April 2014: The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) has released an agroforestry guide for extension staff and farmers. The guide, ‘Conservation Agriculture with Trees: Principles and Practices’, outlines soil conservation, crop rotation, and weed management as important elements of conservation agriculture.

The guide explores the role of trees in conservation agriculture with a particular focus on seed germination and handling, the establishment of nurseries and the management of tree species. The guide also identifies a number of challenges to conservation agriculture with trees including limited access to technologies and tools, costs associated with a transition to the new system, disagreement between theories of agricultural practices, and lack of access to planting stock and other inputs.

Overall, the guide emphasizes the potential contribution of trees to all three principles of conservation agriculture: minimum tillage, maximum soil cover, and crop rotation and association.

The publication is an outcome from training workshops on conservation agriculture and agroforestry in Kenya and Tanzania. ICRAF is a member of CGIAR. [Publication: Conservation Agriculture with Trees: Principles and Practice]