep pace with the still-growing demand for food, giving attention to the food security needs of the underfed and undernourished, while adopting technologies that are more efficient at using natural resources and have minimal adverse impacts on the environment. In addition, the profitability of agriculture needs to be increased so that farmers around the world, both better-endowed and resource-poor, can make enough income to improve their livelihoods. This chapter considers a set of innovations grouped under the rubric of conservation agriculture (CA) and how they are being adopted by farmers as a way to achieve these goals. It draws on data presently being generated within rice-wheat rotational farming systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia as an example of what can be done, and what more needs to be done, to ensure sustainable intensive agricultural production.