ABSTRACT
Conservation agriculture (CA) comprises a suite of technologies which when used together are able to limit, arrest or revert many of the causes of unsustainable agricultural practices, such as soil erosion, soil organic matter decline, soil physical degradation and excessive pesticide and fuel use. The two principal characteristics of CA systems are minimal soil movement and continuous crop residue cover, supported by other components necessary to overcome problems associated with these practices, such as crop rotation and controlled traffic. The name “CA” has been widely adopted during the last 7-8 years to distinguish this more sustainable agriculture from the narrowly defined “conservation tillage’-taking the emphasis off the tillage component and adding the aspect of the full agricultural system rather than just a component of this.
