Conservation Agriculture in South Asia

Publication date: 07/02/2022
Extent: 42 pages

Contributions by: Yashpal Singh Saharawat, International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), India; Mushtaq Gill, SACAN Services, Pakistan; Mahesh Gathala, CIMMYT, Bangladesh; Tika Bahadur Karki, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Nepal; D. B. T. Wijeratne, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Sri Lanka; Sayed Samiullah Hakimi, Kabul University, Afghanistan; Neelam Chaudhary, Directorate of Plant Protection and Quarantine, India; Md. Enamul Haque, Murdoch University, Australia; Richard W. Bell, Murdoch University, Australia; C. M. Parihar, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India; Harisankar Nayak, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India; Rajbir Singh, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, India; R. K. Malik, CIMMYT, India; Upendra Singh, International Fertilizer Development Centre, USA; Raj Paroda, Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences, India; and Amir Kassam, University of Reading, UK

Chapter synopsis: South Asia, a home of 1.7 billion people houses the most poor and malnourished people globally. The region need to double its food production by 2050. Current scenario puts South Asian agriculture in a dilema facing triple challenges: to increase production to meet the food demand of growing human population with a lower environmental footprint, preserve natural resources and mitigate or adapt to the changing climatic scenarios. Conservation Agriculture offers a number of benefits such as arresting and reversing the resource degradation, decreasing cultivation costs, making agriculture more resource – use-efficient, competitive and sustainable whilst increasing resilience to climatic variability and improving livelihood incomes in South Asia. The CA approach for managing agro-ecosystems is of paramount significance in improving soil health, sustained productivity and maintaining natural biodiversity. However, there is still a large knowledge gap in understanding of nutrient and water management in CA systems.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2021.0088.12