eChapters

Introduction

The basic principle of conservation agriculture is to minimize soil disturbance in order to stabilize the soil structure, increase the fertility and balance the eco-system. Applied together, conservation agriculture practices – no tillage, permanent soil cover, use of crop cover and crop rotation, residue management- have complementary positive outcomes; no tillage maintains soil structure and biological activity; a permanent soil cover protects the soil surface from erosion and creates a stable and favourable micro-climate; cover crops and residue management provides organic matter, reduce soil erosion and improves soil fertility. Management of the soil water balance should be considered as a positive for cover crops and improvement of soil water infiltration, reduction in soil water evaporation, and decreasing water extraction from the soil would impact subsequent plant growth.

Abstract
 
Rice fallows are those land which remain uncultivated during rabi after harvesting of kharif paddy. Several reason for not taking second crops such as early withdrawal of monsoon rains leading to soil moisture stress at planting time of rabi crops, water logging and excessive moisture in the months of November and December, lack of appropriate varieties of winter crops for late planting, and socio-economic problems like stray cattle, blue bulls etc. India accounts for 11.65 million ha (79%) of the total rice fallows of South Asia. The rice fallows offer good scope for area expansion of chickpea. The residual soil moisture left in the soil after rice harvest is often sufficient to grow chickpea in low to medium land soil. It is also beneficial for chickpea where short duration paddy grown which vacate fields in September-October. In long duration paddy, chickpea could be grown under Utera cultivation (relay cropping) in the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Assam. Optimum plant population can only be ensuring in well levelled land, sufficient soil moisture and good seed under Paira (Utera) cropping. 

Increasing evidences over the past few decades indicate that significant changes in climate are occurring across various regions of the globe in the form of increased occurrence of extreme weather events. The significant cause to this sustained increase in climate variability, known as climate change has been a resultant of increased level of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. The reason for this increase is mainly ascribed to enhanced human activities such as industrialization, uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels, increased use of refrigerants and changed land use patterns and practices. Most significantly, the concentrations of GHGs like CO₂ has already crossed the 400 ppm mark, while other potential contributors like methane and nitrous oxide also show significant rise. As a result of the heat absorbing capacity of these gases, there has been a considerable rise in global mean temperatures, more so in the recent decade and more. The increase in mean air temperatures of the globe was 0.76^ºC during the past 100 years. This rate of increase has been higher during the past two decades and the recent period recorded the warmest years in sequence, the latest being the 2017.

Introduction

Sustainable agriculture is the production of food, fiber, or other plant or animal products using farming techniques (including agroforestry) that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. This form of agriculture enables us to produce healthy food without compromising future generations ability to do the same. Sustainable agriculture describes farming systems that are capable of maintaining their productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Such systems must be resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially competitive and environmentally sound. It is a system of agriculture that will maintain its productivity over the long run. Sustainable farming could be organic farming, biodynamic, perma-culture, agro-ecological systems and low input. The goal of sustainable agriculture is to minimize adverse impacts to the immediate and off-farm environments while providing a sustained level of production and profit. Sustainable agriculture is influenced by environmental climate, soil types and the various crops and types of farm practices employed (Olorunfemi, 2013).

Introduction

The vast majority of climate change impacts and the overall impact of climate change on rice production are likely to be negative. Overwhelming scientific research and evidence have shown that the climate is ongoing. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report Climate Change: Impact on Agriculture and Costs of Adaptation forecasts there will be an increase in the net price of rice between 32 and 37% as a result of climate change by 2050. They also show that yield losses in rice could be between 10 and 15%. While there is still ongoing scientific exploration into climate change, IRRI recognizes two universal trends predicted by all climate change models viz., temperatures will increase, resulting in more heat stress and rising sea levels and there will be more frequent and severe climate extremes.

Abstract 

The on-farm programme on SRI was carried out in the village Narayanpur under RLI command area in Karimpur II Block of Nadia district in the year 2016 during summer season. The soil of farmland is clay loam and situated having latitude of 23°54’26.5"Nlongitude 88°30’24.1"Eat an average elevation of 9.75 m above the mean sea level. Monsoon ceases during October and cool season sets in by November. The average rainfall of this region is about 1500 mm and normal monsoon breaks in the first week of June. Though water resources in this area are generally satisfactory and 90% of these resources are tapped form the ground water source through deep and shallow tube wells. However, due to faulty crop planning and lack of scientific water management approach, a significant portion of agricultural area is identified as gray zone from hydrological point of view. Even many tube wells are becoming dry due to over exploitation of valuable water from the lower depths of confined aquifers. Rice is predominant crop during kharif season becoming less profitable because of high input costs involved. Summer rice gave satisfactory yield but also profitable proposition because of more input cost and less farm gate prices.  

Introduction

There is a growing interest in the role of different types of land use systems in stabilizing the atmospheric CO₂ concentration and reducing the CO₂ emissions or on increasing the carbon sink of forestry and agroforestry systems. Forestry has been recognized as a means to reduce CO₂ emissions as well as enhancing carbon sinks. There is considerable interest to increase the carbon storage capacity of terrestrial vegetation through land-use practices such as afforestation, reforestation, and natural regeneration of forests, silvicultural systems and agroforestry (Brown 1996; Canadell and Raupach 2008). Agroforestry systems are very important given the area currently under agriculture, the number of people who depend on land for their livelihoods, and the need for integrating food production with environmental services (Garrity 2004; Makundi and Sathaye 2004).

The camel is an important animal component of the fragile desert eco-system. With its unique bio-physiological characteristics, the camel has become an icon of adaptation to challenging ways of living in arid and semi-arid regions. The proverbial Ship of Desert earned its epithet on account of its indispensability as a mode of transportation and draught power in desert but the utilities are many and are subject to continuous social and economic changes. The camel has played a significant role in civil law and order, defence and battles from the ancient times till date. The world famous Ganga-Risala of erstwhile Bikaner State was accepted as Imperial Service Troup and participated in World War I and II.

Introduction

India has a long tradition of agroforestry which is widely practiced in all ecological and geographical regions of the country. Traditional agroforestry systems are broadly based on indigenous knowledge and the species are selected as a part of the cultural patterns of the community. The farmers and land owners in different parts of the country integrate a variety of woody perennials in the crop and livestock production systems depending upon the agro-climatic conditions and local requirements.

Introduction

Agriculture has always been vulnerable to fragile environmental conditions of dry areas, where droughts of varying amplitude and frequency influenced by insufficient and uncertain rainfall are common features. Recent anthropogenic activities have accelerated the rate of green house gas (GHGs) accumulation in atmosphere influencing atmospheric temperature and local patterns of temperature and precipitation, which ultimately affect agricultural production and food securities. About 35.5 percent of the total world’s population resides in dry areas, which is facing the problems of land degradation and food securities.

Introduction

Homegardens are traditional agricultural systems, particularly common in the tropics characterized by a high plant diversity (Kumar and Nair 2004, 2006; Scales and Marsden 2008; Galluzzi et al. 2010), maintain high level of productivity, stability, sustainability and equitability (Soemarwoto and Conway 1992), serve as a refuge for wildlife (Perfecto and Vandermeer 2008), contributing significantly to the household diet by producing a large variety of food commodities (Kumar and Nair 2004; Wiersum 2006; Pulido et al. 2008; Kortright and Wakefield 2011; Kumar 2017; Kumar and Tripathi 2017), nutritional supplies (Mendez et al. 2001; Perrault and Coomes 2008; Vlkova et al. 2010; Balooni et al. 2014), supplementary cash income for owner (Huai et al. 2011; Arifin et al. 2012; Yang et al. 2014) and important spaces for transmission of cultural heritage (Galluzzi et al. 2010). Many native or endangered species can be found in homegardens (Albuquerque et al. 2005; Akinnifesi et al. 2010; Milow et al. 2013), and they are niches for domesticating semi-wild species (Akinnifesi et al. 2010). Plants grown, intentionally or unintentionally, in homegardens are important for household subsistence and economy.

Case Study    :    Indian Ocean Tsunami - 2004

The United Nations had declared the decade of 90s (1990-1999) as the International Decade for National Disaster Risk Reduction to enable developing countries to build up their capacity to cope up with disasters. The Government of India also set up a High Powered Committee (HPC), in August 1999, to review the preparedness and mitigation of natural and manmade disasters and recommend measures for strengthening the organisational structures and a comprehensive model plan for management of disasters at national, state and district level. The HPC after due deliberatons submitted the report in Feb. 2001. The HPC identified the disasters under the following types (categories) :

ABSTRACT
The annual accumulating organic wastes generated through milling, brewing and various other agro-industrial and agri-processing activities in India amount to about 500 MMT. Most of these contain three major structural biopolymers, viz., cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, a large proportion of which is carbohydrate and phenolic in nature. Massive accumulations of this kind of recalcitrant biomass not only deteriorate the environment, but also generate huge amount of potentially useful materials. Biological transformation has globally become increasingly popular among researchers and academicians in treating agricultural, industrial, organic and toxic wastes these days. About 60% by weight of the original pineapple fruit in forms of peeled skin, core, crown end, etc. resulting from the pineapple processing remains unutilised being discharged as waste, causing disposal and pollution owes. Of the 10% dry matter content of such waste, about 96% is organic and 4% is inorganic. Being rich in cellulose and hemicellulose, it can be a valuable resource for numerous value-added products by bioconverting it to valuable products, including bioenergy. Biomethane is one such energy resource that can be produced by valorizing pineapple wastes by employing various bioconversion technologies. This chapter focuses on the bioconverstion technologies to produce biomethane from pineapple wastes.

The UN designation of 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation aptly demonstrates growing gap between water supply and demand. These symptoms, which are already visible in a few regions around India, are soon to assume a national proportion and may become permanent feature of the water sector in the country, unless suitable policies are adopted quickly to manage water demand and supply at different levels. Water demand is growing fast due to a rapid population growth and economic activity, but water supply is not growing at the same rate because of serious ûnancial and physical limits for supply augmentation. Water resources developed at present amount to about 680 km³, which constitutes 61% of the utilizable potential of 1122 km³. However, it is difficult to add supply beyond this level due to heavy costs, environmental concerns and interstate water conûicts. In contrast, the total demand for water is projected to reach 784–843 km3 by 2025 and 973–1180 km³ by 2050 (Ministry of Water Resources, 2000). Recent research studies predict that, if the demand– supply gap continues to increase, nine basins that have over four-ûfths of the total water use in India will face physical water scarcity by 2050 (see Amarasinghe et al., 2007). For a heavily populated, monsoon-dependent and rural-based country, such as India, water scarcity of this magnitude will not only lead to serious water conûicts among sectors and regions, but also have a devastating effect on the food and livelihood fronts.

Introduction

Arid lands are among the world’s most fragile ecosystems, made more so by periodic droughts and increasing over exploitation of meagre resources. Arid and semi-arid lands cover around one-third of the world’s land area and are inhabited by about one billion people, a large proportion of whom are among the poorest in the world (Malagnoux et al. 2007). Arid environments are extremely diverse in terms of their land forms, soils, fauna, flora, water, and human activities. Aridity is usually expressed as ratio of mean annual precipitation (P) to the mean annual potential evapotranspiration (EPT) where potential evapotranspiration is calculated by method of Penman, taking into account atmospheric humidity, solar radiation, and wind speed. UNEP (1997) has recognized four main classes of aridity: hyper-arid (P/EPT < 0.03), arid (0.03 < P/EPT < 0.20), semi-arid (0.20 < P/EPT < 0.50), and dry sub-humid (0.50 < P/EPT < 0.65). Of the total land area of the world, the hyper-arid zone covers 4.2 %, the arid zone 14.6 %, and the semi-arid zone 12.2 % (FAO 1989). Therefore, almost one-third of the total area of the world is “arid land”. 

India has shown to the world that with 2.4 % of the land and 4 % of the water resources available at the global level, it can provide the food security to its millions. A record production of almost 265 million tonnes in 2013-14 is a testimony to the strides taken in the field of agriculture. However, the agriculture sector faces many new challenges in the future and climate change (global warming) is perhaps the most formidable one.

The new emerging demands of the relatively more-affluent Indian population, particularly its middle class, coupled with a net cultivated area unlikely to exceed 143 Mha in 2050 as well as an estimated rainfed agriculture to cover around 45 % of the net sown area, are further compounded with the harsh reality that highly productive agricultural land is being continuously lost out to the industry and urban sectors. How will the country meet the target of 400 Mt of food grain production is the mute question, in a situation where natural resource base is continuously degrading and climate change with its attendant impact is adversely affecting the agricultural production system (Singh, 2014).

Abstract

Present water scarcity is one of the most important world issues, and according to climate change projections, it will be more severe in future. In several parts of the world, freshwater crisis is largely due to increasing water consumption and pollution by rapidly increasing population and aspirations for economic development, but, attributed by and large to the climate change.  Climate change is considered as one of the most serious challenges confronting the present world and is expected to impact hydrological processes such as precipitation, and evapo-transpiration.  Increasing human activity and industrialization have led to a broad range of physical, chemical, and biological pollutants entering water bodies and affecting human lives. The groundwater crisis is reaching an alarming stage in many parts of the country. The indiscriminate and every now and then excessive use of groundwater has led to questions concerning its sustainability.  The sustainability of groundwater utilization must be assessed from an interdisciplinary point of view, where hydrology, ecology, geomorphology, and climatology play a very vital role. Further, water management strategies ought to be specified keeping aquifer-scales in mind. 

Abstract

The effect of watershed management programme was studied with introduction of new crop-cultivars including six rainy season crops namely direct seeded rice (drilled rice), transplanted rice, arhar, groundnut, sesamum and maize and two winter season crops namely mustard and wheat. The crop demonstration programme were undertaken for consecutive four years during 1988 to 1991 to utilize different land situations and for effective use of created irrigation potential at a drought prone tract of West Bengal (India). The results of the crop demonstration revealed that with selection of crops and its suitable varieties, adopting improved agronomic practices including scientific management of fertilizers and irrigation water, plant protection measures, the productivity of both land and crops markedly increased. The crop production strategy on the basis of land capability classification changed the land use, cropping pattern and crop intensity in the watershed area.

Abstract

Watershed development and management programme appeared to an effective and integrated approach to manage all natural resources like land, water, vegetation, animal and human for sustainable benefit and maintaining balanced eco-system. The main principle of the programme is based on starting from its planning, making design outlay, formulation of technical works, execution and development of land along with creation of water resources developing a hydrological unit at downstream making a common drainage points for the purpose of sustainable development of agriculture. The present case study dealt with the integrated water resources management with specific guidelines to the farmers for clear understanding of installing small-scale irrigation system based on their own resources in accordance with actual land situations as well as judicious use of irrigation with adoption of water-saving technology for sustainable crop production through watershed approach. The work was carried out under National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Area (NWDPRA), one out of 21 watersheds was identified for development of rainfed agriculture with mobilization of all natural resources like soil-plant-water-animal-human to uplift socio-economic status of the farmers.