Agriculture faces a dual challenge: increasing food production without further sacrificing the environmental integrity. Sustain able land management (SLM) is fundamental to addressing this challenge. In this paper key agro-ecological attributes of SLM are reviewed. These are conservation and efficient use of water and nutrients, maintenance and/or increase of soil carbon; crop diversification and preservation of biodiversity, and enhancement of resilience to external shocks, in particular climate change. The practice of conservation agriculture, which is increasingly considered to have a high potential as a sustainable cropping practice, is evaluated against these key attributes.