Indian Journal of Agronomy

Conservation agriculture (CA) technologies involve minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues or cover crops, and crop rotations for achieving higher productivity. Globally, CA systems are being adopted on 125 M ha and further expanding rapidly due to its potential benefits not only for crop productivity and farm profitability but more particularly in arresting land degradation and addressing emerging challenges of water and climate change. In India, efforts to develop, refine and disseminate CA based technologies have been underway for nearly two decades, and made significant progress since then despite several bumps on the way. However, the major efforts have been on no-till in wheat under rice-wheat rotation of Indo-Gangetic plains. There are more payoffs than tradeoffs for adoption of CA but the equilibrium among the two is still not understood not only by the adopters but also promoters. Though, there is no single solution to all the present day ills of conventional agricultural systems, CA-based management practices have demonstrated potential role in arresting land degradation, improving resource-use efficiency, improve diversity, soil health, farm profitability, and adaptation and mitigation to climate change effects with varied degree across different production systems, farmer typology and agroecologies. This article reviews the emerging concerns due to continuous adoption of conventional agriculture systems, and analyses the prospects and research needs for CA in Indian context.