Status of conservation agriculture based tillage technology for crop production in Bangladesh

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) based tillage technology permits direct seeding through the moderate level of crop residue. CIMMYT introduced this technology in the farmers’ field of Bangladesh for wheat crop in collaboration with Wheat Research Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). Farmers accept CA based tillage technologies considering the advantages of higher yields, reduced cost of tillage operation, and minimum turn around time between the crops. Up land crops are more suitable under these tillage technologies. Weed management in rice cultivation is not yet in a good shape. Most of the tillage implements are operated by imported Chinese two wheel tractor (power tiller). There are few four wheel tractor CA implement using in research farm. Local manufacturers are being fabricated these cost effective small minimum tillage seed drill, raised bed planter, zero till drill, and strip till drills efficiently in different districts of Bangladesh. Farmers accept CA technologies in their field, especially raised bed planting and minimum tillage technology. There are about 425 numbers of raised bed planters and 865 minimum tillage seed drill in the country. Area coverage under bed planting and minimum tillage system are 5764 ha and 21850 ha, respectively. There are 20125 numbers of farmers involved in raised bed farming. There is a big prospect accelerating the CA based tillage technology in the farmers’ field as irrigation water availability becoming limited or more costly. Mind set up is the big issue for adopting CA tillage technology. Training and multi disciplinary approaches can push forward these tillage technologies ahead.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 40(2): 235-248 June 2015

No-Till Farming and Conservation Agriculture in South Asia – Issues, Challenges, Prospects and Benefits

“…CA was practiced on 2.8 Mha globally in 1973-1974, and increased up to 6.2 Mha in a decade; the area under CA had reached 38 Mha by 1996-1997, 72 Mha by 2003 Mha by 2012 (Derpsch, 1998;Derpsch and Frierich, 2009a;2009b;Friedrich et al 2012), 157 Mha during 2013-14 (Kassam et al, 2013; and 180 Mha during 2016 (Kassam et al, 2019) (Figure 4a,b). However, in SA, the area under CA is rather small compared to the rest of the world (Gupta and Sayre, 2007;Triplett and Dick, 2008;Hossain et al, 2015), primarily due to the long-term history of conventional tillage practices and small farm holdings that have traditionally been managed with plough-based systems (Gupta and Sayre, 2007). The exception appears to be India (328.2 Mha with cultivable area of 141 Mha), where the adoption of NT practices by farmers has occurred mostly in the ricewheat cropping system (<5 Mha), and in the rainfed upland areas involving crops such as maize, cotton, pigeon pea and chickpea (Kassam et al, 2015;Kassam et al, 2019).…”

Improving crop productivity through sustainable intensification

“…Bashour et al [14] reported increase in wheat and lentil yield by 27 and 27.7% under the experimental plots of conservation agriculture than conventional. Conservation agriculture aims to produce crop yields by reducing production costs, maintaining the soil fertility and conserving water [15]. Increased productive potential has resulted in yield differences ranging from 20 to 120 % for CA compared with conventional tillage systems [16].…”

Conservation Agriculture: Present Status and Cropping Pattern Adopted by the Farmer in Khulna Region

“…The data revealed that leaf rot is the most occurring disease in the vegetables cultivation noted by 43 respondents out of 91 respondents followed by root rot (29), fruit rot (31), brown spot (11), fungi (27), black spot (6) and late blight (13).…”

“…Revealed that wheat, maize, pulses, oilseeds, jute, rice can be established and grown successfully using CA technology. Farmers accept the concept of conservation agriculture (CA) based mostly on tillage technologies considering the benefits of higher yields, reduced value of tillage operation, and minimum work time between the crops [11]. Practicing conservation agriculture is not yet studied well.…”