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Complementary practices supporting conservation agriculture in southern Africa: A review

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Title Complementary practices supporting conservation agriculture in southern Africa: A review
 
Creator Thierfelder, Christian
Baudron, Frédéric
Setimela, Peter
Nyagumbo, I.
Mupangwa, W.
Mhlanga, B.
Lee, N.
Gerard, Bruno G.
 
Subject climate change
farming systems
intensification
soil
agriculture
environmental engineering
 
Description Conservation agriculture (CA)—the simultaneous application of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention, and crop diversification—is a key approach to address declining soil fertility and the adverse effects of climate change in southern Africa. Applying the three defining principles of CA alone, however, is often not enough, and complementary practices and enablers are required to make CA systems more functional for smallholder farmers in the short and longer term. Here, we review 11 complementary practices and enablers grouped under six topical areas to highlight their critical need for functional CA systems, namely: (1) appropriate nutrient management to increase productivity and biomass; (2) improved stress-tolerant varieties to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses; (3) judicious use of crop chemicals to surmount pest, diseases, and weed pressure; (4) enhanced groundcover with alternative organic resources or diversification with green manures and agroforestry; (5) increased efficiency of planting and mechanization to reduce labor, facilitate timely planting, and to provide farm power for seeding; and (6) an enabling political environment and more harmonized and innovative extension approaches to streamline and foster CA promotional efforts. We found that (1) all 11 complementary practices and enablers substantially enhance the functioning of CA systems and some (e.g., appropriate nutrient management) are critically needed to close yield gaps; (2) practices and enablers must be tailored to the local farmer contexts; and (3) CA systems should either be implemented in a sequential approach, or initially at a small scale and grow from there, in order to increase feasibility for smallholder farmers. This review provides a comprehensive overview of practices and enablers that are required to improve the productivity, profitability, and feasibility of CA systems. Addressing these in southern Africa is expected to stimulate the adoption of CA by smallholders, with positive outcomes for soil health and resilience to climate change.
 
Date 2018-04
2018-03-27T06:45:18Z
2018-03-27T06:45:18Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Thierfelder, C., Baudron, F., Setimela, P., Nyagumbo, I., Mupangwa, W., Mhlanga, B., Lee, N. and Gérard, B. 2018. Complementary practices supporting conservation agriculture in southern Africa: A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 38:16.
1773-0155
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/91945
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-018-0492-8
 
Language en
 
Rights Copyrighted; all rights reserved
Open Access
 
Publisher Springer
 
Source Agronomy for Sustainable Development