ABSTRACT
Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an alternate strategy for sustainable agriculture that is based on ecological principles and practices that can be shown to be biologically regenerative and resilient. A regenerative system is one that is able to self-repair any damage or diminution, rebuilding itself and its functions to a former natural state, or to achieve a status that is even beyond its original condition by moving to some preferable equilibrium state. Productivity refers to higher and stable yields with greater input factor efficiencies, as well as to sustaining the biological processes that contribute to the superior performance of crops, considering the growth of their shoots and root systems, plant development and phenology, and yield components and yields within the cropping/farming system. This chapter elaborates how and why conventional-tillage agriculture degrades agricultural soils and landscapes, and it presents the alternate CA paradigm that can support sustainable production to meet future food and agricultural needs.
