Positive impacts in soil and water conservation in an Andean region of South America: Case scenarios from a US Agency for International Development multidisciplinary cooperative project

Authors: Monar B., Carlos; Saabedra, Ana K.; Escudero, Luis; Delgado, Jorge A.; Alwang, Jeffrey; Barrera, Víctor Hugo; Botello, Ruben

Description: Several papers have questioned whether we will be able to achieve food security in the face of the many challenges this century brings, including climate change, an ever-increasing world population, depletion of water resources, soil desertification, and deforestation. Conservation agriculture (CA) shows high potential as a means of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change–related stressors. More generally, the application of soil and water conservation practices will help protect and strengthen soils and ensure that agricultural systems have a sustainable means of providing food security (Delgado et al. 2011; Lal et al. 2011). The Andean region of South America is one of the regions of the world that faces the challenge of increasing agricultural production while conserving soil quality and maintaining sustainability. Barrera et al. (2010a) reported on some of the challenges facing the Andean region, such as small and shrinking farm sizes, poor soils, erratic rainfall, and cultivation of areas (especially in high slopes) exposed to high erosion rates (figure 1). A large segment of the population in this region is dependent on the potato crop as a main staple, and the intensive cultivation of the potato crop at planting and during harvesting, followed by a low amount of crop residue covering the soils (figure 2), contributes to systems that are highly susceptible to erosion.