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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gunnar Kirchhof

School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Interests: soil and water conservation; erosion management; soil fertility; water use efficiency; capacity building for developing countries

Prof. Dr. Joshua O. Ogunwole

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Soil Science & Land Resource Management, Federal University Oye-Ekiti
Interests: soil; environment; sustainable agriculture; biogeochemistry; soil and water conservation; carbon sequestration; soil ecology; land degradation; conservation agriculture; organic agriculture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of conservation agriculture (CA), with the benefits to agricultural production driven by soil and water conservation, has been known since the 1950s, when the term conservation farming was first used, mainly in the context of reduced tillage. Nonetheless, large-scale adoption of CA did not occur until well into the 1990s and is still largely confined to developed countries, except for some places in South America. Reasons for adopting CA in industrial agricultural systems are largely based on the cost of weed control as herbicide costs declined over time, while fuel costs for tillage operations increased. Adoption of CA is still very low in most developing countries where subsistence type agriculture is still commonplace, particularly in Africa. The adoption incentive in those agroecological environments is not yet driven by the need to manage agricultural enterprises as businesses but by increasing product quantity and reliability. Adoption is also hampered by the yield gap, which often applies when farmers change from conventional practice to CA, and there are competing uses for crop residues. Emerging issues in farming systems where CA has become common practice are stratification of nutrients and herbicide resistance, while mounting pressure on safe use of herbicides will also play a crucial role in the future of CA. Management options to overcome these problems may involve occasional tillage that may partly undermine the principles of CA. There are also questions about the ability of CA systems to sequester carbon, under what conditions it occurs, and where it does not. These questions will be addressed in this Special Issue on CA in the context of soil and water management.

Dr. Gunnar Kirchhof
Prof. Dr. Joshua O. Ogunwole
Guest Editors

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Keywords

conservation agriculture
soil and water conservation
soil erosion
reduced tillage
minimum tillage
strategic tillage
occasional tillage
water use efficiency
nutrient stratification
weed management
herbicide use
carbon sequestration
farming system adoption
yield gap
site specific management

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 950 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Continuous Practice of Conservation Agriculture for 3–5 Years in Intensive Rice-Based Cropping Patterns Reduces Soil Weed Seedbank

by Mohammad Mobarak Hossain, Mahfuza Begum, Abul Hashem, Md. Moshiur Rahman, Md. Enamul Haque and Richard W. Bell

Agriculture 2021, 11(9), 895; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11090895 - 17 Sep 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2458

Abstract

When farmers first shift from conventional tillage (CT) to conservation agriculture (CA) practices, the control of weeds may be more difficult, due to the absence of tillage. However, continuous CA, over several years, may alter the weed seedbank. The nature of the weed seedbank changes over time, in intensively cropped rice-based rotations that are typical of the Eastern Gangetic Plain, are not well understood. Two on-farm CA experiments were sampled (in Beluapara after 3 years and Digram after 5 years) in Bangladesh for the effects of strip planting (SP) and bed planting (BP) at both the sites, plus no-tillage (NT) in Beluapara, and increased retention of the residue of previous crops (20% vs. 50%). The conventional tillage (CT) and 20% residue was the control treatment. The weed seedbank in 0–15 cm soil was quantified by assessing the emergence of weeds from soils collected from the field after irrigation, (Boro) rice in Digram and wheat in Beluapara, and they were allowed to emerge in trays in a shade-house experiment. The year-round count of emerged weeds at both the locations revealed the fewest number of weed species (especially broadleaf weeds), and the lowest weed density and biomass in SP, followed by CT, BP, and NT, with 50% crop residue mulch. Relative to CT, the SP, BP, and NT produced relatively more perennials weeds, as follows: Alternanthera denticulata ((R.) Brown.), Cyperus rotundus (L.), Dentella repens (L.), Jussia deccurence (Walt.), Leersia hexandra (L.), and Solanum torvum (Sw.), which was the opposite of CT that was enriched with the following annual weeds: Cyperus iria (L.), Digitaria sanguinalis (L.), Euphorbia parviflora (L.), Fimbristylis miliacea (L.), Lindernia antipoda (L.), L. hyssopifolia (L.), and Monochoria hastata (L.). The soil weed seed bank reduced by 13% in SP, while it increased by 19% and 76% in BP and NT, respectively, compared with CT. The species diversity reduced in SP and NT, by 24% and 11%, respectively, but increased by 2% in BP. In 50% residue, the soil weed seed bank and species diversity reduced by 16% and 14%, respectively, relative to that of 20% residue. The continuous practice of CA, for 3 or more years, in two rice-based crop rotations, decreased the size of the weed seedbank, but increased the relative proliferation of specific perennial weeds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation Agriculture and Management of Soil and Water)

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Review

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14 pages, 1654 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Conservation Agriculture as a System to Enhance Ecosystem Services

by Somasundaram Jayaraman, Yash P. Dang, Anandkumar Naorem, Kathryn L. Page and Ram C. Dalal

Agriculture 2021, 11(8), 718; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11080718 - 29 Jul 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 8068

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) is considered a sustainable practice with the potential to maintain or increase crop productivity and improve environmental quality and ecosystem services. It typically improves soil quality and water conservation; however, its effect on crop productivity is highly variable and dependent on local conditions/management. Crop residue retention plays a crucial role in CA and can help to improve overall soil health and ultimately crop productivity and sustainability. However, weed control, herbicide resistance, and weed shift under residue retained fields is a major challenge. Moreover, CA can increase water infiltration and reduce soil loss and runoff. This reduces the surface transport of nitrate and phosphorus from agricultural fields and the eutrophication of water bodies, although leaching of nitrate to groundwater can potentially increase. In addition, CA has been proposed as one of the components in climate-smart agriculture, owing to its reduced period to seed/plant next crop, reduced soil disturbance and low consumption of fossil fuels. Therefore, compared to the conventional intensive tillage, CA has a greater potential for soil C sequestration, favors higher soil biodiversity, lowers greenhouse gas emission, and can assist in mitigating climate change. However, not all experiments report a positive impact. The understanding and decoding the site-specific complexities of CA system is important and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation Agriculture and Management of Soil and Water)

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