Adoption of Conservation Agriculture as a Driver of Sustainable Farming: Opportunities, Constraints, and Policy Issues

Abstract

Sustainable farming is critical for rural development and global food security, but it is threatened by intensive agriculture and climate change. Conservation agriculture (CA) is a sustainable farming system developed in response to intensive agriculture, environmental degradation, and climate change caused by traditional agriculture systems. This chapter discusses the role of CA in sustainable farming and examines the factors influencing CA adoption globally through a review of previous studies. The review results indicated that CA assists farmers increase farm sustainability by influencing economic, social, and environmental dimensions through minimum mechanical soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and diversification. CA adoption aims at maintaining soil fertility, improving farm yield, and reducing the use of external inputs necessary for sustainable farming. Therefore, the number of CA-adopting countries has grown significantly over the last decade but its adoption is constrained by a variety of factors such as farmers’ demographic characteristics, farm characteristics, institutional factors, capital ownership, cognitive factors, and farm manager entrepreneurial ability. Moreover, abundance of small-scale farming and a lack of awareness about the role of CA in sustainable farming also pose a challenge to the global adoption of CA. Farmers’ entrepreneurial abilities and awareness of CA benefits should be improved to increase adoption of CA and sustainable farming.