Impact of Conservation Agriculture on Soil Health and Environmental Sustainability

The ever-rising global population poses significant challenges to global food security, particularly in developing countries. In order to feed the growing population, natural resources are severely depleted due to unsustainable agricultural practices leading to the widespread problem of land degradation and loss of natural habitat. Therefore, agricultural research should focus on developing eco-friendly and sustainable crop production systems with higher crop productivity to achieve sustainable development goals. Conventional agriculture encourages excessive tillage and crop residue removal. Excessive tillage and crop residue removal are deteriorating soil health due to loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) content, reduction of air-filled porosity, increased compaction, nutrient imbalance, and destruction of soil fauna, etc. Therefore, alternative methods of cultivation are being developed to maintain or improve soil quality. Conservation agriculture (CA) includes several resource conservation technologies facilitating (i) minimum soil disturbance, (ii) soil surface cover in the forms of crop residue retention or cover crop and (iii) crop rotation for improving soil health. It is now widely reported by several researchers that CA improves the status of SOC, particularly in the surface soil layer, as a possible means of soil carbon sequestration. Permanent residue retention or cultivation of cover crops also protects the soil from raindrop splashing impact and enhances soil aggregate stability, thereby reducing soil erosion. In addition, the soil at CA promotes microbial growth, maintains natural diversity, and encourages the earthworm population to better ecosystem services. Researchers have argued that CA is an effective means of C-sequestration and could be an effective mitigation strategy for climate change. A global initiative of ‘4 per mile’ has also been initiated to achieve the goal. As a courtesy, global policy initiatives should promote CA practices to conserve natural resources and better maintain soil health, as our sustainable future strategy for crop production.