There is an urgent need to pilot changes in agricultural practices in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in order to improve agricultural production in the irrigated areas of these countries. Conservation agriculture can be an answer for the challenges in those countries, and no-till agriculture can also be considered as a best solution for irrigated agriculture.
Peter Hobbs invites fellow Cornell researchers to join him in fostering a “brown revolution” that promotes conservation agriculture, which involves minimal soil disturbance and the use of cover crops and crop rotations to naturally control weeds, pests and diseases.
IRD helped Swazi communities to mitigate drought in Shiselweni and Lubombo provinces through a project, funded by USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. The project increased food security by training farmers in conservation agriculture and livestock development and providing seeds for drought-resistant and soil-improving crops.
Lifting no-till’s profile in the Middle East is the aim of a project undertaken by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dryland Areas (ICARDA), partly funded by AusAID.
In Africa, planting trees along with corn in soil that is low in nitrogen can substantially increase corn production without expensive fertilizers. In a decade, the number of small farmers using Fertilizer Tree Systems has ballooned from a few hundred to more than 250,000.
Farming practices that incorporate natural resources conservation will provide sustainable solution to food insecurity in Africa in the face of climate change,declining soil fertility and shrinking size of arable land.
