Attaining food security for a growing population and alleviating poverty while sustaining agricultural systems under the current scenario of depleting natural resources, negative impacts of climatic variability, spiraling cost of inputs and volatile food prices are the major challenges in front of Indian Agriculture. The tillage intensive conventional cereal-based cropping systems which is instrumental in achieving of self-sufficiency in food-grain production often led to emergence of second generation problems of green revolution viz., decline in soil organic matter, soil degradation, emergence of multi-nutrient deficiency, soil compaction, crop residue burning etc. leading towards non-sustainability in long-term. Conservation agriculture can be seen as a new way forward for conserving resources and enhancing productivity to achieve the goals of sustainable agriculture, which demands a strong knowledge base and a combination of institutional and technological innovations. Conservation Agriculture (CA) technologies involves the minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues, or cover crops, and crop diversification for achieving higher productivity.
