Conservation agriculture in Europe

Abstract

This chapter provides a description of the past and recent development of conservation agriculture (CA) in Europe. It reviews scientific and technical literature as well as empirical evidence reported by the European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) and its national member associations. Starting from the early beginnings of CA in Europe, this chapter reviews the development of CA until its current status. This clearly indicates that Europe lags far behind other regions in the world in terms of the adoption and spread of CA. This chapter presents actual data of adoption in several European countries as far as it is reported by national CA associations. It also reviews the most relevant experiences gained throughout Europe, focussing on crop performance, impact on soil quality, and weed, insects and disease incidence, as well as environmental and economic aspects of CA. Challenges and possible reasons for the relatively low uptake of CA in Europe are discussed, including the influence of national and European agricultural policies and regulations on the past evolution of CA uptake in Europe. Finally, this chapter provides an outlook into future prospects for up-scaling of CA in Europe, and what the likely impact of global changes and constraints may mean for the adoption and spread of CA in Europe.