Sustainable Crop Production as Influenced by Conservation Agriculture: A Review

Abstract

The conservation agriculture defined as insignificant soil disturbance (no-till) and Sustainable soil cover combined with rotations by incorporating leguminous crop in the rotation to enrich soil fertility, as a more sustainable cultivation system for the future. Cultivation and tillage play an important role in agriculture. The benefits of tillage in agriculture are explored before introducing conservation tillage (CT), a practice that was borne out of the American dust bowl of the 1930s. The adoption of this modern concept of agriculture varies among the countries. The review concludes that conservation agriculture is a more sustainable and environmentally friendly management system for cultivating crops and agriculture in the next decade. It will have benefits of  sustainably produce more food from less land through more efficient use of natural resources and with minimal impact on the environment in order to meet growing population demands. Promoting and adopting conservation agriculture management systems can help meet this goal. This review describes the benefits of conservation agriculture and its influences in sustainable crop production a suggested improvement on conservation tillage, where no-tillage, mulch and rotations significantly improve soil properties and other biotic factors.

Keyword: Conservation tillage, Sustainable agriculture, minimum tillage, mulching

DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/14-11-03

Publication date:June 30^th 2023