How to integrate Conservation Agriculture into agricultural policies

Recommendations to policy makers from ConServeTerra

In my role as Scientific Advisory Board member of ConServeTerra, I was recently asked to compile recommendations to policy makers. This was a daunting task, especially since I have only witnessed some of the project work from the outside, reading some outputs and participating in a meeting, and I know very little about the farming and policy context in Morocco, Tunisia, Turkiye and Spain.

However, listening to project partners’ experiences and discussing insights during a dedicated session at their project meeting on 22 November 2023 in Tunis, I feel there are a few points worth sharing. The below represents partners’ view, complemented with my own experience from work with policy makers in a research context. ConServeTerra runs until June 2024 so these points will be developed further.

I outline two sets of recommendations, the first one targeted at researchers and scientists for how to influence policy, the second one targeted at agricultural policy stakeholders in Mediterranean countries. I noted that Morocco is seen as a ‘model’ for supporting Conservation Agriculture, with Tunisia and Turkiye aiming to catch up, hence comments on Morocco are sandwiched in between the two sets of recommendations. Spain as the fourth project country is embedded in the EU policy context and I received only limited feedback on their policy recommendations.

How to influence policy

Make it a goal (of the project and/or of your own work) to advise and inform policy makers. This requires finding out who is influential in the first instance, and then building a relationship. Organisational charts may give limited orientation so it is better to approach people in government agencies and farmer interest groups. Some government officials and civil servants may also be active on social media. Note that this engagement effort will need to be continuous as civil servants may change position (i.e. the sector they work in) within government on a regular basis.

Work with local and national farmer associations and find overlap in your messaging. Work with international donor organisations.

Make use of the media, from farming press, websites and social media, podcasts and TV to raise awareness and promote your key message.

Find synergies and common messages with other scientific ‘camps’. Not all researchers are convinced of Conservation Agriculture – but it should be possible to find agreement on some recommended practices, their benefits and ways to support sustainable farming. The more supporters, the more credible and difficult to ignore the message will be for policy makers.

A great way to help understanding, is to take the minister and staff from relevant policy teams out to the field, i.e. invite them to a farm visit, an open day or similar, to demonstrate what conservation agriculture is and what the benefits and issues are. The hands-on experience and personal exchanges will leave a lasting impression. It helps if key decision makers have a research background as they will relate to scientific evidence more easily. If that is not the case, make your key message succinct and reduce evidence and explanations to the essential points.

Find the right framing and timing for your message. For example, if water scarcity is high on the political agenda, promote CA practices as ‘solution’ or appropriate ‘technology’ to save water and increase water use efficiency. If the government has a strong climate change agenda, it may be worth emphasising CA’s potential for saving fossil fuels and carbon sequestration. If soil degradation is a hot topic, and there are data for indicators available, highlight the urgency of finding solutions to increasing land area that is degraded which equates to a loss of national assets. If agricultural productivity is of interest, underline the potential of reducing input cost such as fuel and saving fertiliser by providing nutrients from adequate crop rotation.

Learn to identify the right time (policy windows) for actions to influence policy, such as election cycles, and provide collated evidence in easily accessible form (e.g. 1-page policy briefs, at events or mixed stakeholder working groups).

Morocco as good practice example

The clear leadership from government was identified as crucial. This can be expressed, e.g. as a government strategy with associated budget supporting implementation of CA. In Morocco, this strategy was the Green Morocco Plan, which has now been superseded by Generation Green which clearly states the aim of “1 million ha under conservation agriculture by 2030”.

The Moroccan government supports other sustainable farming methods such as organic farming in parallel, and promotes integration of these approaches.

The country benefits from a strong evidence base from decades of research and development in the field of CA. The case is helped by the relevant minister having a research background. He has visited and learned from two of the ConServeTerra CA farmers, who were the best yielding farmers in Morocco.

There is an established CA promoter network with a broad range of civil society organisations and the environmental sector to garner support. This includes international donors who are funding CA research projects and trials as a result of a clear government strategy being in place.

Farm advisory services are recognised as an integral part to support tailoring and adoption of CA for the large number of small farms. Advisor training is supported as a crucial component to deliver current advice.

The government buys seed drills for farmer associations which helps remove the barrier of access to the right machinery. This is coupled with technical support. Service providers are encouraged, in order to make contracting services (e.g. for direct seeding) available for small farmers. Specific CA equipment is built in the country to make expertise and spare parts available and benefit the domestic economy.

Recommendations to policy makers

Assuming there has been some success with the actions outlined in the first part, and there is political interest, or a pressing problem to which CA is perceived as the solution, the following recommendations for agricultural policy can be made to support the wider adoption of CA among farmers.

Ensure state-owned farms/ field stations and public lands are under exemplary management, applying CA practices and demonstrating benefits.

Consider stricter regulations that require farmers to adhere to agreed CA practices e.g. diverse crop rotation including forage mixtures, minimum tillage. Note that resource will need to be made available for checking compliance and enforcement. Without the capacity for enforcement, regulation and laws remain ineffective.

Programme to strengthen advisory services, and prioritise budget accordingly. Consider the following in the extension approach:

• Hold open days on farms (ideally with contrasting conventional and CA management side-by-side) for peer-to-peer learning and farmer-advisor interaction

• Provide specific cost saving examples, with costs expressed in local currency

• Make available list of service providers (e.g. contractors with direct seeding equipment), extension materials tailored to different types of farmers

• Offer advice to draw up farm specific, multi-year plans, e.g. for weed management

Offer subsidies to farmers who implement the agreed CA practices, such as crop rotations, cover crops, minimum tillage (similar to those in place via the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy); or for livestock integration.

Avoid contradicting subsidies. If there are other subsidies or incentive schemes available to the farmer, they will choose the more attractive one (e.g. easier application process, higher grant, subsidy for practice that is easy to integrate/ align with existing farming business and operations).

Be aware of any distorting influence of guaranteed prices for some crops (e.g. wheat) vs the lack of market for others (e.g. forages). Ensure that inputs are available and accessible to farmers, such as seeds for forage legumes (which may require subsidised seeds or provision of seeds through appropriate channels).

Subsidise specialist machinery (as in Moroccan example) or establish a government machinery park at regional level. The hire costs of a service provider could also be subsidised. Either subsidy arrangement needs careful monitoring to avoid unintended effects such a price hikes.

Postscript: At the 1st Mediterranean Conference on Conservation Agriculture on 23 November 2023, ConServeTerra and two other PRIMA funded projects CAMA and 4CE-MED shared findings across the three projects, developing recommendations for scientists, farmers and policy makers. The messages from the other two projects broadly aligned with the above.