Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
Farmers of fragile agro-ecosystems have developed some unique integrated farming systems, to make their farms more resilient to factors like changing climatic conditions, declining soil fertility levels and decreasing farm income. While many NGOs have promoted such improved systems, it is time to reckon these systems as units of planning …
Resource-poor farmers, living in marginal environments and more directly dependent on local natural resources, have developed location specific agricultural knowledge systems that help them to adapt to climatic variability. In this research, we documented farmers’ perceptions of climatic variability and related adaptive practices in three selected hamlets of Azamgarh district …
Pesticides pose serious threats to both human health and the environment. In Europe, farmers are encouraged to reduce their use, and in France a recent environmental policy fixed a target of halving the pesticide use by 2018. Organic and integrated cropping systems have been proposed as possible solutions for reducing …
SRI practice which originated in Madagascar, is spreading far and wide as farmers are finding it beneficial. There are innovations being tried out in different soil conditions too. For example, farmers of Sindanur taluk in Karnataka with black cotton soils sow 5 kgs paddy mixed with 20 kgs of fine …
Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture – Adaptation and mitigation to climate change by Raidu. D.V, CMSA at CSE Climate change adaptation workshop: Towards Climate Resilient Communities in South Asia: Emerging Policies and Practices (New Delhi, December 13 - 14, 2012).
Balancing productivity, profitability, and environmental health is a key challenge for agricultural sustainability. Most crop production systems in the United States are characterized by low species and management diversity, high use of fossil energy and agrichemicals, and large negative impacts on the environment. We hypothesized that cropping system diversification would …
Conservation agriculture (CA) is an agricultural management practice in which there is minimum soil disturbance, retention of residue for soil cover and rotation of major crops. In contrast, soil in traditional agriculture is intensively tilled to prepare a fine and well-pulverized seedbed. Soil tillage or land preparation is the most …
This report discusses the need to balance short-term water productivity gains, particularly in agriculture, with water flows’ long-term role in maintaining sustainable landscape ecosystem services and supporting human well-being. Water is under increasing pressure for supporting both various functions in society whilst sustaining healthy ecosystem services in landscapes, and there …
Our ability to manage gene flow within traditional agroecosystems and their repercussions requires understanding the biology of crops, including farming practices' role in crop ecology. That these practices' effects on crop population genetics have not been quantified bespeaks lack of an appropriate analytical framework. We use a model that construes …
For centuries, traditional agricultural systems have contributed to food and livelihood security throughout the world. Recognizing the ecological legacy in the traditional agricultural systems may help us develop novel sustainable agriculture. We examine how rice–fish coculture (RF), which has been designated a “globally important agricultural heritage system,” has been maintained …
“My major work on the farm is just picking the harvest,” says Raghava with a straight face. It takes some time for the fact to sink in that this young farmer is not joking. One begins to believe him only after visiting his coconut plantation in village Mallanayakanahalli in Karnataka’s …
The combined effects of climate change, energy scarcity, and water paucity require that we radically rethink our agricultural systems. Countries can and must reorient their agricultural systems toward modes of production that are not only highly productive, but also highly sustainable. Following the 2008 global food price crisis, many developing …
Jason Clay identifies eight steps that, taken together, could enable farming to feed 10 billion people and keep Earth habitable. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7356/full/475287a.html
Against the current challenges to enhance food security worldwide, the publication aims at illustrating the importance of healthy ecosystems for the provisioning of key services that contribute to food security. Such ecosystem services are water provisioning and food production. In this regard the publication will provide an overview of the …
The impacts of tobacco cultivation on traditional agro-practices and knowledge, food security, agro-biodiversity and socio-economic conditions of a remote hilly tribal community of Bangladesh were investigated. Sixty per cent households were found practicing shifting cultivation compared with 10 yrs back changing local food availability. Local crop varieties were being lost …
It’s afternoon and wisps of clouds have already enveloped the Sora Muni shrine that keeps watch over Sri Lanka’s Horton Plains massif. Here, Tamil workers of the Thotulagalla tea estate in Haputale offer a sacrificial goat to the deity following the annual pruning of tea bushes. It is ironic to …
Climate changes will have an impact on food production and will require costly adaptive responses. Adapting to a changing environment will be particularly challenging in sub-Saharan Africa where climate change is expected to have a major impact. However, one important phenomenon that is often overlooked and is poorly documented is …
Farming like any profession requires dedication, understanding, constant learning and application of new ideas and above all a desire to view it as a part of the greater ecosystem. Here is a case of a young farmer who has nurtured his farm with utmost care and sensitivity to the environment.
Only when farming is based upon "natural principles" can it be truly sustainable. Ecological farming is based on nurturing and nourishing the soils. Emphasizing soil conservation and building up organic matter are key to maintain these natural ecological balances in crop ecosystems. Mojo plantation is one such attempt.
