ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various issues, challenges and prospects of conservation agriculture (CA) in India. Agricultural machinery or tools, which support conservation agriculture generally refer to the cultivation systems with minimum or zero tillage and in-situ management of crop residues. Concepts for reducing tillage and keeping soil covered came up and the term conservation tillage was introduced to reflect such practices aimed at soil protection. Agricultural tools and equipments for such practices are now available in our country at a reasonable price, in spite of that adoption of CA practices in other parts especially in rainfed regions of the country is very meager. The soil properties like, organic carbon and pools, physical and biological properties were also improved under conservation agricultural practices. To quantify the impact of conservation agricultural practices on various fractions of soil organic carbon (SOC), soil samples were analyzed for various fractions of SOC namely labile fraction, oxidizable carbon and total organic carbon.
