Conservation agriculture in the Andean highlands: Promise and precautions

This chapter examines the potential of conservation agriculture (CA) to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability in highly sloped areas and inter-Andean valley in post-land reform areas of the AR. Conservation agriculture (CA) is as a set of practices intended to conserve, improve and make more efficient use of resources through integrated management of soil, water and biological resources combined with external inputs. In its purest form, CA is based on three principles: (i) minimum or no mechanical soil disturbance; (ii) permanent organic soil cover; and (iii) diversified crop rotations.