Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment

Balanced food security without compromising the ecosystem services is the dire need under the scenario of increasing global human population, declining reserves of natural resources and in the face of severe climate change induced uncertainty to environment and human health. In practice, both environmental and public health cannot be solved separately. Implementing sustainable agricultural practices can help to attain this through working in harmony with the natural processes to promote resilience of the agroecosystem for sustained production and the nourishment of the growing population. Thus, by delivering sustainable nutrition, sustainable agriculture makes the bridge between environmental and public health and aids towards developing a greener economy. Hence, the process of sustainable agriculture is discussed under both environmental and economic principles. Environmental criterion concern with technology protection or enhancing the farm resource base and thus improving soil productivity in terms of not only the quantity; but the quality while economic criterion is the technology meeting the farmer’s production goals and is profitable. Satisfaction of these two criteria demands specific knowledge on the linkages between environmental degradation and its potential pathways to marginalize. Use of non-labour variable inputs needs to be intensified that enhance soil fertility, pest management (such as inorganic and organic fertilizers, use of integrated pest management strategies) to safeguard the quality of the produce. To achieve this, cooperation from farmers and other rural community members is required in all processes of problem analysis, and technology development, adaptation and extension. A greater productive use of local knowledge and practices, including innovative approaches in agriculture is the urgent need while using sustainable agriculture for climate change, human and environmental health. Above all, existence of a robust policy and good institutional system to execute plays vital role for successful use of sustainable agriculture for healthy environment and climate resilience. Sustainable agriculture integrates the concept of continuing improvement in agriculture productivity, profitability and competitiveness by sustainable management of natural resources. One the eve of declining natural resources, changing climate and increasing food demands, the shift from the existing intensive production system to a more sustainable system needs to be an evolving and continuing process. In the proposed book, leading researchers in the field describe the principles, and synthesize recent advances and developments in sustainable agriculture research. This book is a ready reference on sustainability, sustainable agriculture and environment, and reinforces the understanding for its utilization to develop environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems. The book describes the relationship of agriculture, society, nature and the environment; sustainable agriculture and sustainable development goals, management of biophysical resources for sustainable food and environment; traditional knowledge and innovative options; social and policy aspects of sustainable agriculture and environment

Sustainability, sustainable agriculture, and the environment

Sustainability has always been the paradigm of sustainable agriculture that has played and still plays a decisive role in the conversion of unsustainable management models and practices, while at the same time responding to the needs of a living planet despite the constant growth of the population. For these ambitious goals, the challenges of equity and efficiency as fundamental components must also aim to reduce the gap for healthy eating in order to live in a healthier environment. Therefore, Sustainability, Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment, represent the vertices of a strictly interconnected system on which the progress acquired has shown widespread criticalities at a global level, in particular in the translation from theoretical principles to the practices of application, monitoring and evaluation of results. The impact of climate change for which the Sustainability of Agriculture represents an important part of the solutions available in the short and medium term must be taken into high consideration on these aspects. In this perspective, the advanced study and educational program in the continuous search for innovations to be transferred to direct operators of Agriculture appear as the most important need on which to turn the attention of technical and political decision-makers, identifying coordinated multidisciplinary actions and multistakeholder approaches to support of environmental compliance programs and measures

Selection of rice genotypes for lower methane emission

Methane emission from paddy fields can vary with rice cultivars, growth stages of the rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) and environmental conditions. Efforts are being made to study methane emission from rice paddies in different ways. In particular, selection of rice cultivars that emit less methane is practical because it does not change farmer practices. Assam state is a rice-growing state of the northeastern part of India. Assam state is very rich in the rice genepool. Here, we screened rice cultivars popularly grown during the monsoon season of Assam. Five traditional cultivars and five high-yield modern cultivars were grown in the field. Methane emission was measured for the whole crop-growing season. Crop growth parameters including plant height, tiller number, leaf number, plant biomass, leaf area index and grain yield were recorded. Soil parameters such as soil temperature, soil pH and soil organic carbon were also recorded. Our results show that the methane emission of rice cultivars ranged from 8.83 g m$^{-2 }$ to 18.63 g m$^{-2}$ over three and a half months. Variety IR 36 was found to emit the least methane amongst all the cultivars. Five cultivars were identified as high methane-emitting cultivars ($>$15 g m$^{-2})$. Methane flux values of the crop-growing season exhibited a positive correlation with leaf number, tiller number and leaf area index. Traditional rice cultivars with profuse vegetative growth recorded higher methane flux values compared with high-yielding varieties. This study clearly suggests the possibility of reducing methane emission from the wetland rice ecosystem through appropriate selection of rice cultivars to achieve an economically feasible and technically sound mitigation option of methane emission from farmers' fields

Morphological responses of pulse (Vigna spp.) crops to soil water deficit

The present experiment was conducted with two common pulse crops namely black gram (Vigna mungo L.) and green gram (Vigna radiata L.) with the objective to study the morpho-physiological changes that took place in response to low moisture stress. Parameters such as plant height, leaf number, leaf area and pod number were studied under moisture stress condition as well as subsequent recovery stages. At harvest, yields of these two crops were recorded and various yield indexes like drought susceptibility index, drought tolerance index, mean and productivity rate were calculated. The study revealed that moisture stress has a significant impact on all these parameters in both crops. The effect was more significant in green gram compared to black gram. From the findings it is observed that moisture stress during flowering stage is detrimental for yield of the pulse crops and re-watering does not have a significant impact on yield improvement. Black gram variety T9 and green gram variety Pratap were identified as drought-tolerant varieties

Impact of N fertilization on C balance and soil quality in maize-dhaincha cropping sequence

Excess N fertilization to achieve high crop yield is a grand old practice in developing countries. However, inorganic nutrient sources considerably replenish soil organic C (SOC). In the present study, we applied six different levels of N keeping P and K constant for maize, grown under maize (Zea mays) - dhaincha (Sesbania aculeata) cropping sequence. We recorded high crop yield, profuse root biomass and SOC stock with increasing N fertilization. Moreover, water holding capacity, microbial biomass carbon and particulate organic carbon improved significantly with increasing levels of N. Conversely, bulk density, mineral associated organic carbon and pH decreased with increasing application of inorganic N. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was recorded between root biomass and soil organic carbon. A study of the sensitivity index showed particulate organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon to be good indicators of nutrient management practices. Dhaincha cultivation accelerated C and N mineralization in soil, which is reflected in increased biomass and crop yield. Hence, we conclude that inorganic N fertilization rate (7280 kg ha-1) in maize-dhaincha cropping sequence successfully maintains the SOC balance and optimize N stock in soil