Conservation Agriculture in the Andean Highlands: Evidence of Promise From Two Countries.

In the Andean Region (AR) of South America, the challenge of increasing agricultural production while conserving or improving the natural environment has attained a sense of urgency.  The AR is characterized by diverse natural, physical and social environments and this diversity contributes to the wide variety of farming systems observed across the region.  The AR is characterized by poor areas where productivity is low due to resource constraints such as small and shrinking farm sizes, poor soil quality, erratic rainfall, and exposure to natural risks.   Farmers are experiencing unprecedented stress due to natural factors such as climate change which reduces water availability, increases variability of rainfall and temperatures, and contracts the spread of rainfall events and, hence, the planting season.  Under such circumstances, new approaches to farming are needed to assist farmers in intensifying their production in a sustainable manner.  Conservation agriculture provides one such opportunity.  While CA has been widely adopted among larger-scale farms in flatter areas where mechanization is economically and technically viable, its various components have not been widely adopted among small-scale farmers in sloped areas.  This presentation contains an evaluation of the potential for CA in high-elevation , highly sloped areas of the AR.  It shows that CA is a viable option in these areas and that increased economic and environmental stress will only increase this viability.  In fact, in the face of growing labor costs and increasing climatic uncertainty, CA is one of very few options to ensure long-term sustainable intensification in the AR.