Quantifying the adoption of conservation agriculture: Development and application of the Conservation Agriculture Appraisal Index

IF 6.1 1区农林科学 Q1 AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY Agricultural Systems Pub Date : 2024-08-17 DOI:10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104095

Laura I. Ruiz-Espinosa , Nele Verhulst , Floris van Ogtrop , Rebecca Cross , Bram Govaerts , Harm van Rees , Richard Trethowan

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Abstract

CONTEXT

Estimates of conservation agriculture (CA) adoption vary worldwide because of a lack of a standardized methodology to quantify the simultaneous utilization of its core principles of minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil organic cover and crop diversification. Comparisons of CA adoption among farms across regions requires estimation of the farm area and cropping season where CA principles are applied.

OBJECTIVE

To develop the Conservation Agriculture Appraisal Index (CAAI) as a standardized conceptual framework with defined thresholds that indicates the intensity and frequency of use of each CA core principle. CAAI was subsequently applied to quantify CA adoption on farms across four wheat (triticum aestivum) growing regions, both with and without livestock, including dryland and irrigated systems in Australia and Mexico, respectively.

METHODS

CAAI is a continuous scoring system that estimates the intensity and frequency of application of the core principles and their concurrent utilization to assess the extent of CA adoption. CAAI score is the sum of the scores of each core principle, accounting for the percentage of the farm area and cropping season where CA is applied. CAAI emerged from semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, and farm visits that captured underlying patterns of CA use in regional-specific contexts.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

CAAI assessed annual CA adoption on 100 farms in four wheat growing regions with different environments and farming systems. The adoption of CA was higher in Australia than Mexico, where partial adoption was more prevalent, especially for summer crops. ‘No adoption’ of CA occurred when one of the core principles consistently scored zero within a year.

SIGNIFICANCE

The CAAI can be used as a benchmarking research tool at the farm level to standardize units for comparisons and identify levels of CA adoption by farm area and cropping seasons between and across regions.

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量化保护性农业的采用情况：保护性农业评估指数的开发与应用

由于缺乏一种标准化的方法来量化同时采用最少土壤扰动、永久性土壤有机覆盖和作物多样化等核心原则的情况，世界各地对采用保护性农业（CA）的估计不尽相同。要比较不同地区农场采用保护性耕作的情况，需要估算采用保护性耕作原则的农场面积和作物季节。开发出保护性农业评估指数（CAAI），作为一个标准化的概念框架，其定义的阈值表明了每个保护性农业核心原则的使用强度和频率。随后，CAAI 被用于量化四个小麦（）种植区的农场采用保护性农业的情况，包括澳大利亚和墨西哥的旱地和灌溉系统，有牲畜和没有牲畜的农场。CAAI 是一种连续计分系统，用于估算核心原则的应用强度和频率，以及这些原则的同时利用情况，以评估采用 CA 的程度。CAAI 分数是每项核心原则的分数总和，反映了应用 CA 的农田面积和作物季节的百分比。CAAI 是通过半结构式访谈、问卷调查和农场访问得出的，它捕捉了特定地区使用 CA 的基本模式。CAAI 对环境和耕作制度不同的四个小麦种植区 100 个农场的 CA 年度采用情况进行了评估。澳大利亚的 CA 采用率高于墨西哥，在墨西哥，部分采用 CA 的情况更为普遍，尤其是夏季作物。如果其中一项核心原则在一年内的得分一直为零，则表示 "未采用 "CA。CAAI 可用作农场层面的基准研究工具，以标准化单位进行比较，并按农场面积和种植季节确定地区之间和地区之间采用 CA 的水平。

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来源期刊

Agricultural Systems 农林科学-农业综合

CiteScore

13.30

自引率

7.60%

发文量

174

审稿时长

30 days

期刊介绍： Agricultural Systems is an international journal that deals with interactions - among the components of agricultural systems, among hierarchical levels of agricultural systems, between agricultural and other land use systems, and between agricultural systems and their natural, social and economic environments. The scope includes the development and application of systems analysis methodologies in the following areas: Systems approaches in the sustainable intensification of agriculture; pathways for sustainable intensification; crop-livestock integration; farm-level resource allocation; quantification of benefits and trade-offs at farm to landscape levels; integrative, participatory and dynamic modelling approaches for qualitative and quantitative assessments of agricultural systems and decision making; The interactions between agricultural and non-agricultural landscapes; the multiple services of agricultural systems; food security and the environment; Global change and adaptation science; transformational adaptations as driven by changes in climate, policy, values and attitudes influencing the design of farming systems; Development and application of farming systems design tools and methods for impact, scenario and case study analysis; managing the complexities of dynamic agricultural systems; innovation systems and multi stakeholder arrangements that support or promote change and (or) inform policy decisions.