Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - March 2026

A review article that discusses CA as a possible approach for sustainable intensification, something that will be required for future food production. It looks at where CA has been successful and where it has not. The authors suggest that CA promotion in the (sub)- tropics has been disappointing and there has been limited adoption by small holder farmers in developing countries. However, they do highlight the benefits rising from CA from the ease of crop management, energy/cost/time savings, and soil and water conservation. They suggest pragmatic doption on larger mechanized farms but limited uptake by smallholder farmers in developing countries. They prefer to promote approaches to provide soil and crop management options to enable farmers to sustainably intensify their agriculture.

Interesting paper on the effect of CA practices and especially tillage (with and without), residue management (burned, incorporated or surface mulch) and fertilizer (with or without) on tilled or permanent beds (PB) on the soil microbial community in a long term maize-wheat experiment in NW Mexico. The soil organic carbon was highest in the PB, residue retained treatment and loweest in the burned and tilled plots. Bacterial communities were affected by tillage-residue, fertilizer and soil organic carbon. The paper has data on how the different bacterial communities were affected.