FAO conservation agriculture
The zai approach means not new products but new practices --- in this case doing more to the land. But equally important are approaches doing less to the land – including “conservation agriculture,” which the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Theodor Friedrich sees as essential to the future of farming. A core principle is “avoiding continuous mechanical soil disturbance.” As a consequence, conservation farming reduces on average the farmer’s workload by half; and mechanized farmers can save up to 70 percent in fuel costs. In 25 years conservation farming has spread to nearly 250 million acres worldwide
Source: FAO Newsroom, Farmers Must Change to Feed the World, Food and Agriculture Organization, February 4, 2009, http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:AqyR5VXnQbAJ:www.fao.org/news/story/...