We look forward to update you with activities concerning CA and encourage those involved with conservation agriculture to share information with us on happenings in their region. Items marked {NEW} are the most recently posted items.

NEWS

Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) Scientists Review the CA Hub in Mexico's Pacific Zone
A diverse group of farmers, researchers, farm machinery experts, and private and public sector representatives gathered in the Yaqui valley of Sonora, Mexico, on January 18, 2010 to discuss about conservation agriculture (CA), with a focus on CA Hub activities for irrigated systems in the Pacific zone of Mexico. The discussions included interactions with farmers about their experiences with conservation agriculture, and its relevance for improving sustainability and crop competitiveness. In addition to this, the event also witnessed presentations from several agronomic experts over the world on various aspects of CA.
The event was a proof that CA is a platform for achieving sustainable agriculture that can be combined with other technologies and agronomic practices, and that together they can produce an efficient and functional system.

To read more, click http://blog.cimmyt.org/?p=2977

Conservation Agriculture- The Route
A recently released report titled "Farming for the Future: a Guide to Conservation Agriculture" revealed that conservation agriculture can help overcome families in Zimbabwe burdened by HIV and AIDS for the past 20 years. According to this report, the productive members of the family died leaving behind dependent members to take responsibility of farming and sick relatives. As a result, these household members could cultivate only small plots and grow small range of crops, as much of their time was spent in looking after the sick. This double burden started a cycle of food insecurity and loss of income. However, as per FAO, by practicing conservation agriculture that is cost effective, less labour intensive, and results in improved and sustainable production, many of these families may be able to escape this vicious cycle.

The detailed report can be downloaded by clicking here.

All India Agricultural Machinery Manufacturer’s Association Formed
The All India Agricultural Machinery Manufacturer’s Association (AIAMMA), representing machinery manufacturers of agriculture and allied sectors has been established recently to augment and intensify agricultural mechanisation related activities in different agro-climatic zones. It will also look to promote scientific development, technological up-gradation, and implement appropriate policies and initiatives for growth of agricultural mechanization. More details can be availed from Mr. Baldev Singh Amar, President AIAMMA, e-mail: president.aiamma@gmail.com.

International Certified Crop Adviser Program
The international Certified Crop Adviser Program (CCA) beginning in 2010 is proposed to be put in place by the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) in collaboration with Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP). The program is being facilitated by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) under Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). As one of the objectives for CSISA, the CCA program is being developed for India as a way to further enhance professionalism and agronomic services to Indian farmers. For more details, contact Dr. J.K. Ladha, IRRI- India Office, CG Block, NASC Complex, Pusa, New Delhi.

2009 Rome Summit
A recently concluded summit at Rome in November 2009, aimed at reaffirming a pledge by world leaders to end hunger from developing countries by 2025. FAO, unable to get an assurance at this end, was promised by the delegates to meet their previous goal to half chronic hunger from 20% of people in developing countries to 10% by 2015. CGIAR researchers proposed top 4 priorities to achieve this goal in which 9 billion extra people had to be fed. One of these priorities focuses on the major tenets of conservation agriculture of no-till and residue retention as an in-expensive way to reduce soil degradation, green house gas emissions, and nutrient and water losses to considerably increase food production. We reproduce below an extract from the article titled "Four ways to feed the world" in New Scientist issue dated 18 November 2009:

"STOP PLOUGHING
For 1000 years, farmers have turned over the top layer of soil to bury and kill weed seeds. This is expensive, damages soils and releases greenhouse gases.

Most maize and soya growers in the Americas have abandoned the plough for "no-till" farming: they merely scratch furrows in the ground to plant their seed and handle weeds with herbicides and herbicide-resistant genetically modified crops.

But farmers do not need those if they smother weeds with organic residue such as straw, and rotate crops to frustrate pests, says Bram Govaerts of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico, a CGIAR lab. This is known as conservation agriculture, and besides conserving soil, nutrients and energy, it cuts water loss. Govaerts has been managing experimental plots in Mexico using these methods, and finds that conservation agriculture can yield as much as traditional agriculture in good years, and even more during drought."

More information can be availed from: Four ways to feed the world, New Scientist, 18 November 2009, Magazine issue 2735, pp 1-8, by Debora MacKenzie

CA For Sustainable Agriculture in Rural Development (CA-SARD) Project
Conservation Agriculture for SARD is an FAO project that started in 2004 and is currently in its 2nd phase that will end in 2010. The project focuses in contributing to promotion of growth and improved food security in Kenya and Tanzania through scaling up of Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a Sustainable Land Management (SLM) option. To know more about project approach and activities, click this link.

Tanzania: Conservation Agriculture Tools Made Locally
Tools for use in conservation agriculture practices that are generally unaffordable are now being made locally in Tanzania which were earlier imported from India and Brazil. This has been largely possible due to the support from FAO and government. According to the managing director of Nandra Engineering Works Limited, this kind of agriculture being new, their company has so far manufactured and sold over 1,000 rippers and the demand is still rising. Prices of locally made rippers, planters and seeders were very expensive and had to be imported from India and Brazil. Most farmers in Tanzania are using conservation agriculture practices due to saving in time with respect to field operations. The US Government last month donated USD 37 million to assist Tanzania address its problems of food shortage, global recession, and conservation activities. Information can be downloaded by clicking this link.

EVENTS

National Workshop on Climate Change and Watershed Management in India
A National Workshop on Climate Change and Watershed Management in India is being organised at National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad from 8th- 10th March 2010. The workshop aims to discuss major issues in the context of climate change and watershed management and its impact on agricultural productivity, poverty reduction and sustainable rural livelihood.

Programme contents include:

• Status of climate change in the country
• Contributing factors of climate change
• Watershed development and its role
• Community participation in watershed management and climate
• Agricultural productivity, change in cropping pattern and market
• Livelihood and food security
• Shift in development paradigms and its impacts on rural livelihoods with an emphasis on backward regions
• Watershed effectiveness on mitigating factors
• Capability generation and its sustenance for poverty alleviation

Application deadline for submission of papers is 25th February 2010. Other details can be downloaded from the workshop brochure available at the NIRD website, www.nird.org.in

International Conference on Traditional Practices in Conservation Agriculture
On the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Rajasthan Chapter of Asian Agri-History Foundation (AAHF), an International Conference on Traditional Practices in Conservation Agriculture is being organized at the Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur, from 18-20 September 2010. The Conference aims to bring about role of traditional practices in production systems, and how diversity can help in conservation agriculture.
Major themes include:

• Diversified Agricultural Systems
• Rain Forecasting, Water Harvesting, Storage and Irrigation System, etc.
• Indigenous Knowledge/Practices (Plantation Crops, Medicinal & Aromatic Plants, Fruits & Vegetables, Agro-forestry, etc.)
• Soil Health Management, and
• Climate Change and Conservation of Natural Resources

National Seminar on Soil Security For Sustainable Agriculture
The XIV Vasant Rao Naik Memorial National Agricultural Seminar on “Soil Security for Sustainable Agriculture” is being organized at the College of Agriculture, Nagpur on 27th & 28th February 2010. The seminar aims to bring together scientists, researchers, policy makers, planners, administrators and NGO’s on a common platform to share and discuss technological advancements, experiences and other issues related to soil security for sustainable agriculture. Major themes include: (a) Integrated Nutrient Management (b) Soil Sustainability through Crop Diversification (c) Crop Residue Management (d) Soil Health and Awareness (e) Restoration of Degraded/ Problem Soils (f) Tillage and Conservation Agriculture and (g) Soil and Climate Interactions. More information can be downloaded from this link.

8th International Wheat Conference, Russia
The 8th International Wheat Conference is being organized on June 1-4, 2010 at St. Petersburg Russia. The Conference is divided into various plenary sessions, with plenary session 9 exclusively focusing on conservation agriculture technologies for wheat production. The last date for submission of abstracts is 15th January 2010. For more info, click this link.

CAPACITY BUILDING

International Training Courses on Conservation Agriculture
African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) is organizing a series of training courses at Tanzania, Lesotho, Burkina Faso and Zambia. The training programme aims to build up the desired capacity and ability of agricultural extension and research staff in the development and promotion of conservation agriculture technologies, thereby enhancing their ability to respond to farmers’ needs in the application of these technologies.

More info regarding the course, application deadlines, etc. can be obtained by clicking the links: http://www.act-africa.org/cacourse/cacourseadvert.pdf
http://www.act-africa.org/cacourse/cacoursebrochure.pdf

Training Programme on Conservation Agriculture

A training programme on conservation agriculture is being organized by Centre of Advanced Faculty Training in Agronomy at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University from 3-23 March 2010. The 21-day training programme aims to:

• Keep abreast importance of conservation agriculture among younger scientists
• Disseminate varied principles of conservation agriculture for better use of resources, reducing environmental pollution, etc.
• Find out ways to improve efficiency of the use of ever scarcer production sources, and address increasing threats of climate change to agricultural production
• Discuss and derive consensus for broader areas of future research having significance for practicing conservation agriculture

Application deadline for this course is 12^th February 2010. More info regarding course outline, eligibility criteria, etc. can be availed at: http://www.tnau.ac.in/casa-agron.pdf

Advanced Course on Conservation Agriculture, CIMMYT, Mexico
CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture course is a unique training opportunity for scientists working in the public, private or non-governmental sectors globally in areas of agronomy and sustainable management of natural resources. This course lays emphasis on various conservation agriculture and resource conservation technologies like conventional and reduced till, permanent bed planting for both irrigated and rainfed conditions, and using alternative crop residue management strategies. The course will run from May-June 2010 and its application deadline is 31st March 2010. For more information regarding this course, click here.

Winter School on Enhancing Input Application Efficiency for Seeds, Fertiliser and Chemicals using Precision Farm Machinery, Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Electronic Controllers for Precision Agriculture in Vertisols
A training course had been organized by Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal, between January 1-21, 2010 that will focus on various aspects of precision farming. The major objective of this course is to develop competencies of scientists/researchers for planning, monitoring and evaluation activities for precision farming techniques and tools for precision agriculture for better efficacy and efficiency.To know more about the training, click on this link.

Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Training Programmes in January 2010
A number of training programmes have been organized by Punjab Agricultural University, in January 2010. To download details of the training program, click this link.

PUBLICATIONS

Lamourdia Thiombiano and Malo Meshack (eds.) 2009. Scaling-up Conservation Agriculture in Africa: Strategy and Approaches. FAO Subregional Office for Eastern Africa, Addis Ababa, July 2009 {NEW}
http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/doc/Kenya%20Workshop%20Proceedings.pdf

Nicola Harford and Juliet Le Breton (eds.) 2009. Farming for the Future: A Guide to Conservation Agriculture in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Conservation Agriculture Task Force, March 2009 {NEW}
Click here for more

Proceedings of the International Technical Workshop – Investing in Sustainable Crop Intensification: The Case for Improving Soil Health. FAO, Rome, 22-24 July 2008. Integrated Crop Management, Vol. 6 {NEW}
http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/doc/WORKSHOP-LR.pdf

Conservation Agriculture Ireland (CAIR) News, Volume 6, Issue 4, 2009 {NEW}
ftp://ext-ftp.fao.org/ag/data/agp/Friedrich/CA-CoP-Feb10/CAIR%20News%20Volume%206%20Issue%204.pdf

Conservation Agriculture Toolbox for Zimbabwe. 2008. The Conservation Agriculture Task Force for Zimbabwe, August 2008
ftp://ext-ftp.fao.org/ag/data/agp/Friedrich/CA-CoP-Feb10/Zimbabwean_final_edited 1 .pdf {NEW}

Lahmar R. 2010. Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Europe. Lessons of the KASSA project. Land use policy, 27 (1): 4-10. http://publications.cirad.fr/une_notice.php?dk=552507

Govaerts, B., Verhulst, N., Castellanos Navarrete, A., Sayre, K.D., Dixon, J., and Dendooven, L. 2009. Conservation Agriculture and Soil Carbon Sequestration: Between Myth and Farmer Reality. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, Vol. 28, Issue 3 May 2009, pp 97 – 122 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a910296120~db=all~jumptype=rss

Amir Kassam, Theodor Friedrich, Francis Shaxson and Jules Pretty. 2009. The spread of Conservation Agriculture: Justification, sustainability and uptake. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 7(4), pp 292–320
ftp://ext-ftp.fao.org/ag/data/agp/Friedrich/CA-CoP-Dec09/07_IJAS477%201%20.pdf

Brian Sims, Theodor Friedrich, Amir Kassam, Josef Kienzle. 2009. Agroforestry and Conservation Agriculture: Complementary Practices for Sustainable Development. II World Congress of Agroforestry, Nairobi, Kenya

Consolidated responses on Giller’s article
Peter Hobbs has consolidated the responses to Giller et al. paper ““Conservation Agriculture and small holder farming in Africa: The heretics view”. More...

Importance of zero-tillage with high stubble to trap snow and increase wheat yields in Northern Kazakhstan, Turi Fileccia, FAO Investment Centre Division, June 2009. More...

Rockstrom, J., Kaumbhuto, P., Mwalley, J., Nzabi, A.W., Temesgen, M., Mawenya, L., Barron, J., Mutua, J., and Damgaard-Larsen, S. 2009. Conservation farming strategies in East and Southern Africa: Yields and rain water productivity from on-farm action research. Elsevier.103: 23-32

Boahen, P., Dartey, B.A., Dogbe, G.D., Boadi, E.A., Triomphe, B., Larsen, S.D., and Ashburner. 2007. Conservation agriculture as practiced in Ghana. Nairobi. African Conservation Tillage Network, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

Kurt G. Steiner, & Steve Twomlow. 2003. Weed Management in Conservation Tillage Systems. African Conservation Tillage Network, Information Series No. 8. More...

Reicosky, D.C. 2005. Conservation Agriculture: CO2 Mitigation, Environmental Benefits And The Kyoto Protocol. In: Proceedings of the Fifth Conservation Agricultural Conference, June 23-24, 2005, Samara, Russia. p. 26-38.

OPPORTUNITIES

Graduate Research Assistantship
Under the Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) of Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (SANREM), a Graduate Research Assistantship is being offered to conduct research on technological innovation and social networks supporting conservation agriculture production systems (CAPS). The research involves a cross-national study of innovation processes leading to technological change in smallholder agriculture production systems consistent with the three principles of conservation agriculture. The applicant is expected to possess cross-disciplinary experience in agriculture technology studies, sociology, (or related discipline) with special interest in international development issues. Application deadline for this position is 31^st March 2010. More info can be obtained from: http://www.oired.vt.edu/sanremcrsp/documents/Grad%20RA%20description.pdf

Professional Vacancy Announcement - FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announces vacancy for the post of an Agricultural Officer (Sustainable Production Intensification) to be based in Rome, Italy, for a period of 3 years. Under the supervision of the Director and the direct supervision of the team leader on sustainable crop production intensification, the incumbent will contribute to FAO’s strategic objective on sustainable crop production intensification focusing on provision of technical support to national programmes with principal emphasis on production systems and related issues, such as climate change, ecosystem services and biodiversity. The candidate is required to possess an Advanced University Degree in Agricultural Production Systems or Agronomy, with five years of relevant experience in agricultural/rural development related to production systems, including rice-based systems in developing countries The last date for sending applications is 15th February 2010. Details regarding duties and responsibilities, selection criteria etc. can be obtained by viewing same at FAO site www.fao.org.

Chinese visitors seek partnership in conservation agriculture
A delegation of eight scientists from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing, arrived in Mexico on 28 November to learn about activities in CIMMYT’s northern Mexico conservation agriculture (CA) hub. Their visit is associated with efforts to develop new collaborative activities between CIMMYT and relevant Chinese institutions to generate and promote locally adapted CA cropping practices for major Chinese maize and wheat production systems. Read more by clicking here.