AgroFossilFree - Conservation agriculture: Analysis and prioritization of socio-ecological factors operating at farm levels in Ohio, USA

Allgemeine Beschreibung

Conservation Agriculture (CA) has got the huge potential to address the issue of global food security with ecological resilience and replenishment. The present study was conducted across 40 counties of the state of Ohio in the United States of America to assess and prioritize the social-ecological factors operating at CA farms, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It has been elucidated from the study that selected owner-farmers of the study area (n = 230) have no hesitation to consider CA as the future of farming to address food security in response to mitigate climate change effects. They have been applying the combination of the CA principles on their farms: 60% of the respondents do not till their field, 80% leave crop residues on the soil surface, and 97% follow crop rotations. Finally, the CA farmers have achieved 10 to > 40% fuel savings during farm operations, having farm soil salinity reduced in the case of 70% of respondents. Apart from this, grazing animals are also integrated to CA systems, adding animal manure to their farms. However, the study indicates that there is a need to encourage the use of conservation agriculture, which can minimize the negative impacts of dry spells in order to maximize crop production, and polish the strategies and policies in each and every sphere.