Conservation Agriculture: South Africa's New Green Revolution

"As farmers move from conventional to conservation farming, agricultural production becomes more resilient to climate variability, and therefore to at least some aspects of anticipated climate change. The components comprising Conservation Agriculture (CA) (a trifecta of no-till or minimum-till farming, permanent soil cover and crop rotations) have existed for nearly a century, but uptake has generally been slow and uneven (FAO, 2011a; Knowler and Bradshaw, 2007). Though adoption of no-till farming has been widespread in South America, rates in sub-Saharan Africa (including South Africa) remain particularly low, necessitating government support through targeted and integrated policy-making"