Farmers till with a drill in the eroded fields of Flanders

Feature looks at the farming method of 'conservation agriculture', whereby ploughs are being replaced by crop planting methods that protect the soil, cost less and limit environmental damage. Conservation agriculture (CA) aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture through the application of the three CA principles: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations. CA holds tremendous potential for all sizes of farms and agro-ecological systems, but its adoption is perhaps most urgently required by smallholder farmers, especially those facing acute labour shortages. It is a way to combine profitable agricultural production with environmental concerns and sustainability and it has been proven to work in a variety of agroecological zones and farming systems.

FAO: Conservation Agriculture http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/

European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) http://www.ecaf.org/

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