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Conservation Agriculture: Research Status, Opportunities and Challenges in Dryland Areas of Pakistan

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Review Paper 01/09/2017
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Conservation Agriculture: Research Status, Opportunities and Challenges in Dryland Areas of Pakistan

Muhammad Sharif, Shahzada Sohail Ijaz, Muhammad Ansar, Rashid Latif, Asma Hassan, Muhammad Nasir
J. Bio. Env. Sci.11( 3), 102-112, September 2017.
Certificate: JBES 2017 [Generate Certificate]
Key: Conservation agricultureCrop rotationSoil organic carbonZero Tillage

Abstract

Soil degradation, climate change and increasing cost of inputs are serious challenges for crop production in dryland areas of Pakistan. Mismanagement of natural resources through clean cultivation and intensive tillage are also worsening the situation. Therefore, it is the need of time to search alternative systems. Conservation agriculture (CA) is an emerging technology, which serves as an alternate system has been successfully adopted worldwide for sustainable agriculture, to improve soil properties, mitigate climate change, enhance crop yield and reduce input cost, but dryland areas of Pakistan seem to have missed the opportunity. The accessible  information indicate that research study so for conducted in dryland areas of Pakistan are short term and  that conservation agriculture (CA) has potential to improve soil structural stability by enhancing organic matter contents, provide equal yield and economically benefit by reducing input cost. There is a need to establish long term, multi-location and collaborative research experiments on different aspects of CA along with the use of computer based models for long term simulations. On farm practice of CA is scarce due to social hindrance, unavailability of local ZT drills, alternative uses of residue. There are big opportunities of CA in dryland areas of Pakistan as climate, soils and crop diversity are conducive to that. Promotion of CA can be enhanced by encouraging local manufacture of zero tillage drills and on farm trainings of the community. CA is the need of hour to combat desertification and provide a healthy environment for coming generations and resource poor farmers of dryland areas of Pakistan.

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