Evaluating conservation agriculture for small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Conservation agriculture (CA) has been promoted as a means to achieve food security while protecting natural resources; however, the benefits of CA are debated. This article introduces a special issue which offers critical reviews and empirical analysis of claims about CA’s potential for sustainable intensification. This introduction summarizes the issue’s articles, which span the disciplines of agronomy, economics, soil and environmental sciences, hydrology, and anthropology, as well as interdisciplinary modeling. The articles address the following four questions from the : What is the impact of CA on yields? What is the impact of adopting CA on farmers’ profits? What are the environmental impacts of adopting CA? How well does CA fit with wider agricultural, social, economic and political contexts for small-scale farmers?