ABSTRACT
Conservation agriculture (CA) has been successfully developed in many regions of the world. These systems, however, have not been widely adopted by Indian farmers for many reasons. Through greater CA adoption in India, there is enormous potential to sequester soil organic carbon (SOC), which would: (i) help mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are contributing to global warming, and (ii) increase soil productivity and avoid further environmental damage from the unsustainable use of excessive tillage systems, which threaten water quality, reduce soil biodiversity, and erode soils. Research during the past decade has demonstrated that CA can reduce the emission of GHGs and help in sequestering carbon in soils. CA practices are also beneficial over traditional practices in terms of household income, food security, and natural resource management. Increased SOC sequestrations, improved soil quality, coupled with increased GHG emissions (but similar GHG intensity), were observed under zero tillage or CA over conventional tillage in India, especially under irrigated agriculture. However, some studies have quantified GHG balance considering all components, namely fuel consumption, herbicide use, C sequestration, and GHG emissions. Thus, research on this aspect of CA in India is evolving with the necessity that more concentrated work may be performed in the future.
