Conservation Agriculture: A Guarantee of Soil Health & Food Sovereignty, or an Illusion

Conservation agriculture is widely presented as a promising response to some of today’s most pressing agricultural challenges, from soil degradation and climate vulnerability to food insecurity. Often associated with soil health, climate mitigation, and food sovereignty, it has gained strong visibility in both scientific and policy discussions.

This seminar offers a critical perspective on that promise. As conservation agriculture becomes increasingly conflated with climate-smart agriculture, its original objectives can become blurred, its evaluation frameworks distorted, and expectations around its benefits overstated. Current evidence shows that its impacts are highly context-dependent, with important trade-offs, particularly in semi-arid environments.

Drawing on these insights, Prof. Abad Chabbi, Research Director at INRAE (France) and IAS UM6P resident, explores the need to move beyond generalized assumptions toward a more mechanistic and process-based understanding of soil systems. Such an approach is essential for designing agroecosystems that are truly resilient, locally grounded, and adapted to specific environmental realities.

Organized in collaboration with the CAES – College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, this event offers an opportunity to reflect on how agricultural models are framed, assessed, and implemented, and to explore more nuanced pathways toward sustainable and context-specific farming systems.