An urgent need for sustainable thinking in agriculture – An Indian scenario

• Published in: Ecological indicators 2016-08, Vol.67, p.611-622
• Main Authors: Srivastava, Pratap, Singh, Rishikesh, Tripathi, Sachchidanand, Raghubanshi, Akhilesh Singh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agricultural soils; agroecosystems; Biodiversity; climate; Ecological agriculture; energy; global change; Green Revolution; Interaction; labor; learning; Organic farming; socioeconomics; soil management; stakeholders; subsidies; sustainable agriculture
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.03.015

•The interaction amongst ecosystem components is ignored in present agro-management.•Ecological agriculture may potentially restore soil efficiency and multi-functionality.•Commercialization of ecological agriculture may potentially feed the growing population.•Internalization of control within the agro-ecosystem through management is required.•Integrative variables as surrogate can be used to indirectly manage interactions. This article emphasizes on the present urgent need to think in “Holistic Dimensions” to achieve a sustainable agro-ecosystem. In this respect, the complex network of dynamic interactions in the agro-ecosystem soil at spatiotemporal dimensions holds crucial importance. It reflects the inherent tendency of dynamic ecosystems to achieve a more efficient state successively through improved interactions. The short-sighted and inefficient agro-management during Green Revolution decades has been detrimental to these interactions in agricultural soils, which is widely evident by its boomerang effects (i.e. declining efficiency, productivity and multi-functionality). It jeopardized the internal regulation in our agro-ecosystem's functioning by erosion of efficiency building interactions among biotic and abiotic components. Therefore, a bottom-up as well as top-down approach in the soil management is required to restore and sustain the unaccounted but indispensible ecological subsidies for sustainable agriculture and development, globally. We propose a “commercial ecological agriculture” which should be an amalgamation of sustainable agricultural practices and supported by a progressive co-ordination among all the stakeholders via participatory learning and adaptation with time. It should be least-disturbing, resilience-building, resource (i.e. energy and nutrient) use efficient, site-specific, labor and skill-intensive, low-input, diversified and integrated, and intimately harmonized with nature. It may potentially provide us agricultural sustainability with time in real sense. It would be primarily based on management of interactions indirectly through identification of integrative variables as surrogate, which may help to achieve internal regulation or self-reliance in agroecosystems. Further, it would be helpful to eliminate the widening socio-economic divide and in mitigation of global change in environment (i.e. air, water and soil) and climate. Additionally, it would improve and restore the multifaceted potential of soil, thus quality and