Conservation Agriculture in Bangladesh

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Principle and major practices in brief of
Conservation Agriculture [CA] for
sustainable agriculture production.
Presenter
Md. Nazim Uddin Mondal

WELCOM

Definition:
Conservation agriculture [CA] can be defined
by a statement given by the
Food and Agricultural Organization of the
United Nations as “a concept for resource-saving
agricultural crop production that strives to
achieve acceptable profits together with high
and sustained production levels while
concurrently conserving the environment” (FAO
2007)

What can Conservation Agriculture
Achieve?
▪ Increased organic matter of soil
▪ 80% fuel saving
▪ 30% labor saving
▪ 30% reduction in irrigation requirement
▪ 50% reduction in operational costs
▪ Reduced pollution of waterways (Ref: Dr. M. Enamul
Haque, iDE, Bangladesh)

How?
▪ No or minimum
till
▪ Stubble on field
▪ Crop rotation
Leads to:
Sustainable
agriculture

1. No-till or minimum tillage:
The first key principle in CA is practicing
minimum mechanical soil disturbance
which is essential to maintaining minerals
within the soil, stopping erosion, and
preventing water loss from occurring
within the soil.
Key Principles Conservation Agriculture

What happens
due to no-till
practice?

Key Principles Conservation Agriculture (cont).
2. Retention of crop residue:
The second key principle in CA is much like
the first principle in dealing with protecting
the soil. The principle of managing the top soil
to create a permanent organic soil cover can
allow for growth of organisms within the soil
structure.

Key Principles Conservation
Agriculture (cont).
3. Crop Rotation:
The third and final principle that is
exercised by the FAO is the practice of
crop rotation with more than two crop
species.

Conservation Agriculture Practices:
Zero-tillage Practice:
Zero tillage is a fundamental management
practice that promotes crop stubble retention
under longer unplanned fallows when crops
cannot be planted.Such management practices
that succeed in retaining suitable soil cover in
areas under fallow will ultimately reduce soil
loss.

No-till crop planter No-till crop planter in the field

No-till planted crop

Strip Tillage:
How do farmers produce a profitable crop with
hardly any irrigation at all? Farmers in
Bangladesh are showing the way by planting into
mulch, and using simple machines that plow only
a small line in their fields, into which seed and
fertilizer are dropped at the same time. These
easy-to-implement practices conserve precious
soil moisture and improve their investment in
fertilizer.

Versatile Multiple Crop Planter VMP
iDE, Bangladesh

Bed Planting:
Farmers across Bangladesh are putting the
problem of high irrigation costs and water
scarcity to bed—literally. Using the simple
and effective technique of planting their rice,
wheat, maize and legume crops on raised
beds, farmers are getting more crop per drop
and reducing irrigation requirements by up
to 40 percent.(Ref.Dr. Timthy Krupnik)

Power Tiller Seeder
Bed former Bed planted crop

Retention of crop residue:
▪ Do not burn crop residue
▪ Harvest only Panicles where possible
▪ Incorporate crop residues in where
necessary
▪ Plant crop in the field without removing
stables.

Crop residue in field Crop planted with crop residue
Crop with residue

Crop Rotation:
▪ Crop rotation can be used best as a “disease
control” against other preferred crops.
▪ Not allowing insects or weeds to establish a
pattern within fields will help to eliminate
problems with yield reduction and infestations
within fields
▪ Establishing crops in a rotation allows for an
extensive build up of rooting zones which will
allow for better water infiltration.

A field with different crop rotation

Overcoming Salinity with Conservation
Agriculture:
Despite increasing fuel and irrigation costs, as well as
crop-damaging soil salinity, innovative farmers in
Bangladesh are conserving soil moisture and
overcoming salinity with conservation agriculture. By
not fully plowing their fields, using appropriate
machinery to sow their crops in lines under a layer of
water-conserving mulch, and rotating between
profitable crops, farmers are beating the odds to
achieve profitable maize, wheat and legume yields.
(Ref:Timthy Kupnik, CIMMYT)

Problems:
● The first reason why CA still has some problems is
because there are not enough people that can financially
turn from a conventional farmer to a conservationist.
● The reasons 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 conservative outlook.
● With cutting back in fertilizer, not tilling of ground and
among other processes comes the responsibility to feed the
world. With CA problems arise in the fact that if farms do
not produce as much as conventional ways, then in this
case leaves the world with less food for more people.

Acknowledgeme
nt to
Dr. Timthy Krupnik USAID,
CIMMYT(Int), Bangladesh

Thank
You

Conservation Agriculture in Bangladesh

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