Sustainable agricultural practices in South Asia: A comprehensive review

Abstract

Overpopulation is a root cause that impedes food production and supply to the continuously growing population. Since agriculture is the primary source of food production, producers are inclined towards various unsustainable agriculture practices contributing to climate change. Therefore, sustainable agricultural practices have gained the spotlight to reduce the risk of climate change and increase crop yields. Specifically, South Asian countries take a significant hit with respect to agriculture and climate change because much of the population is earning their livelihood through agriculture. We conducted a comprehensive review to map different sustainable agriculture practices and understand how these practices impact climate change, the livelihood of farmers, and food security in South Asia. A systematic search carried out on PubMed (NCBI) and Scopus (Elsevier), resulted in the inclusion of 42 articles for analysis. The review identified agroforestry and organic farming as the most commonly used practices in the South Asian region, followed by zero tillage practices, use of hybrid seeds, residue and integrated pest management, and cropping systems. These sustainable agriculture practices ensure that sufficient food can be produced to feed the rising population with efficient use of natural resources. In addition, sustainable agriculture gains economic profitability for farmers and improved employment opportunities for women. Since sustainable agricultural practices are the best way forward, we recommend encouraging it by incentivizing the farmers. Due to contextual variations, future research can focus on identifying best practices for specific contexts.