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Tillage agriculture has led to widespread soil and ecosystem degradation globally, and more particularly in the developing regions. This is especially so in Africa where traditional agricultural practices have become unsustainable due to severe exploitation of natural resources with negative impacts on the environment and food system. In addition, agricultural land use in Africa today faces major challenges including increased costs, climate change and a need to transform to more sustainable production intensification systems. Conservation Agriculture has emerged as a major alternative sustainable climate smart agriculture approach in Africa and has spread to many African countries in the past decade as more development and research, including in sustainable mechanization, has enabled its extension and uptake. It is key to transforming Africa's agriculture and food system given its ability to restore soil health, biodiversity and productivity of millions of smallholder farms as well as larger-scale farms. This landmark volume is based on the material presented at the Second Africa Congress on Conservation Agriculture which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 9-12 October 2018. The main theme of the Congress was'Making Climate Smart Agriculture Real in Africa with Conservation Agriculture: Supporting the Malabo Declaration and Agenda 2063'. The Congress was aligned to mobilize stakeholders in all agriculture sectors to provide greater technical, institutional, development and investment support, impetus and direction to the vision and agenda for transforming African agriculture as set out by the Malabo Declaration and Agenda 2063. This book is aimed at all agricultural stakeholders in the public, private and civil sectors in Africa engaged in supporting the transformation of conventional tillage agriculture to Conservation Agriculture. The book will be of interest to: researchers, academics, students, development stakeholders, public and private sector investors and policy makers as well as institutional libraries across the world.

Tillage agriculture has led to widespread soil and ecosystem degradation. This book reviews research and development initiatives in Africa aimed at building resilient farming systems. It summarises the status of conservation agriculture today, discusses prospects for future development and provides case studies showing its performance in Africa.

The book covers the spread of conservation agriculture (CA) to regions including Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, Europe and emerging CA destinations in Asia and Africa. Topics covered include the various components of CA, and how their individual and combined implementation influence productivity, soil health and environmental quality under diverse edaphic and climatic conditions. The book will be useful to teachers, researchers, extensionists, farmers, and students interested in environmental quality.

This book analyzes the functions, content, methods, findings, and impacts of social and cultural researchcarried out by the worldwide network of 16 International Agricultural Research Centers of the CGIAR(Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). Its two main parts -'insiders'and'outsiders'-bring together the perspectives of over 50 eminent scholars and social researchers from 30 countries,working within the Centers or within outside academic and development institutions. The authorsexamine critically the priorities, strengths, and weaknesses of research on the socio-structural, behavioural,cultural, and institutional variables of developing agriculture, forestry, livestock, and fisheries. The studiesfocus on farmers'values, needs and knowledge, their patterns of social organization, issues of food security,natural resource management and poverty reduction. Alternative models of multidisciplinary research,reuniting biological, natural, economic and social sciences are scrutinized in the light of experience andresults, with emphasis on the nature of social science research as a source of international public goodsand a key contributor to induced development.