Conservation agriculture: An option to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change: A review

Agriculture is a primary occupation and has been more intensified to feed the growing population. Changing climatic conditions by and large affected the soil microbial communities and their interaction with crop plants (Meena et al., 2017). Practicing agriculture in such a way so as to cause minimum damage to the environment is being advocated on a large scale world-wide, i.e. conservation agriculture. Conservation tillage, the most important aspect of conservation agriculture, is a deliberate effort to take care of the soil health and the environment. In the changing climate and resource fatigue scenario, conservation agriculture approaches endorse the potential for creating a healthy soil environment by conserving natural flora and maintaining microbial ecosystems, thus paving the way for sustainable agricultural production systems. Conservation tillage practices such as no-tillage (NT) have potential to increase C sequestration in agricultural soils but patterns of N2O and CH4 emissions associated with NT practices are variable (David et al., 2013). A long term study (2006–2009) revealed that double no-till practice in rice-based system is cost-effective, restored soil organic carbon (70.75%), favoured biological activity (46.7%), conserved water and produced yield (49%) higher than conventional tillage (Ghosh et al., 2010). Therefore it can be concluded that practicing conservation practices can play a significant role in SOC sequestration. CA sequesters maximum soil organic carbon near soil surface layer. Use of crop residue mulch, efficient crop rotation and no till farming and efficient use of agricultural inputs help to conserve moisture, better soil aggregates, reduce soil erosion and ultimately enhances carbon sequestration. Thus sequestering carbon in soil by conservation agriculture can mitigate the effect climate change as a win-win strategy.