Abstract
In north-eastern Laos, the savannah grasslands of the Plain of Jars cover vast areas of potentially cultivable land. However, soil acidity, low inherent fertility, and the absence of alternatives to tillage represent significant constraints to the development of sustainable smallholder agriculture. Our objective was to evaluate the potential for conservation agriculture (CA) to enhance soil productivity and farming system profitability. A three-year rotation of rice/maize/soybean was tested under three fertilization levels and four agricultural systems: one conventional tillage-based (CT) system and three CA systems based on no-tillage with cover crops. After four cropping seasons, our results show that, compared with CT, CA systems led to similar-to-higher grain production, similar-to-higher profits, higher opportunity of livestock system intensification, and higher labour productivity regardless of fertilization levels. While CA represents a relevant alternative to current practices, our results suggest that its contribution to the emergence of a sustainable smallholder agriculture is conditioned by broader institutional transformations, including the enrolment of local manufacturers and traders for deploying no-till implements and seed market channels for cover crops, long-term public support to maintain active research and technical mentoring to farmers, and possibly the integration of ecosystem services in agricultural policy.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Compared with conventional tillage, conservation agriculture gave similar-to-higher grain production in the rice/maize/soybean rotation.
- Taxon
- rice/maize/soybean
Glycine max
Oryza sativa
Zea mayse2 - Treatment
- no-tillage with cover cropse2
- Outcome
- grain productione1
- Direction
- similar-to-highere1
- Qualifier
- regardless of fertilization levelse1
- Comparator
- CTe1
- Setting
- north-eastern Laose0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In north-eastern Laos”
e1“compared with CT, CA systems led to similar-to-higher grain production, similar-to-higher profits, higher opportunity of livestock system intensification, and higher labour productivity regardless of fertilization levels”
e2“A three-year rotation of rice/maize/soybean was tested under three fertilization levels and four agricultural systems: one conventional tillage-based (CT) system and three CA systems based on no-tillage with cover crops”
Claim · model-written summary
Compared with conventional tillage, conservation agriculture gave similar-to-higher profits in the rice/maize/soybean rotation.
- Taxon
- rice/maize/soybeanGlycine maxOryza sativaZea mayse2
- Treatment
- no-tillage with cover cropse2
- Outcome
- profitse1
- Direction
- similar-to-highere1
- Qualifier
- regardless of fertilization levelse1
- Comparator
- CTe1
- Setting
- north-eastern Laose0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In north-eastern Laos”
e1“compared with CT, CA systems led to similar-to-higher grain production, similar-to-higher profits, higher opportunity of livestock system intensification, and higher labour productivity regardless of fertilization levels”
e2“A three-year rotation of rice/maize/soybean was tested under three fertilization levels and four agricultural systems: one conventional tillage-based (CT) system and three CA systems based on no-tillage with cover crops”
Claim · model-written summary
Compared with conventional tillage, conservation agriculture gave higher opportunity of livestock system intensification.
- Taxon
- rice/maize/soybeanGlycine maxOryza sativaZea mayse2
- Treatment
- no-tillage with cover cropse2
- Outcome
- opportunity of livestock system intensificatione1
- Direction
- highere1
- Qualifier
- regardless of fertilization levelse1
- Comparator
- CTe1
- Setting
- north-eastern Laose0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In north-eastern Laos”
e1“compared with CT, CA systems led to similar-to-higher grain production, similar-to-higher profits, higher opportunity of livestock system intensification, and higher labour productivity regardless of fertilization levels”
e2“A three-year rotation of rice/maize/soybean was tested under three fertilization levels and four agricultural systems: one conventional tillage-based (CT) system and three CA systems based on no-tillage with cover crops”
Claim · model-written summary
Compared with conventional tillage, conservation agriculture gave higher labour productivity.
- Taxon
- rice/maize/soybeanGlycine maxOryza sativaZea mayse2
- Treatment
- no-tillage with cover cropse2
- Outcome
- labour productivitye1
- Direction
- highere1
- Qualifier
- regardless of fertilization levelse1
- Comparator
- CTe1
- Setting
- north-eastern Laose0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In north-eastern Laos”
e1“compared with CT, CA systems led to similar-to-higher grain production, similar-to-higher profits, higher opportunity of livestock system intensification, and higher labour productivity regardless of fertilization levels”
e2“A three-year rotation of rice/maize/soybean was tested under three fertilization levels and four agricultural systems: one conventional tillage-based (CT) system and three CA systems based on no-tillage with cover crops”
Claim · model-written summary
Conservation agriculture contributes to a sustainable smallholder agriculture only if broader institutional transformations occur.
- Taxon
- rice/maize/soybeanGlycine maxOryza sativaZea mayse2
- Outcome
- contribution to the emergence of a sustainable smallholder agriculturee3
- Qualifier
- conditioned by broader institutional transformationse3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“A three-year rotation of rice/maize/soybean was tested under three fertilization levels and four agricultural systems: one conventional tillage-based (CT) system and three CA systems based on no-tillage with cover crops”
e3“While CA represents a relevant alternative to current practices, our results suggest that its contribution to the emergence of a sustainable smallholder agriculture is conditioned by broader institutional transformations”
The same questions in other papers
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See all 1,099 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.