ABSTRACT
This chapter deliberates the rate of soil degradation, types of soil degradation, effect of climate change on soil degradation, and different strategies and options to combat soil degradation under changing climate with a specific focus on South Asia. Climatic variability is a major factor responsible for soil degradation and dramatic changes in soil cover particularly in dryland regions causing rapid degradation of land. Climatic models have been used to simulate increase in aridity in most parts of dryland worldwide. Conservation agriculture (CA) is a suite of technologies used to conserve soil and water and increase crop yield on a sustainable basis. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) described that CA is a resource saving agricultural system to achieve higher profit along with environmental sustainability. There are four main principles of CA: Continuous minimal soil disturbance, year-round soil cover, crop rotations including cover cropping and integrated nutrient management.
