Advances in Conservation Agriculture Volume 2

“This edifying book is a compendium of much of what we have learnt across the world about CA. Its authors have all been deeply and enthusiastically involved in one way or another in the remarkable evolution and spread of Conservation Agriculture in recent decades. It will serve as an immensely valuable source of reference – and inspiration - for all those who are committed to putting the world’s food systems on a truly sustainable footing. It is with great pleasure, therefore, that I commend this book to you.” from the Foreword to the volume by Qu Dongyu, Director General, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Volume 2 reviews ways of optimising Conservation Agricultural (CA) practices and their benefits. The first group of chapters cover research on optimising soil management, crop nutrition and irrigation, as well as weed, insect pest and disease management. The second part of the book reviews ways of optimising the environmental and social benefits of adopting CA practices. Chapters discuss carbon and biodiversity management, the ways CA can promote ecosystem services as well as the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques to monitor and improve CA. There are also chapters on improving the economic and broader social benefits of CA for farming communities. With its distinguished editor and team of expert contributors, this will be a standard reference on improving Conservation Agriculture practice. The book is accompanied by a companion volume on the key components which define CA. Professor Amir Kassam is Visiting Professor at the University of Reading (UK) and Moderator of the FAO-hosted Global Platform for Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice (Global CA-CoP). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK) and has received an OBE from the British Government for services to tropical agriculture and to rural development. Prof. Kassam is Chair of the International Conservation Agriculture Advisory Panel for Africa (ICAAP-Africa), Member of the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) and Vice-Chair of the Conservation Agriculture Association for the UK (CA-UK). He is former Chair of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK), the FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance Europe Foundation and the Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA). He has held senior positions at international organisations such as the FAO and CGIAR and has worked with many national and international programmes on sustainable agricultural development. He has published widely on Conservation Agriculture.