Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2026

Nepal agriculture is challenged by environmental degradation, labor shortages, and increasing feminization of farming as a result of male outmigration. CA offers a solution but adoption needs to increase. This paper examines issues related to adoption CA as more women become empowered in agriculture. The surveyed 383 farmers across 3 Districts and found that 73% of respondents were willing to adopt CA because of climate concerns, economic incentives and market access. They believe that CA enhances sustainability, resilience, and income are also more likely to engage, while market dissatisfaction presents a challenge. Getting subsidies is associated with adoption of CA. Barriers for women include household responsibilities, lack of education and training, and limited financial access. They conclude that targeted policies, institutional support, and market-based incentives are essential for increasing adoption by women farmers. 

This chapter describes the challenges facing this part of the World that includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Sudan mostly due to high population growth rates, youth unemployment, increasing food needs, variable income levels and threatened fragile natural resources. The chapter describes the introduction of conservation agriculture and its adoption in this area and how there was a need to dismantle barriers and promote this management system to improve replace traditional systems that result in degradation of the environment and lead to reduced productivity.

This report looks at the evaluation of a 5-year Canadian Foodgrains Bank implemented project in Sub-Saharan Africa entitled "Scaling-Up Conservation Agriculture in East Africa (SUCA). The three outcome areas of this project were the adoption of CA, an enabling institutional environment and promotion of enabling policies. This case study illustrated the overlap between utilization-focused evaluation ((UFE) and collaborative  approaches to evaluation (CAE). This program supported 50,000 male and female farmers practicing 2-3 CA principles using 11 implementing partners. The findings demonstrated the value of the program and inspired a framework called CA Plus that illustrates the multidisciplinary approach underlying the program's success.

This study from Eastern Kenya, looked at various climate change adaptation practices of smallholder farmers in terms of socioeconomic and institutional factors. Data was collected from 384 small-scale farms. Gender positively and significantly influenced adoption of conservation agriculture and water harvesting. Distance to markets positively or negatively influenced uptake of all the technologies. Age and distance to nearest markets should be considered during technology dissemination. The study recommends agricultural policy reforms that aim at designing incentive programmes that address the socioeconomic and institutional issues related to uptake of adaptation practices as well as encouraging off-farm diversification.

This paper from Uganda looks at the adoption of sustainable agricultural intensification practices (SAIPs) recommended for smallholder farmers.320 maize farmers were interviewed in 2 Districts. Results showed that improved maize varieties, conservation tillage, legume intercrop, integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), and integrated pest management (IPM) were adopted by 58, 36, 44, 52, and 56% of the farmers. Institutional factors were significant predictors of adoption. Socioeconomic factors only positively influenced adoption intensity for SAIPs. Two policy recommendations were to strengthen agricultural extension and promote the use of village level credit services to enhance adoption.

This issue includes the Declaration of the 8th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (8WCCA) and its inaugural speech. Ten articles by leading international experts cover the four themes: Improving soil health by restoring agricultural lands with CA; Reducing pollution from chemicals and dust and dust with CA; Mitigating and adapting to climate change with CA; and Policy and institutional support for environmental land management with CA. They mention in the summary that it is hoped this special issue will be of interest and value not only to TAA International members but also to a much wider readership in the UK and beyond; to farmers, researchers, academics, students, extensionists, private and public sector institutions, and policy makers, as well as to concerned people worldwide.

This is last chapter in the book on CA in India, by Sharma, listed earlier. The authors indicate that CA has the potential to contribute to sustainability of food production and reversal of soil degradation in India. It also enhances the efficiency of applied inputs and optimizes land and water use. They also write that the CA approach has to be operationalized in an eco-regional or resource management domain framework and integrate the focus of research on short- and long-term resource use problems. CA also needs institutional innovations for organizing multi-disciplinary farmer participatory research teams that provide integrated solutions of regionally defined problems.