There are a total of twelve chapters in this book. The first chapter serves as an introduction, providing a foundation in agriculture and food security. The second chapter delves into the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture and alternative agriculture practices, including organic farming, ecological farming, bio-dynamic farming, natural farming, and zero budget natural farming (ZBNF), among others. Chapter three continues with an in-depth exploration of these alternative farming methods. Chapter four delves into the soil and plant nutrients necessary for growth, while chapter five focuses on water management and dryland technology for sustainable crop production. Chapter six discusses integrated pest management tactics, while chapter seven explores diversified and integrated farming systems. Chapter eight examines sustainable natural resource management, and chapter nine delves into the nutrition-sensitive food system in the context of sustainability. Chapter ten focuses on conservation agriculture, while chapter eleven explores climate-resilient agriculture for sustainable crop production. Lastly, chapter twelve summarizes the key sustainable agriculture practices discussed throughout the book. All chapters are well-supported with data, tables, figures, and photographs, and include extensive and up-to-date references.
With the advent of green revolution in 1967, India has substantially increased its agriculture production and productivity in foodgrains which brought a paradigm shift from begging bowl situation to a self-sufficiency stage. But the growth has been more pronounced in irrigated tracts and in large holdings creating an imbalanced growth. Rainfed areas and small holders have been overlooked from such agricultural development. At the same time there have been increased ecological and environmental problems as a result of overuse of fertilisers and pesticides in intensive agriculture.
Agriculture depends mainly on natural resources like land situation, soil, water and a favourable climate. Continuous agricultural practices adopted without conservation of such precious resources may lead to unsustainability of growth in agriculture. Conservation of these resources and their sustainable use with appropriate measures would be required for a sustainable agriculture.
Modern farming system was aimed to maximise crop production by use of high yielding crop varieties or hybrids and application of agro-chemicals like fertilisers and pesticides along with irrigation and better crop production technologies. But without consideration of its impact on the environment and economics of the farmers, the monoculture of rice and wheat with agro-chemicals caused land degradation, soil and water contamination, gene erosion and environmental pollution.
Alternative agriculture is a production system that follows the concept of agroecology and does not use conventional methods. Natural farming, Bio-dynamic farming, Organic farming, Permaculture, Homa farming and many others are considered as alternative agriculture. In spite of some differences, these practices aim at preserving the environment and minimise the use or avoid synthetic agrochemicals. They rely on natural cycles, by using crop rotations, cover crops or no-tillage, etc.
Soil is made up of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids and micro-organisms in different proportions. It provides anchorage to plants. It is important for life as it provides the medium for the growth of a plant, habitat for several insects and other organisms. Soil is a store house of nutrients, micro-organisms, air and water. It is the source of four essential ‘living’ factors including food, clothes, shelter, and medicines.
Soil, climate and water decide the nature of crop to be grown in a particular region. While soil and climate can be manipulated to certain extent, there is no substitute of water. Water is governed by the hydrological cycle. The major source of water is rainfall which has been reduced over the years due to climate change. The per capita water availability in India was 4944 m3 in 1955 which has been reduced to 1750 m3 now and is expected to come down to 1500 m3 by 2025.
Insects and mites that damage crops, pathogens that cause diseases in plants, weeds that compete with field crops for nutrients and water, plants that choke irrigation channels or drainage systems, rodents that eat young plants and grain, and birds that eat seedlings or stored foodstuffs are all crop pests. As plants were domesticated and grown, increasingly in monoculture, the potential damage caused by their co-evolved pests and disease pathogens were realised.
Farming system is a complex inter-related matrix of soil, plants, animals, implements, power, labour, capital and other inputs controlled in part by farm families and influenced by varying degrees of political, economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. In farming system there is integration of farm enterprises such as cropping systems, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, sericulture, poultry etc.
Natural resources are naturally occurring resources which can be exploited for economic gain. They include raw materials such as fuels, minerals and metals, soil, water, air, sunlight, land, biomass and ecosystems. Natural resources also include living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) materials. Natural resources are gifts of nature for the humankind.
Food security is achieved when adequate food is available and accessible and satisfactorily used and utilized by all individuals to live a healthy and active life. But food and nutrition security is achieved when people have physical, economic and social access to food of sufficient quantity in terms of variety, diversity, nutrient content and safety to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life coupled with sanitary environment, adequate health and education care. In order to achieve food and nutrition security there is a need for transitioning toward nutrition sensitive food system.
Conservation Agriculture Conservation agriculture is an approach to managing agro-ecosystems, for improved and sustained productivity, increased profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. It is a set of technologies, including minimum disturbance, permanent soil cover, diversified crop rotations, and integrated weed management (Reicosky and Saxena, 2007; Hobbs et al., 2008, Friedrich et al., 2012).
Climate change is a long-lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather pattern triggered by greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. It is caused by natural factors like continental drift, volcanoes, earth’s tilt, and ocean current or manmade factors like urbanization, industrialization, burning of fossil fuel, deforestation and faulty agricultural practices.
Agriculture is a fundamental human activity that depends intrinsically on natural processes, including soil fertility, water recycling, and pollination, and both nature and agriculture are increasingly suffering the negative impacts of climate change (EEA, 2019). At the same time, unsustainable agriculture also poses a major threat to biodiversity (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2014), negatively affects the state of our soil and water, and is an important contributor to climate change (Jia et al., 2019).
