Conservation agriculture
It enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface, which contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency and to improved and sustained crop production.
Tillage of the ground requires more money in order to fuel tractors or to provide feed for the animals pulling the plough.
The breaking down of this mulch will produce a high organic matter level which will act as a fertilizer for the soil surface.
If CA practices were used done for many years and enough organic matter was being built up at the surface, then a layer of mulch would start to form.
Not allowing insects or weeds to establish a pattern will help to eliminate problems with yield reduction and infestations within fields (FAO 2007).
[2] Organic molecules in the soil break down into phosphates, nitrates and other beneficial elements which are thus better absorbed by plants.
According to the FAO, tillage is one of the most "energy consuming" processes that can be used: It requires a lot of labor, time, and fuel to till.
[3] In this approach, land is set aside to preserve the wildlife while the rest is used to fulfill the farmers need of agricultural commodities.
Farmers take this approach by leaving some aspects of the land the same (i.e., scattered trees and patches of initial vegetation) while harvesting a diverse grouping of crops around it.
[5] By practicing such method the harvester can expect to see much lower yields, but also an increase in biodiversity given time.
Since agriculture is one of the most destructive forces against biodiversity, CA can change the way humans produce food and energy.
These benefits include less erosion possibilities, better water conservation, improvement in air quality due to lower emissions being produced, and a chance for larger biodiversity in a given area.
Since CA takes time to build up enough organic matter and have soils become their own fertilizer, the process does not start to work overnight.
This could be very beneficial to a producer who is practicing CA and is looking to keep soils at a productive level for an extended time.
Livestock produce compost or manure which are a great help in generating soil fertility (Pawley W.H.
These organizations can help to inform, conduct research, and buy land in order to preserve animals and plants (New Standard 1992).
Processes and studies like this are allowing for a better understanding of how to conserve what we are using and finding ways to put back something that may have been lost before.
Initially, they sought to protect threatened habitats, but gradually shifted their focus to the prevention of the loss of wildlife from agricultural landscapes.
Most recently, the schemes are placing more emphasis on improving the services that the land can provide to humans (e.g. pollination).
Overall, farmers involved in the scheme aim to practice environmentally friendlier farming techniques such as: reducing the use of pesticides, managing or altering their land to increase more wildlife friendly habitats (e.g. increasing areas of trees and bushes), reducing irrigation, conserving soil, and organic farming.
On the other hand, in-production schemes attempt to enhance the quality of the land in general, and are thus less species specific.
Based on the findings, the reviewers suggest that schemes which more specifically target the declining groups of species, may be more effective.
The findings and the targets will be implemented between 2015 and 2020, so that by 2025, the effectiveness of these schemes can be re-assessed and will have increased significantly (Batáry et al. 2015).
In this vein, in recent years 'results based pilot programs' have been introduced across the EU under Pillar Two of the Common Agriculture Policy.
Results-based agri-environmental programs are defined by the European Commission as "schemes where farmers and land managers are paid for delivering an environmental result or outcome, e.g. number of breeding birds, or number of plant species in grasslands, with the flexibility to choose what management is required to achieve the desired result.
Some NGOs have started to pilot similar programs in the US, for example Winrock International partnered with the Sand County Foundation to provide payment to farmers for reducing nutrient loads from their lands across the Midwest.
Examples of these disadvantages include high initial costs of specialized planting equipment, and a new dynamic farming system that requires new management skills and a learning process by the farmer.
Long term experience with conservation farming all over the world has shown that this system does not present more or less but different problems to a farmer, all of them possible to resolve.
The process of CA takes time; when a producer first becomes a conservationist, the results can be a financial loss to them (in most cases, the investment and policy generally exist).
The reason for this is because there is not enough pressure for producers in places such as North America to change their way of living to a more conservationist outlook.
