This method is being practiced in nearly 80 countries

COIMBATORE: “Conservation agriculture is practiced on more than 80 million hectares worldwide in nearly 80 countries and the area is expanding rapidly. It refers to feeding the world without consuming natural resources. Since it is considered a route to sustainable agriculture, Indian scientists should take advantage of this technique for taking Indian agriculture to the next phase,” P. Subbian, Registrar, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said here on Wednesday.

Training programme

Inaugurating a two-day training on “Conservation Agriculture” at the university, he said since conservation agriculture was a major departure from conventional farming, a whole range of practices for planting, harvesting, irrigation, nutrient supply and plant protection need to be evolved.

Threats

“Intensification of agriculture has accelerated soil degradation causing a great deal of carbon loss. Climate change and monsoon failures have become serious threats in agricultural production. In the face of these challenges, conservation agriculture seems to be the panacea for soil and water conservation, and environmental protection,” Mr. Subbian said.

Characteristics

Elaborating on the characteristics of the concept, he said it involved minimum soil disturbance by adopting no-tillage and minimum traffic for agricultural operations, adoption of spatial and temporal crop sequencing, crop rotations, and crop diversification, so as to derive maximum benefit from inputs by minimising adverse environmental impacts.

It also reduced the cost of production, incidence of weeds, saved water and nutrients, eliminated the burning of crop residues that caused green house gas emissions, reduced evaporation and improved biological activity and root growth.

The Registrar called for developing technologically sound packages of practices for individual crops and cropping sequences so as to popularise it among farmers.

Machinery

He also stressed the need for standardising and promoting quality machinery to suit the requirements of wide range of crops.

“Since conservation agriculture is knowledge-driven, strengthening the knowledge base and information sharing mechanism will be vital for its growth and success,” Mr. Subbian said.

S. Jeyaraman, Director, Centre for Soil and Crop Management Studies, P. Muthukrishnan, Head, Department of Agronomy, and M. Mohamed Amanulla, Professor, Agronomy, TNAU, spoke..