Conservation agriculture can bring growers bigger profits and add more value to soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration than conventional arable production, according to long-term research.
In a nine-year study, scientists at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan tested the conservation agriculture fundamentals of ‘no till’ and cover crops against conventional tillage while growing a succession of cash crops. The researchers tested three different cover crops with the no-till treatment: rye, hairy vetch and a five-species mixture.
Using three different types of data analysis, the researchers found that conservation agriculture delivered anything from 6% to 200% higher gross profit margins than conventional systems, and that this profit gap was likely to increase further over time.
They also found that carbon sequestration begins at the point conservation agriculture practises are adopted and continues to grow with every production cycle.
A ‘win-win’ underlined
Previous research has suggested that what makes farmers adopt new technologies and methods is complex, with economic, ecological and social considerations all important, meaning that this new evidence could help to persuade farmers who are open to change.
“The implications of this analysis are diverse. It allows the policy maker to assess that conservation agriculture is concurrently environmentally performing and economically profitable, making it a win-win policy, particularly for the formulation of agricultural policies,” wrote lead researcher Lorenza Lorenzetti in the journal Environmental Management.
Italy, along with France and Spain, is an area where the adoption of conservation agriculture can have a significant impact, she continued, and the recently-revised Common Agricultural Policy, which aims to reward public goods, could further reduce risks for farmers considering undertaking the approaches.
Navigating barriers
However, Lorenzetti also observed several potential barriers in the way of widespread adoption of conservation production techniques in arable farming. One is the fragmented nature of agriculture on a global scale, noting that in the EU alone, there are 10.5 million farms. Another is a lack of institutions in developing countries that could disseminate conservation agriculture knowledge.
Carbon credit markets can play an important role in making conservation agriculture more widespread, she noted, but carbon sequestration measurements need to be standardised. There could also be a case for aid from developed to developing countries to be redesigned towards encouraging conservation agriculture uptake and providing machinery to make it happen.
“All in all, a change in the paradigm is needed and it is high time to encourage a conciliation of economic profitability and environmental performance so as to make ends meet between the ‘thinking of the end of the world’ of scientists and scholars, and the ‘thinking of the end of the month’ of agricultural entrepreneurs,” she added.
