Conservation Agriculture Research Updates - April 2026

This review article had 241 articles to assess Sustainable Intensification (SI) technologies within smallholder farms. It had multiple indicators and performance responses. Crop yields were the top indicator. It also assessed from limited articles soil C stocks, food security, gender, labor, and biodiversity. SI interventions only had positive responses in 70% of the observations. with adjacent research sites reporting contrasting results. Future studies need to be longer term and assess local adaptation.

Surface seeding (SS) is the purest form of no-till with seeds placed on the soil surface with no soil disturbance. This paper conducted a systematic literature review on SS of wheat reported in the IGP, with the aim to cover the concept of SS, its impact on wheat yield, soil properties, and the environment, with the potential benefits and constraints. Their review showed that SS-based rice-wheat systems improve productivity (~10%) and profitability (20-30%), while employing less irrigation water (15-30%) and energy input (20-25%) compared to a conventional system. In relation to soil properties the SS approach enhanced soil health by virtue of increased soil organic carbon and improved soil aggregation, as well as soil, water, and energy conservation.  SS consisting of no-tillage with substantial crop residue retention offered an alternative to crop residue burning. 

This is an interesting article on ground beetles that are an important component of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems as predators of pests and consumers of weed seeds. Unfortunately, there has been a gradual decline in these insects in Europe. This study looks at the impact of different tillage practices including NT on these beetles. They conclude on balance across multiple studies, greater tillage intensity tends to have a negative effect on abundance, species richness, and diversity of these beetles. The high variability of carabid responses to tillage is also a consequence of various modifying factors such as cover cropping, rotations, and variations in weed control associated with tillage. The paper has a good set of conclusions on this complex question that is worth reading.

This review article looks at the challenges and research needs for adoption of CA and improvement of crop-soil water conditions in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. This multidisciplinary and participatory study was the basis for the project "Research-based participatory approaches for adopting conservation agriculture in the Mediterranean Area-CAMA". There is an emphasis on smallholder farms. It uses a socio-economic analysis of the reasons that restrict the CA diffusion and legume crop improvement as a component of improved CA cropping systems, and the need for a network of long-term experiments on CA and soil characteristic modification.

This article quantifies the effect of Best Management Practices (BMPs) on crop productivity, income, water saving and water balance components and identifies gaps for future research by reviewing 108 published studies from South Asia. Adoption of conservation measures helped enhance crop yields by 200–1000 kg/ha, reduced cost of cultivation and enhanced incomes by US$ 10–200/ha/year. They also enabled annual water saving in the range of 50 mm to 300 mm by either conserving residual soil moisture or saving irrigation water resulting in enhanced water productivity. Direct seeding rice and laser leveling were effective in water saving and reducing costs of production. Rain water harvesting was also a valuable practice. They conclude that the review revealed the ample scope of integrating in situ and ex situ interventions to build system-level resilience in smallholder farming systems.

This paper reviews existing literature and provides an overview of farming practices in Nepal, highlights near-term challenges associated with climate change and food security, and discusses the role of CA as a climate-smart strategy to minimize soil degradation and improve food security. Change are needed because of changes in climate -- decreasing precipitation and increases in average temperature. Techniques reviewed include crop diversification, crop rotation, cover crops and minimum tillage, all of which can reduce soil degradation. In addition, increasing crop residue retention can result in greater C sequestration and crop yield and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. 

This is the second chapter highlighted from Rattan Lal's 2021 book on Soil Organic Matter. This chapter collates and synthetizes the information on research in relation to improvements in achieving sustainability and mitigating anthropogenic climate change—through adoption of no-till (NT) systems over existing conventional agriculture systems (e.g. crop productivity, soil quality, erosion control, and carbon emissions and sequestration). It concludes that conversion to NT systems for management and control of soil erosion can also reduce losses of SOC in water- or wind-transported sediments and contribute to reducing emissions and sequestration of carbon.

This paper uses a long-term farming system experiment to evaluate and compare the agronomic, economic and ecological performance of the most common arable cropping systems in Europe: organic, conservation, and conventional farming. It contains data for 43 agroecosystem properties and determines overall multifunctionality. Organic production resulted in higher economic performance, thanks to higher product prices and additional support payments. Our results demonstrate that different cropping systems provide opposing services, enforcing the productivity-environmental protection dilemma for agroecosystem functioning.

This paper discusses the importance of maintaining improved soil properties in the light of land degradation, loss of biological diversity and associated ecosystem services, climate change, food insecurity, and water stress. The paper describes the contribution of CA to overcome these issues using a review of literature. The authors make key recommendations for good practices under each soil security pillar and conclude that empirical research is required to deepen the understanding of the benefits of CA in soil security, especially in developing countries.

This article is about the impacts of climate change on Burkina Faso (BF)agriculture where CC is expected to be more severe. 1820 documents were found and 217 used in this review. Analyzed adaptation options include conservation agriculture and climate-smart agriculture, irrigation, crop diversification, intensification, livelihoods diversification and migration. The focus and discussion is mainly on agricultural and individual responses, while livelihoods strategies such as diversification and migration are less frequently addressed. They conclude that more research is needed with results crucial for informing policy makers.

This paper reviews the adoption behavior by farmers from literature. Key influencers on smallholdings, a gender dimension and knowledge network, institutional and policy context are also theoretically presented in relation to CA system. They conclude that there is a requirement for an understanding of the complex network of adopter-CA technology-adoption behaviour and global or national level policy formulation as well as strategic farm-level management.

Based on the findings from peer-reviewed literature, this review aims to identify unsustainability issues and research gaps in the R–W system in South Asia and propose possible solutions to mitigate those issues and technological interventions to close the research gaps. Issues that the review has identified are declining crop, water and land productivity, deterioration of soil health, emissions of greenhouse gases due to intensive tillage and residue burning, deepening of groundwater levels and shift in weed flora and development of herbicidal resistance in crops. Potential solutions or technological interventions to mitigate the unsustainability issues include resource conservation technologies (RCTs) such as rice residue management, reduced tillage, laser land leveling, soil matric potential based irrigation scheduling, delayed rice transplanting, cultivation on permanent raised beds, direct-seeded rice (DSR), mechanical transplanting of rice and crop diversification with legumes. Sustainable R–W production technologies with reduced water, energy and C footprints are required for increased water and energy productivity and C sequestration for the NW IGPs of South Asia.

This paper looks at the concept of biological tillage that they define as "improving soil structure with plant roots". They use cover crops with thick and deep roots planted timely and using a roller-crimper to eliminate them later on. An effective bio-tillage cover crop should have thick and deep roots with rapid root growth rates, rapid decomposition of remnant roots, and good adaption to climate and soil constraints. More research is needed on biotillage in a CA situation.

This paper reviews recent findings to understand and summarize the different aspects of crop residue management, including the impact of the residues on crop and soil health, natural resource recycling, and strategies related to residue retention in farming systems. This is important since modern agriculture results in higher yields of biomass that then need to be managed for beneficial effects rather than improper systems like burning. The authors suggest that suitable residue management techniques  will fit well under existing farming system practices without compromising the systems’ productivity and environmental sustainability.

This study surveys 442 farmers in China and use a logistic-ISM model to determine the influencing factors of farmer's adoption of CA. The three main factors of 8 found are age, knowledge of Government subsidies and number of labor force. Two other factors are education and knowledge that the Government is promoting CA. Two others are received technical knowledge of CA  and whether their planting area is scattered. The authors suggest some policy suggestions to improve extension, implementation of land transfer and subsidies, strengthen rural social services, and publicize the importance of protecting black soils.

This report looks at the potential and opportunities for sustainable development in the high rainfall, hilly areas of NE India where erosion and soil degradation is rampant. It looks at CA as a possible management system to address the issues in this area if India and result in better food and environmental security, reduced cost of cultivation, enhanced cropping intensity, crop diversification and improved soil properties. In this area residue burning/removal, repeated soil tilling, monocropping, low to very low use of organic manure and fertilizers result in soil loss, poor soil properties, low productivity and income. They conclude that large scale research, demonstration and capacity building programs along with adequate policy support is required to promote CA in the region with an ultimate objective of achieving sustainable the Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger, conserve natural resources, biodiversity and climate resilient agriculture.

This paper reviews 34 papers that illustrate ZT can influence porosity depending on soil texture, pore size class, depth and time, and also influence important transport mechanisms likely to impact the fate of agrochemicals in soils. They suggest the value of a prospective examination of an evolving ZT pore network both visually and functionally across temporal and spatial scales. They also highlight the necessity for standardised methodology to aid in future data compatibility and quantitative analysis.

This paper reviewed and synthesized findings on CA; past trends, opportunities and challenges, potential benefits and future outlook to combat degradation of soil and water in Middle East and North Africa (MENA). They estimate that 25-40% of the 53 million ha's of arable land in this region are suitable for CA but adoption is low and the authors list some of the factors responsible for this. The wider acceptance of CA requires the development of affordable and versatile no-till seeder alongside the implementation of integrated crop management practices. CA-based bundled agronomic management practices must be tailored to the biophysical and socio-economic environment. The authors conclude by predicting a bright future for CA in the MENA region and list a number of reasons for this.

This paper is based on a workshop held in 2019 with delegates from various institutions, Government and the private sector to share experiences and lessons and to identify research gaps in CA in South Africa. The main conclusions were that CA is applicable to most farming systems, but is context specific. No specific CA practice can be recommended as a panacea to solve issues experienced in all systems. Adaptation and application of CA within different South African farming systems needs to be dealt with sensibly and realistically, in ways that are based on practical rather than purely theoretical considerations. It is important that CA is not advocated without taking sustainable intensification into account. Dealing with CA sensibly requires a multidisciplinary approach.

This review of CA in South Africa shows growth over the last few decades worldwide, as well as in South Africa. Because of the numerous benefits, CA is viewed by many as the more sustainable alternative to conventional agricultural practice but cautions there are many challenges associated with CA. This paper explains the basic principles, a brief history, and provides a discussion of the benefits and challenges associated with the approach in South Africa. This paper also serves as an introduction to a Special Issue on conservation agriculture in South Africa.

This article is included since rice residue burning in parts of India has become a major issue affecting air quality, human health, soil nutrient and biodiversity loss. Once a wealth, the straw has become a waste subjected to burning due to technical, structural, institutional, and socioeconomic challenges. This paper describes multiple alternate uses of this biomass instead of burning including its use in CA management. The economic and environmental gains and losses of alternate straw management options were estimated and shown to be economic and provide an environmental gain and give a key insight to policy makers to tackle this complex issue of straw-burning.

I included this relevant paper since one of the benefits of CA is to improve the microbiome of soils. Microbial diversity being an essential factor for a healthy microbiome. This review explores the available information on diversity of beneficial microbes in agricultural ecosystems and synthesizes their commercial uses in agriculture. Microbiota in agro-ecosystems works by nutrient acquisition, enhancing nutrient availability, water uptake, and amelioration of abiotic and abiotic stresses. It is important to understand the role of microbes discussed in this paper

This study used the DayCent biogeochemical model to identify the best management practices for SOC sequestration. They used data from two long-term field sites in Western Kenya that used two promoted management practices: integrated nutrient management and conservation agriculture. Correlations at both sites between measured and simulated SOC were low to moderate, and in most cases produced fairly accurate predictions of SOC trends. The conclude that model results suggest that response of the passive SOC pool to the different management practices is a key driver of the long-term SOC trends at the two study sites.

This meta-analysis reviewed experimental results (32 field studies) obtained throughout the Pampas Region in Argentina focused on the immediate effects and duration of soil mechanical alleviation measured by relevant soil physical properties and by the impact on maize and soybean yield. Treatments were a) Control (no tilled soils), and b) Subsoiled (no tilled soil subjected to mechanical compaction alleviation by deep non-inversion tillage). Soil compaction alleviation works had a durability of not more than 17 months (±2.8 months) after being performed. They conclude that deep non-inversion tillage could be a promising practice to close rainfed crop yield gaps in the region. But due to its low durability in time, further compaction prevention and structural regeneration practices such as cover crops, diversified crop rotations and controlled traffic will be needed

This review paper looked at the smart solutions that enabled the spread of CA in the Mediterranean Basin by looking at the evolution of strategies and the machines used to perform CA in the last 30 years. They also looked at the effects of their adoption on the productivity of herbaceous and horticultural crops, weed control, and economic feasibility compared to conventional systems using soil inversion. They conclude that farmers play a crucial role in the adoption of smart solutions for increasing the sustainability and productivity of crops. However, farmers have barriers like inadequate policies, subsidies, direct farm payments, available machinery and suitable weed control practices. Appropriate incentives and governance practices are needed to guide farmers.