The challenges of researching conservation agriculture

Abstract

Conservation agriculture, a farming system based on three principles - keeping the soil permanently covered with residues or cover crops, minimal mechanical disturbance of the soil (i.e., no-tillage), and crop diversity with at least three crops through associations and rotations - is slowly making its way into Moldovan agriculture, but at a very slow pace. The main problem is the lack of local knowledge and advanced experience. In 2022, at the “Porumbeni” Institute of Plant Breeding, short-term experiments were established to better understand the challenges of conservation agriculture research.