Ecological Principle and

Practices of Sustainable
Agriculture
Roll Number: 01-10
“
Sustainability is no longer about
doing less harm. It’s about doing
more good.”

—Jochen zeitz
 Sustainable Agriculture
The Management and conservation of the natural
resources base and the orientation of technological
and institutional changes in such a manner as to
ensure the attainment and continued satisfaction of
human need for present and future generation.

-FAO
Principles and Practices
Principles
Efficiency Self-sufficiency

Diversity Self-regulation

Resiliency
1. Efficiency
● Energy Efficient.

Eg: Use of solar radiation

● Nutrient Cycling.

Eg: Less than 50% of nitrogen fertilizer added globally to cropland is converted into
harvested product and rest is lost to environment causing major environmental problems.

● Lowering the use of external resources, cost and negative impact on

environment by enhancing biological process and recycling biomass,
nutrient and water.
2. Diversity
● Highly diverse.

Eg: Agroforestry system

● Intercropping and crop rotation practices.

● Reduces risk of failure.

Eg: Crop and animal diversity reduces the risk of failure in the face
of climate change.

● Improved nutritional diversification.

3. Resiliency
● Greater capacity to recover from disturbance including extreme weather
event such as drought & to resist pest and disease attack.

● By reducing dependence on external inputs, it can reduce producer’s

vulnerability to economic loss.

● Ecological and socio-economic resilience.

4. Self-Sufficiency

● Consequence of efficiency and diversity.

● Promote healthy food production and consumption.

It can help realize the potential of territories to sustain people. (Traditional

varieties of crop)
5. Self-regulation

Because of great diversity of organism outbreak (or huge population

increase) of disease or insects that severely damage plant or animal are
uncommon. In addition plant have a number of defense mechanism that help
them protect from attack.

Eg: Marigold protect tomato plant from whitefly through the emission of airborne
limonene.
Practices of SA
i. Crop Rotation and embracing diversity

ii. Cover crops

iii. Conservational tillage

iv. Integrated pest management (IPM)

v. Integration of livestock

vi. Agroforestry practices

vii. Managing whole system and landscape

viii. Integrated Nutrient Management (INM)

i. Crop Rotation and embracing diversity

● Inter-cropping

Eg: Rice + Pigeon Pea

Maize + cowpea

● Crop rotation

Eg: Rice – Mustard – Chickpea

● Healthier soil and improved pest control

Eg: Sesamum in cauliflower and cabbage (For DBM)

ii. Cover crops

● Protect and build soil health.

● Maintain soil temperature by reducing evapo-transpiration.

● Prevent soil erosion and replenish soil nutrient.

● Keep weed in check.

● Crop like clover, chickpea, vetch etc are, used as cover crop.
iii. Conservational tillage

● Reduce erosion due to less disturbance to soil.

● Improve soil health as reduced mechanical disturbance results in

less destruction of soil organism and their habitat.

● Conservation tillage system increase porosity, increase

infiltration and soil water storage capacity.

● Improve air quality due to less erosion of soil by wind.

● Economic benefit and lower production cost.

iv. Integrated pest management (IPM)

● Mechanical, biological, cultural control are applied systematically to

control pest population by minimizing use of chemicals.

● Biological: Predator (Tiger beetle for controlling Rice Gundi Bug),

Parasitoid (Trichogrammatidae feeds on eggs of Chilo partellus).

● Cultural: Crop rotation, trap crop, crop diversification.

● Mechanical: Trench digging, mulching, hand picking, water barrier.

● Physical: Manipulation of temperature, moisture, light and sound.

v. Integrated nutrient management (INM)

● Maintenance of soil fertility and of plant nutrient supply at an

optimum level for sustaining the desired productivity through
optimization of benefit from all possible sources of organic,
inorganic and biological components in integrated manner.

● Increases water use efficiency.

● Economizing fertilizer use.

● Improve and sustain soil health.

vi. Integration of livestock

● Risk reduction through farm diversification.

● Low pasture innovation cost.

● Improve soil organic matter and biological activities which in

turn reduces the cost of external input.

● Maximum utilization of marginal and low productive land.

vii. Agroforestry practices

● Food security by restoring farm soil fertility for food crop.

● Empowerment to female farmer and other less advantaged rural

residence.

● Augmenting accessibility to medicinal tress for common and

complex resources.

● Poverty control through increased income by higher production

of agroforestry product for home consumption and market.
viii. Managing whole system and landscape

Sustainable farms treats uncultivated or less intensively cultivated

area, such as riparian buffers or stripe as integral to the farm, -valued
for their role in controlling erosion, and supporting pollinator and
other diversity.
“
With wrong farming method, we
turn fertile land into desert. Unless
we go back to organic farming and
save the soil there is no future ”

- Sadhguru
Thank You