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Abstract
Agriculture
is sustainable when it nourishes people and restores and protects the land,
air, water and other living creatures. It is sustainable when it mitigates
and is resilient to climate change and provides livelihoods and dignity for
farmers, workers and rural communities. Sustainable agriculture provides a
potential solution to enable agricultural systems to feed a growing
population while successfully operating within the changing environmental
conditions.
Demand of increase in food production to feed the rapidly growing global
population has pose serious threat to the agricultural sustainability.
Climate change also offers serious challenge to global food security
situation as it will negatively affect agricultural yields, particularly in
low income countries. The increased agricultural intensification to produce
more food from the existing cropland has put the environmental sustainability
at stake due to increased emissions, loss of biodiversity, soil health, water
quality, increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Soils are home
to more than 25 percent of the earth's total biodiversity and supports life
on land and water, nutrient cycling and retention, food production, pollution
remediation, and climate regulation. The evidence demonstrates that multiple
sustainability goals can be simultaneously addressed when soil biota are put
at the center of land management assessments; this is because the activity
and interactions of soil organisms are intimately tied to multiple processes
that ecosystems and society rely on.
Water pollution from agriculture has direct negative impacts on human health;
for example, the well-known blue-baby syndrome in which high level of nitrate
in water can cause methaemoglobinemia – a potentially fatal illness – in
infants. Pesticide accumulation in water and food chain, with demonstrated
ill effects on humans, has led to widespread banning of certain
broad-spectrum and persistent pesticides (such as DDT and many
organophosphates), but such pesticides are still used in poor countries,
causing chronic health problems. Aquatic ecosystems are also affected by
agricultural pollution; for example, eutrophication due to the accumulation
of nutrients in lakes and coastal waters has impacts on biodiversity and fisheries.
Water-quality degradation may also have severe direct impacts on productive
activities, including agriculture. During last few decades, over exploitation
of natural resources has led to degradation and climate change. Presently
land degradation in India is to the extent of 104.2 m ha which comprise 74.21
m ha due to soil erosion, 6.73 m ha due to soil salinity and 10.72 m ha due
to soil acidity. About 32-84 percent of ground water used for irrigation is
either saline or brackish. These all have affected crop productivity and,
thus, their management is imperative for sustainability in agriculture. There
is a need to develop a multidimensional approach for agriculture
sustainability without damaging social, economic and environmental integrity.
Climate change, a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns
for an extended period, is caused by natural factors such as variations in
solar radiation, and human activities. Climate change is expected to affect
the frequency, distribution, intensity, and location of extreme events, and
thus will affect the sustainability of agriculture. The studies on climate
change impacts and adaptation strategies are becoming major areas of
scientific concern and the results of published research on climate change
reveal a regional specificity that is difficult to be extrapolated on a
global scale to predict the response of climate change across ecosystems. In
recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the risks associated
with climate change, which will increase uncertainty with respect to food
production and environmental security. In this regard, management and
adaptation strategies to mitigate the climate change effects are direly
needed to ensure stable yields in the world and food security.
As the world faces increased climate and environmental stresses and farmers
continue to fight for economic viability, innovations and technological
solutions that produce and distribute food sustainably are becoming
important. New methods and interventions that enable farmers to meet the
requirements of growing population, while also curtailing waste, optimizing
the use of finite resources, reducing CO2 emissions and ensuring
economic viability are critical to building a resilient and sustainable
agriculture production system. However, there is no template or set of
procedures easily embraced to assure a sustainable agricultural system.
Success depends upon location, scale, types of production and the objectives
of the farmer. However, it is the acute set of issues and the opportunities
that can be captured by getting it right that has inspired so many to embrace
sustainable agriculture. To this end, millions of practitioners, scientists
and other interested parties are actively experimenting, collaborating and
applying innovative approaches.
This Issue of Journal of Environmental Biology (JEB) covers the comprehensive
advancing innovations, latest trends and developments in agricultural and
food systems sustainability under climate change scenario. The compilation of
papers include various issues of global concern as well as different regions
of the country.
I would like to thank the authors who have contributed their valuable
research works for publication in this issue and appreciate their efforts for
patiently revising their papers to meet the suggestions of reviewers and
responding to the requirement of the journal. I am very thankful to all the
reviewers of this issue for critically evaluating the manuscripts and
providing their valuable input for the technical improvement of each
manuscript.
I express my sincere gratitude to Dr. R.C. Dalela, the Editor-in-Chief of JEB
for accepting the invitation for publication of these research papers. I also
acknowledge the immense and tireless efforts of Dr. Wajid Hasan, Associate
Editor & Entomologist, KVK, Jehanabad, Bihar Agricultural University,
Sabour, Bihar and Dr. Purnima Raizada, Associate Editor & Assistant
Scientist, JEB, Lucknow, UP, India for critical review and editing of this
issue. The co-operation of the Editorial Office of JEB right from the
beginning to the final publication is highly appreciated.
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