Benefits of Conservation Agriculture in Watershed Management: Participatory Governance to Improve the Quality of No-Till Systems in the Paraná 3 Watershed, Brazil

Abstract

Adoption of best soil and water management practices is desirable for sustainable production intensification. However, farmers have difficulties in adopting them within a system approach to management, missing out on positive results for themselves and for society. A partnership between the Brazilian No-Till Farmers Federation and Itaipu Binacional authority adopted a participatory management strategy, as proposed by the National Water Resources Policy, allowing important decisions regarding the use of water to be made in participatory Watershed Committees, to address such farmers’ difficulties. In this paper, we review the development and application of the Participatory Quality Index approach based on the principles of conservation agriculture to improve the quality of no-till systems in the Paraná 3 watershed within the Cultivating Good Water program. We analyze the available documentation and experiences of the program’s executors, highlighting the results from the perspective of sustainability of multiple uses of water in a watershed.

Conservation Zone Delimitation Based on Physical Properties in Langsa Watershed, Aceh Province

“…From the Figure 4, the zoning system was reviewed based on the characteristics of each overlaid map and then adjusted to the watershed ecosystem's features, namely upstream, middle, and downstream areas as shown in Figure 5. It was observed that the Langsa watershed was divided into 3 zones for conservation efforts, which include conservation (Liu et al, 2015), the buffer (Bismark et al, 2007), and cultivation (Mello et al, 2021). The conservation area, represented by dark green color belongs to slope class III with 15-25% moderate value, high rainfall of 339 mm/year, and a total area of 3.55 km 2 .…”

“…Furthermore, they are categorized based on scores and weights analyzed using the overlay technique as shown in Table 1. The scores and weights are processed in order to divide the watershed into conservation (Lin et al, 2020), buffer (Bismark et al, 2007), and cultivation areas (Mello et al, 2021). Each region has different characteristics, for example, the conservation areas have very high human use limits, while the cultivation is used for settlement and agriculture.…”