Compatible package-based agriculture systems: an urgent need for agro-ecological balance and climate change adaptation

Abstract

Besides contributing majorly in the growth of a country, agriculture is one of the severely affected sectors at present. Several modifications and adaptations are being made in agricultural practices to cope-up with the declining soil fertility and changing climate scenarios across the world. However, the development and adoption of a single agricultural practice may not help in the holistic mitigation of the impacts of climate change and may result in economic vulnerability to farmers. Therefore, it is high time to develop and recommend a group of agricultural practices i.e., package-based agriculture system having some compatibility for one another in the long term. In this article, a viewpoint has been given on some emergent agronomic practices adopted in the tropical agroecosystems which have potential to be developed as compatible agricultural package in combination. Moreover, we also emphasized on exploring some key indicators/environmental factors to assess the compatibility of different agronomic practices. For identifying the research transition from single to combined agricultural practices, a bibliometric analysis was performed by using conservation agriculture (CA), the system of rice intensification (SRI), organic agriculture and soil (biochar) amendment as the major agronomic practices being used for improving agroecological services such as improving nutrient cycling, soil fertility and crop productivity as well as climate change mitigation. The results revealed that scientific communities are now paying attention to exploring the role of combined agricultural practices for agro-ecological balance and climate change adaptation. Moreover, the limitations of the adoption of agronomic packages under different agro-climatic zones have also been highlighted. The recommendations of the study would further help the environmental decision-makers to develop potential measures for climate change mitigation without compromising the agro-ecological balance.

Agro-ecological intensification for climate change adaptation: Tales on soil and water management practices of smallholder farmers in rural Ghana

“…Therefore, the existence and formation of farmers' associations such as village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) and irrigation farmers' associations serve as an avenue for knowledge transfer for effective ecological intensi cation agricultural practices [70,61]. Key philosophies of AEI include diversity of factors including increase in soil fertility and quality, maintaining biological diversity and structure of the soil [75]. They reiterated that the AEI is measured based on the yields of crops and the general socioeconomic status of smallholder farmers.…”

Development of a Potentially New Algaecide for Controlling Harmful Cyanobacteria Blooms Which is Ecologically Safe and Selective

“…4−6 This trend is being intensified by the increase in global warming. 7 A recent study predicted that the average number of days for HCBs would increase from about 7 days per water body per year now to 16−23 days in 2050 and 18−39 days in 2090. This prediction was made based on climate alteration projections from five global circulation models coupling water quantity and quality.…”

“…Cyanobacteria are known as ancient oxygen-evolving prokaryotes capable of energy collection via photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria, therefore, serve a fundamentally critical part in the supply of oxygen and carbon dioxide sequestration. − However, because of the overnutrition from the growth of the human population and urbanization, as well as from the expansion of agriculture and industry, some bloom-forming cyanobacteria multiply to reach high biomass, thus forming harmful cyanobacterial algal blooms (HCBs) and producing hazardous toxins. − This trend is being intensified by the increase in global warming . A recent study predicted that the average number of days for HCBs would increase from about 7 days per water body per year now to 16–23 days in 2050 and 18–39 days in 2090.…”

Development of a machine‐learning model to identify the impacts of pesticides characteristics on soil microbial communities from high‐throughput sequencing data

“…This has resulted in serious contamination of soil ecosystems (Zhang, 2018). Thereupon it is a great challenge to balance the ever‐increasing demands of the growing world population and acceptable environmental impacts, as affected by increasingly variable and increasingly extreme climate conditions (Pimentel & Burgess, 2013; Singh et al, 2022; Vörösmarty et al, 2000). It is therefore of paramount imperative for soil ecosystems to optimize inputs (mineral and organic fertilizers, pesticides) with minimal impact on humans, animals and the ecosystem.…”