Conservation Agriculture - Problems

Problems

As much as Conservation Agriculture can benefit the whole world with all that is good within it, there are some problems that come with CA. As in any system not all things can be exactly perfect or do exactly what is needed for that task. Conservation agriculture can also fall into this category too. There are many reasons why conservation agriculture cannot always be a win-win situation.

The first reason why CA still has some problems is because there are not enough people that can financially turn from a conventional farmer to a conservationist. Within the process of CA comes time, when a producer first starts to process as a conservationist the results can be a financial loss to that certain producer. Since CA is based upon establishing an organic layer and producing its own fertilizer, then this may take time to produce that layer. It can be many years before a producer will start to see better yields than he/she has had previously before. Another financial undertaking is purchasing of new equipment. When starting CA a producer may have to buy new planters or drills in order to produce effectively, also comes the responsibility of harvesting a crop. These financial tasks are ones that may impact whether or not a producer would want to conserve or not.

Also with the struggle to adapt comes the struggle to make CA grow across the globe. CA at this point has not spread as quickly as most conservationists would like it to have. The reasons for this is because there is not enough pressure for producers in places such as North America to change their way of living to a more conservative outlook. But in the tropics there is more of a pressure to change to conservation areas because of the limited resources that are available. Places like Europe have also started to catch onto the ideas and principles of CA, but still nothing much is being done to change due to their being a minimal amount of pressure for people to change their ways of living (FAO 2006).

Also, within CA comes the whole idea of producing enough food to feed all the people in the world at this moment. With cutting back in fertilizer, not tilling of ground and among other processes comes the responsibility to feed the world. According to the Population Reference Bureau, at the 2000 census count of the world population there were around 6.08 billion people on earth. By the time the year 2050 there is an estimated 9.1 billion people on earth. Within this increase comes the responsibility for producers around the world to make an increase in food supply with the same or even less amounts of land to do it on. With CA problems arise in the fact that if farms do not produce as much as conventional ways, then in this case leaves the world with less food for more people.