Sustainable Agriculture Practices for Food Security and Environmental Protection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53573/rhimrj.2022.v09i04.006Keywords:
Sustainable agriculture, Food security, Environmental protection, Conservation agriculture, Integrated pest managementAbstract
Sustainable farming is also being considered to be a crucial tool in combating the two-pronged problems of meeting global food demand as population expands and climate changes. This paper explores the adoption and effect of some of these sustainable agricultural practices, in three agro-climatic zones and how they are used to increase food production, the livelihood of farmers as well as making agriculture sustainable. With the help of the mixed-methods approach, 150 farmers were studied by means of the survey, interviews, and observation in the fields, whereas secondary data were used and obtained through governmental and scientific sources. The results indicate conservation agriculture (60% adoption), integrated pest management (55) which adopted highest scores and, on an average, increase their yields by 25 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. Organic farming which is being practiced by 40 percent of the farmers reduces the consumption of chemical fertilizers as well as pesticides by as much as 70 percent and this proves to be very healthy to the environment. By implementing 50% of the respondents, sustainable water management practices will enhance drought resilience and efficiency in water-use by a factor of 20%. In addition, sustainable practices have positive impacts on the major food security aspects such as availability (35 percent), access (40 percent), utilization (30 percent), and stability (25 percent). The rate of satisfaction with the farmers was between 60 to 75 percent meaning that a wide range of people were satisfied with these approaches despite their obstacles such as limited awareness and shortage of resources. On the whole, the research indicates sustainable agriculture as one of the possible ways to secure resilient food systems and ecological maintenance. It demands an increase in policy support, education and investment to increase adoption to maximise both the benefits to the current generation, and the future generations.
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