Global overview on Conservation Agriculture adoption.

Global Overview of CA/No-till Adoption

VI World Congress of Conservation Agriculture

Global overview of Conservation Agriculture No-till adoption. Rolf Derpsch and Theodor Friedrich

4th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture New Delhi, India, 4 – 7 February 2009

Content

I. Definition of CA/No-till II. Examples of CA/No-till adoption worldwide III. Show an overview of CA/No-till adoption IV. Concluding remarks

No-tillage is defined as a system of planting crops into untilled soil by opening a narrow slot, trench or band only of sufficient width and depth to obtain proper seed coverage. No other soil tillage is done. Permanent or continuous no-till is meant, rather than not tilling in one season and tilling in the other, or occasionally not tilling the soil. (Derpsch, 2008)

Although many people call this No-till, it is not!

Too much soil movement! Mulch tillage! „Direct seeding in Ukraine“

(Derpsch, 2008)

In the past minimum tillage practices have often been labeled as No-tillage. Minimum tillage practices in general are not able to sequester carbon in the soil, while No-tillage (when the 3 principles are applied) does sequester carbon and is able to increase the organic matter content of the soil.

The 3 principles of Conservation Agriculture

Permanent Soil Cover

DIVERSIFIED CROP ROTATION (Derpsch, 2008)

Min. Soil Disturbance

No-till cover cropping systems have worked in all kind of environments: • From the Equator, e.g. Kenya, Uganda to 50º S, e.g. Argentina, to 65º N, e.g. Finland • From sea level to 3000 m, e.g. Bolivia, Col. • Soils from 90% Sand, e.g. Australia, Brazil, to 85% clay, e.g. Brazil (Oxisols, Alfisols) • From 250 mm of rain,e.g. Western Australia to 2000 mm, e.g. Brazil, or 3000 mm Chile

(Derpsch & Friedrich, 2008)

Examples of CA/No-till adoption world wide.

No-tillage in North Dakota, USA

(Ralph Holzwarth)

No-tillage in Pennsylvania, USA

(Sjoerd Duiker, 2006)

No-till soybeans into black oats in Brazil

(Derpsch, 1996)

No-till in Brazil

(Calegari, 2008)

31 SEMEATO Land Master No-till machines, at seeding in Mato Grosso, Brazil, on the Farm of Mr. Mazzuti 240 m. working witdh! 7.8 m per Machine

No‐tillage in Argentina (AAPRESID)

(Peiretti,

2005)

No-tillage in Canada

(Lafond,

2006)

No-till in Australia

(A. Williams, 2004)

No-till in Kazakhstan

(Wall, 2008)

No-tillage in Paraguay

(Derpsch, 2000)

A whole landscape under No-tillage in Py Harvest and seeding at the same time

(Derpsch, 2001)

No-tillage in Chile at Carlos Crovetto’s farm 35% Slope

(Crovetto, 2000)

No-till in Switzerland

(Sturny, 2006)

No-tillage in Kenya

(Friedrich, 2008)

No-tillage in Africa

No-tillage with a hand jab planter (Friedrich, 2008)

No-tillage in Tunesia to save water

(Baccouri, 2008)

No-tillage in Tansania

(Calegari, 2006)

No-till in North Korea

(Friedrich, 2006)

No-till planting of rice in North Korea

(Friedrich, 2006)

All crops can be seeded in No-till systems Potatoes under No-till after rice in North Korea

(Friedrich, 2006)

Potatoes in No-tillag after wheat in Colombia

(Birbaumer, 2000)

No-tillage in China Wheat No-tilled into maize stubble

Example #3

(McGarry, 2006)

No-tillage in Cuba

No-till in in Europe

(W. Sturny)

All crops can be seeded in No-till systems

Potatoes in Colombia

Cassava in Paraguay

No-till sugar cane into Crotalaria juncea Brazil

(Calegari,

2008)

Comparison of conventionally tilled & No-till soil 10 year No-tillage in China

(Li Hongwen, 2004)

Global overview of CA/No-till adoption.


World total 105 Million ha Canada 13,5 USA 26,6

Rest of the world 5,0 Europe Asia Africa

Brazil 25,5 Paraguay 2,4 Argentina 19,7

Australia 12,0 (Derpsch & Friedrich, 2008)

No-tillage in other countries Countries China Kazakhstan Bolivia Uruguay Spain South Africa Venezuela France Finland

Area under No-till (ha) 2004/2005 1.330.000 1.200.000 706.000 672.000 650.000 368.000 300.000 200.000 200.000 (Derpsch & Friedrich, 2008)

Area under Area No-tillage under No-tillage and %byby Continent Continent

World total 105 Million ha Continent South America

Area (hectares) 49.579.000

Percent of total 46.8%

North America

40.074.000

37.8

Australia & New Zealand Asia

12.162.000

11.5

2.530.000

2.3

Europe

1.150.000

1.1

368.000 105.863.000

0.3 100%

Africa World total


Hot spots & potential areas for Countries with potential for further further spread spread Countries Ukraine Russia

Former Sovjet Rep. East Europe (New EU) India Africa South of the Sahara

Potential Very high Very high High Fair to High Fair to High Fair to High


% of No-till adoption in rel. to total cult. area

USA

25%

Argentina *

69%

Brazil *

70%

Paraguay *

75%

* It is estimated that in less than a decade > 85% of the cultivated area will be under NT (Derpsch & Friedrich, 2008)

Evolution of the thearea areaunder under No-till in USA Evolution of No-till in the USA 25,3 Million ha

15,7Million ha

(CTIC, 2004)

Evolution of the area under No‐tillage in Brazil Evolution of the area No-till in Brazil BRASIL - EVOLUÇÃO DA ÁREAunder CULTIVADA EM PLANTIO DIRETO 1972/73 à 2005/06

(FEBRAPDP, 2006) 1972 – 2006 26

25,5 Mill. ha in 06

24 22

Milhões de hectares

20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4

1990 - 1 Million ha

2 0

72/ 73/ 74/ 75/ 76/ 77/ 78/ 79/ 80/ 81/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85/ 86/ 87/ 88/ 89/ 90/ 91/ 92/ 93/ 94/ 95/ 96/ 97/ 98/ 99/ 00/ 01/. 02/. 03/. 04/. 05/. 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06

Área 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.03 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.13 0.21 0.23 0.26 0.38 0.50 0.58 0.65 0.73 0.80 0.90 1.00 1.35 2.03 3.00 3.80 5.50 8.85 11.3313.3714.97 17.4 18.7 20.2 21.9 23.6 25.5

Fonte: EMATER-RS, EPAGRI-SC, EMATER-PR, CATI-SP, FUNDAÇÃO MS, APDC (Cerrado)

Doubling grain production in Brazil

BRASIL - EXPANSÃO DA ÁREA CULTIVADA EM PLANTIO DIRETO

M ilhões de hectares

SAFRA VERÃO/SAFRINHA/INVERNO

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

72/73 73/74 74/75 75/76 76/77 77/78 78/79 79/80 80/81 81/82 82/83 83/84 84/85 85/86 86/87 87/88 88/89 89/90 90/91 91/92 92/93 93/94 94/95 95/96 96/97 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01

BRASIL 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.03 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.13 0.21 0.23 0.26 0.38 0.50 0.58 0.65 0.73 0.80 0.90 1.00 1.35 2.03 3.00 3.80 5.50 8.85 11.33 13.37 14.97 17.36

fonte: EMATER RS, EPAGRI-SC, EMATER-PR, CATI-SP, FUNDAÇÃO MS, APDC(CERRADO)

COOPLANTIO/CONAB, COOPLANTIO/CONAB, 2002 2002 and and FEBRAPDP,2002 FEBRAPDP,2002 (Derpsch (Derpsch 2005) 2005)

Evolution of theof the area area under No-till in Argentina Evolution under No‐tillage in 1977/78 – 2005/06

20 Mill. Há in 06

AAPRESID

(AAPRESID, 2006)

150% increase in grain production from 87/88 to 07/08 while cultivated area grew only 53% 100000000 90000000

Argentina

Cultivated Area Production

80000000 70000000 60000000 50000000 40000000 30000000 20000000 10000000 0

• In the last 20 years, there was a remarkable growth of the total production, increasing a 150%. • At the same time, the cultivated surface area increased only a 53%.

(AAPRESID, 2008)

• The major increase was due to the increase of productivity. Soybean was the most dynamic crop.

% Adoption No-tillage in W. Adoptionofof No-tillage in Australia Australia

12 Million ha in 2008

Estimated farmer adoption of no-till in WA %

90 80

88% adoption 08

Adoption (% )

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

00

01

02

03

04

(Bill

Crabtree, 2004) (WANTFA, 2005)

Evolution of the area under No-till in Paraguay Thousend ha 1400

1300

2.4 Mill. Ha in 08 1200

Starting of GTZ/MAG Soil 1000 Conservation Project 800 600 400 200 0

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

00

01

02

(Surce: CAPECO-MAG)

No-tillage systems have reversed the former trend of declining crop productivity and lead to an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable form of commercial cropping in SA. (CIMMYT , 2002)

Impact of no-tillage in South America

Expansion of the area under no-tillage in the USA and MERCOSUR (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay) in Million ha 60

Million ha

50

MERCOSUR USA

Million ha 48.29

72 fold increase

40 30

26.59

20

6.5 fold increase

18.62 13.95

10 0

0.67

4.05

1987

20 fold increase

4.6 fold increase

1997

2007 (Derpsch, 2008)

No-tillage on small farms Country

Nº of farmers

Brazil

100.000

Paraguay Africa Kenya/Tanzania

22.000 > 100.000 20.000

+ millions of small farmers in China & the Indo-Gangetic-Plains that are using Direct Seeding techniques.

Concluding remarks

Are we still closing our eyes and ears ignoring the potentials of this new technology?

The plough as “the” symbol of agriculture

...is still deeply rooted in many cultures and MINDSET continues to be the biggest obstacle to no-till adoption in most parts of the world.

Erosion, soil degradation and desertification is the consequence

A change has to take place in our heads!

We need to overcome the MITH of the necessity of tillage for crop production!

Main barriers that need to be overcome for sustained growth of No-till to take place Knowledge on how to do it (know how), Mindset (tradition, prejudice), Inadequate policies as commodity based subsidies (EU, US), Availability of adequate seeding machines, Availability of suitable herbicides. These barriers must be overcome by politicians, public administrators, farmers, researchers, extension agents & university professors.

… in order to obtain economic, social and environmental sustainability PAST

Future (Derpsch,

2008)

The widespread adoption of No-tillage shows, that this technology can not any more be considered a temporary fashion, instead the system has established itself as a technology that can no longer be ignored by politicians, scientists, universities, extension workers, farmers as well as machine manufacturers and other agriculture related industries.

Thank you for your attention

Rolf Derpsch [email protected] and Theodor Friedrich [email protected]


VI World Congress of Conservation Agriculture