Conservation agriculture: helping to return to within planetary boundaries

Rockström, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8988-2983, Kassam, A., Friedrich, T., Reicosky, D., Dumanski, J., Goddard, T. and Peiretti, R. A. (2026) Conservation agriculture: helping to return to within planetary boundaries. Global Sustainability, 9. e11. ISSN 2059-4798 doi: 10.1017/sus.2025.10045

Abstract/Summary

Non-Technical Summary: Agriculture is the single largest cause for transgressing planetary boundaries. A global transformation to sustainable intensification is required in order to hold the windows open for meeting the Paris climate accord of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and the global biodiversity framework of halting loss of biodiversity, while securing food for a growing world population. Conservation Agriculture (CA) offers the only universally applicable agricultural practices that can be adopted at scale and speed, i.e., across all agro-ecological zones within the coming 1–2 decades. We review the rationale, evolution, and prospects of CA across the world. Technical summary: We estimate that CA has almost doubled from approximately 100 to 200 M ha between 2008/09 and 2018/19, covering approximately 15% of global cropland. Our projections until 2024, estimates another 30% increase (to 250–270 M ha), with a potential of expanding to 50% of global cropland area by 2050 (≈700 M ha). CA includes three fundamental principles; zero-tillage, cover crops, and diverse crop rotations. Converting from conventional tillage-based ploughing to CA sequesters ∼0.1–2 t C ha −1 yr −1 . Considering an average sequestration potential with CA of 0.5–0.9 t carbon ha −1 y −1 , converting the total 1.5 billion ha of global cropland to CA could sequester 0.41–0.82 billion t of carbon ha −1 y −1 . Additionally, CA reduces pressure on biodiversity, increases soil moisture holding capacity, builds resilience of plant production to extremes, and reduces fuel use for tillage by 50–70 %. CA has proven to maintain, stabilize, and increase high yield levels in intensive agricultural systems, which currently are stagnating or even decreasing in tillage-based agricultural systems, while significantly increasing yield levels on relatively poor or degraded agricultural soils. While CA is not a panacea for all food production challenges, it is difficult to find a more ready-to-scale farm practice. Multi Media Summary: Conservation Agriculture offers a universally applicable agricultural practices that can be adopted at scale and speed.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/128798
Identification Number/DOI	10.1017/sus.2025.10045
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of International Development
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
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