Benefits of Conservation Agriculture in Watershed Management: Participatory Governance to Improve the Quality of No-Till Systems in the Paraná 3 Watershed, Brazil

Adoption of best soil and water management practices is desirable for sustainable production intensification. However, farmers have difficulties in adopting them within a system approach to management, missing out on positive results for themselves and for society. A partnership between the Brazilian No-Till Farmers Federation and Itaipu Binacional authority adopted a participatory management strategy, as proposed by the National Water Resources Policy, allowing important decisions regarding the use of water to be made in participatory Watershed Committees, to address such farmers’ difficulties. In this paper, we review the development and application of the Participatory Quality Index approach based on the principles of conservation agriculture to improve the quality of no-till systems in the Parana 3 watershed within the Cultivating Good Water program. We analyze the available documentation and experiences of the program’s executors, highlighting the results from the perspective of sustainability of multiple uses of water in a watershed.