Conservation agriculture in the Brazilian tropics; Background; The Cerrado biome; The Amazon biome; History of zero tillage in the tropical zones of Brazil; Conservation agriculture; How does conservation agriculture work?; Integrated crop-livestock systems with zero tillage; Dissemination of ICLZT technology; Livestock and annual crop production in wet-dry and humid-tropical Brazil; Livestock type; Herd size and performance; Background for ICLZT; The process of pasture degradation; Principal integrated zero tillage crop-livestock systems; General considerations; Systems typology; Common rotations; Crop successions used as building blocks for rotations; Summaries of the ten main ICLZT technologies; Crop establishment in degraded pastures; Establishing pasture in annual crops; Sowing pasture after early harvest; Grass oversown in soybeans or maize; Grass regenerating during the first crop after ZT planting of a crop in old pasture; Planting forages on crop land for silage, green chop, dry season grazing or as a cover crop; Pasture renovation with forages sown jointly with grasses, for early grazing;Pigeon pea sown into existing pasture to improve winter grazing quality; Sowing perenniallegumes into maize; Sowing soybeans in a permanent grass sward; Opportunistic grazing of stubble in the dry season; Pigeon pea undersown in maize for stubble grazing; Grazing stubble in the dry season; Pasture grasses; Cover crops for grazing; Cut forage and silage CTOpS; Pasture and grazing management; Legumes in pastures; Mechanized operations in zero tillage and soil fertility management 49 Residue management; Spraying desiccants and other chemicals; Planting and drilling; Soil fertility considerations; Technical and financial analysis of integrated crop-livestock zero tillage rotations; Case Study 1 - A farm history of the adoption of CA with Z; Wihout project;With ICLZT; lrrigated crop management - with and without project; Analysis of the Model Results; Case studies of other ICLZT technologies; Sustainable agriculture and policy considerations; Farm-based economic benefits of CA, ZT and ICLZT; Farm-based environmental benefits of CA, ZT and ICLZT; Social benefits of ICLZT and increased land use intensity; Social support for conversion investments in ICLZT; Addressing the conversion needs of small farmers.

Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.

Conservation agriculture in the Brazilian tropics; Background; The Cerrado biome; The Amazon biome; History of zero tillage in the tropical zones of Brazil; Conservation agriculture; How does conservation agriculture work?; Integrated crop-livestock systems with zero tillage; Dissemination of ICLZT technology; Livestock and annual crop production in wet-dry and humid-tropical Brazil; Livestock type; Herd size and performance; Background for ICLZT; The process of pasture degradation; Principal integrated zero tillage crop-livestock systems; General considerations; Systems typology; Common rotations; Crop successions used as building blocks for rotations; Summaries of the ten main ICLZT technologies; Crop establishment in degraded pastures; Establishing pasture in annual crops; Sowing pasture after early harvest; Grass oversown in soybeans or maize; Grass regenerating during the first crop after ZT planting of a crop in old pasture; Planting forages on crop land for silage, green chop, dry season grazing or as a cover crop; Pasture renovation with forages sown jointly with grasses, for early grazing;Pigeon pea sown into existing pasture to improve winter grazing quality; Sowing perenniallegumes into maize; Sowing soybeans in a permanent grass sward; Opportunistic grazing of stubble in the dry season; Pigeon pea undersown in maize for stubble grazing; Grazing stubble in the dry season; Pasture grasses; Cover crops for grazing; Cut forage and silage CTOpS; Pasture and grazing management; Legumes in pastures; Mechanized operations in zero tillage and soil fertility management 49 Residue management; Spraying desiccants and other chemicals; Planting and drilling; Soil fertility considerations; Technical and financial analysis of integrated crop-livestock zero tillage rotations; Case Study 1 - A farm history of the adoption of CA with Z; Wihout project;With ICLZT; lrrigated crop management - with and without project; Analysis of the Model Results; Case studies of other ICLZT technologies; Sustainable agriculture and policy considerations; Farm-based economic benefits of CA, ZT and ICLZT; Farm-based environmental benefits of CA, ZT and ICLZT; Social benefits of ICLZT and increased land use intensity; Social support for conversion investments in ICLZT; Addressing the conversion needs of small farmers.

The book offers a rich toolkit of relevant, adoptable ecosystem-based practices that can help the world's 500 million smallholder farm families achieve higher productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency while enhancing natural capital.

Some general charscteristics of farming in a tropical environment; Shifting cultivation systems; Fallow systems; Ley systems; Systems with permanent upland cultivation; Systems with arable irrigation farming; Systems with perennial crops; Grazing systems; General tendences in the development of tropical farm systems.

Tillage agriculture has led to widespread soil and ecosystem degradation globally, and more particularly in the developing regions. This is especially so in Africa where traditional agricultural practices have become unsustainable due to severe exploitation of natural resources with negative impacts on the environment and food system. In addition, agricultural land use in Africa today faces major challenges including increased costs, climate change and a need to transform to more sustainable production intensification systems. Conservation Agriculture has emerged as a major alternative sustainable climate smart agriculture approach in Africa and has spread to many African countries in the past decade as more development and research, including in sustainable mechanization, has enabled its extension and uptake. It is key to transforming Africa's agriculture and food system given its ability to restore soil health, biodiversity and productivity of millions of smallholder farms as well as larger-scale farms. This book is aimed at all agricultural stakeholders in the public, private and civil sectors in Africa engaged in supporting the transformation of conventional tillage agriculture to Conservation Agriculture. The book will be of interest to: researchers, academics, students, development stakeholders, public and private sector investors and policy makers as well as institutional libraries across the world.

In this handbook methods are given to determine soil characteristics, organic matter compounds, phosphorus in soil, nitrogen fixation, soil solution sampling, plant nutrient uptake and the nitrogen availability