Conservation Agriculture for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in India

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) is an emerging intervention in agriculture that fosters natural ecological processes to improve crop productivity and sustainability through the three important basic principles of minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and diversified crop rotation. A large number of studies suggest significant benefits of CA including yield advantage (5.2%), irrigation water savings (9.8%), reduction in costs of cultivation (14.2%) and increase net return (27.5%), reduction in global warming potential (12-33%) as well as other climate benefits in terms of adaptation gains. It is estimated that global warming potential of about 25 Mt CO2 eq. i.e., about 15% of the emission from the crop sector (agricultural soil, rice cultivation and crop residue burning) is mitigated by the adoption of various CA practices and other mitigation technologies in India. Area under CA in India is increasing in irrigated as well rainfed areas. However, there are several barriers hindering the adoption of CA, which needs further innovations and policy incentives. Scalable and sustainable business models need to be developed for creating custom hiring centers, manufacturing hubs and enhanced capacity development of the stakeholders to realize the full benefits from CA.