Question

A detailed description of the technology based on the solution .  

A description on how it will impact climate change.  

A thorough discussion as to whether implementation of this technology is feasible. Pros and Cons to it.

Answer the question as to whether this technology can significantly reduce or reverse the momentum of climate change by 2050?

Solution is below

Conservation agriculture uses cover crops, crop rotation, and minimal tilling in the production of annual crops. It protects soil, avoids emissions, and sequesters carbon.

SOLUTION SUMMARY*

Plows are absent on farms practicing conservation agriculture, and for good reason. When farmers till their fields to destroy weeds and fold in fertilizer, water in the freshly turned soil evaporates. Soil itself can be blown or washed away and carbon held within it released into the atmosphere. Tilling can make a field nutrient poor and less life-giving.

Conservation agriculture was developed in Brazil and Argentina in the 1970s, and adheres to three core principles:

1. Minimize soil disturbance: absent tilling, farmers seed directly into the soil.
2. Maintain soil cover: farmers leave crop residues after harvesting or grow cover crops.
3. Manage crop rotation: farmers change what is grown and where.

The Latin root of conserve means “to keep together.” Conservation agriculture abides by these principles to keep the soil together as a living ecosystem that enables food production and helps redress climate change.

Conservation agriculture sequesters a relatively small amount of carbon—an average of half a ton per acre. But given the prevalence of annual cropping around the world, those tons add up. Because conservation agriculture makes land more resilient to climate-related events such as long droughts and heavy downpours, it is doubly valuable in a warming world.

the technology mentioned in the solution

before the solution is below is the question

Answer 1

Conservation agriculture is a type of practice of agriculture aim to promote and enhance soil production with minimum soil disturbances by employing crop residue management and focuses on increasing natural organic matter in the soil.

Benefits of conservation agriculture:

1. Enhancement of the agricultural yield via traditional methods, thus contributing to food security.
2. Reduction in the perennial problems of soil erosion, salinization and soil organic matter decline.
3. Provides help to tackle water scarcity by reducing surface water evaporation.
4. Reduction in the input cost as it relies on zero till technology.
5. Replace crop burning and help mitigate the Greenhouse Gas emission.
6. Provides opportunities of crop diversification in temporal and spatial patterns, thus enhancing natural ecological processes

Conservation agriculture is based on the following 3 principles:

1. Minimum tillage and soil disturbance: involves direct seeding with almost no-tillage and focuses on soil conservation, erosion reduction and organic material conservation.
2. Permanent soil cover with crop residues and live mulches: this is to protect the soil against the deleterious effects of exposure to rain and sun and to retain the moisture, and to alter the microclimate in the soil for optimal growth and development of soil organisms.
3. Crop rotation and intercropping: This includes atleast involving three different crops allowing the development of a living structure in soil that increases the variety of flora and fauna, nourishes plants and prevents plagues and diseases.

How does conservation agriculture help to fight climate change?

Conservation agriculture helps to reduce the impacts of global warming and could prove to be a good adaption strategy for climate change.

Large-scale adoption of conservation agriculture could help reduce carbon emissions, improves soil fertility and yields, and promote efficient water use.

Conservation agriculture significantly reduces the consumption of fossil fuel for agricultural production, and furthermore eliminating the need of burning of crop residues completely and contributing to a reduction of green house gases release.

However by 2050 there will be an estimated 9.1 billion people. With this increase population comes the responsibility to increase food supply using the same or less land than we use today. Problems arise when the production is less than the conventional farms, leaving the world with less food for more people.

Challenges of conservation agriculture:

1. Extensive networking: It requires partnership and cooperation among farmers, scientists.
2. Understanding the system: It is much more complex than conventional systems (understanding of basic processes and component interactions
3. Technological challenges: These challenges relate to development, standardization and adoption of farm machinery for seeding with minimum soil disturbance, developing crop harvesting and management systems.
4. Site specificity: Adapting strategles tor conservation agriculture systems is highily site specific in a set of situations and not effective in another set.
5. Long-term research perspective: Conservation agriculture practices, e.g. no-tillage and surface- maintained crop residues result in resource improvement only gradually, and benefits come about only with time.
6. Raising awareness: To promote the conservation agriculture, government should shift focus from food security to livelihood security and promote crop diversification through policies of tax, tariff, pricing, trade and reforms.
7. An institutional structure should be created to execute training, extension support, programme implementation and market regulation. Local communities should be supported to promote the adaptation of conservation agriculture.