ICARDA’s Network on Conservation Agriculture in Central Asia

Abstract

Based on the analysis made by NARS and ICARDA, the following research priorities in the field of conservation agriculture were identified: crop diversification, including development of advanced agronomic practices; improvement of crop rotations for better sustainability of cropping systems; improvement of conservation agriculture practices, including soil tillage, strip cropping and shelterbelts; soil fertility management within the concept of conservation agriculture. During 1999–2000, ICARDA in collaboration with NARS established sites for the Conservation Agriculture program in Central Asia countries within the Asian Development Bank (ADB) supported project «Soil and Water Management for Sustainable Agriculture in Central Asia». Crop diversification looks very promising under both rainfed and irrigated conditions of respective Central asian republics. Conservation tillage practice is more advanced in semi-arid steppes of Kazakhstan, and saves substantial amount of water under irrigated conditions. However, further studies on this including zero-tillage are priority in the region.