Sustainable agricultural practices involve a variety of approaches. The most important approached for sustainable agriculture development is crop diversification. It allowing the farmers to employ biological cycles to minimize inputs, conserve the resource base, maximize yields and also reduce the risk due to ecological and environmental factors. It serves as an important opportunity to augment income and employment generation for rural communities. Crop diversification promotes the interaction of beneficial soil bacteria, interrupts the disease cycle, and reduces the quantity of weeds. Crop diversification boosts land-use efficiency and crop output by improving the physical and chemical qualities of soil. Crop diversification shows a lot of scope to alleviating the problems such as resurgence of insects-pests and weeds, soil degradation, environmental pollution, soil salinity, decline farm profit and climate change. Crop diversification through crop intensification system enhanced the net returns, B:C ratio, and overall system productivity of a farm. In order to achieve the benefits of crop diversification farmers are shifting from low value low yielding crops to high value high yielding crops. Thus, crop diversification has the sound capacity for achieving the goal of nutritional security, income growth, food security, employment generation and sustainable agriculture development.

Due to many challenges (i.e. climate change, energy, water and land shortage, high demands on food, land grabbing, etc.), agriculture production potential is expected to be seriously affected; thus, increasing food insecurity and hunger in many already affected regions (especially in Africa). In this context, sustainable agriculture is highly recommended as an eco-system approach where soil, water, plants, environment and living organisms live in harmony. Innovative technologies and research should be developed to ensure sustainable agriculture and productivity using modern irrigation systems, improved varieties, improved soil quality, etc. In the meantime, the preservation of natural environment should be based on resource conservation technologies and best management practices. Sustainable Agricultural Development, not only raises the serious ethical and social issues underlying these huge environmental problems, but also aims at presenting successful experiences from all over the world in relation with sustainable farming, sustainable management of water and land resources, and innovative processes in livestock production. It also aims at providing inputs to decision making processes and encouraging the transfer of relevant know-how, technologies and expertise to different countries where similar agro-climatic conditions may exist; thus saving precious resources and promoting sustainable agricultural development as a relevant approach to tackle the food security challenge. Finally, this book focuses on the paradigmatic and policy dimensions and call for an innovative approach by analyzing the key themes in a complex and interrelated manner.

This new volume looks at the evolution and challenges of sustainable agriculture, a field that is growing in use and popularity, discussing some of the important ideas, practices, and policies that are essential to an effective sustainable agriculture strategy. The book features 25 chapters written by experts in crop improvement, natural resource management, crop protection, social sciences, and product development. The volume provides a good understanding of the use of sustainable agriculture and the sustainable management of agri-horticultural crops, focusing on eco-friendly approaches, such as the utilization of waste materials. Topics include ecofriendly plant protection measures, climate change and natural resource management, tools to mitigate the effect of extreme weather events, agrochemical research and regulation, soil carbon sequestration, water and nutrient management in agricultural systems, and more. Key features: Discusses sustainable agriculture within the framework of recent challenges in agriculture Looks at the development and diversification of crops and cultural practices to enhance biological and economic stability Discusses innovative nanotechnologies in research and production technologies Highlights the development of new varieties in agri-horticultural crops Discusses use of recent technologies for soil–plant–microbe–environment interactions.

Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.

The book covers the latest development in the biosciences field covering key topics in crop improvement including ‘omic approaches to improving sustainable crop production, advancement in marker technology, strategies in genetic manipulation, crop quality and sustainability and plant microbe interaction detailing on proven technologies to address critical issue for agricultural sustainability which are beneficial for researchers and students. The book also includes aspects of preserving crops after harvest as this is a key factor in promoting sustainable crop quality in terms of addressing waste, choosing the appropriate packaging and moving crops through the food and industrial supply chain. An important strategy to overcome the challenges in providing food for the world population in a sustainable manner is through concerted efforts by crop scientists to embrace new technologies in increasing yield, quality and improving food safety while minimizing adverse environmental impact of the agricultural activities. Most of the proven molecular and genetic technologies in crop science have been tested and verified in model plants such as Arabidopsis and tomato. The technologies, when deployed on various plant species of importance for human nutrition and industrial applications, including cereals, vegetables, fruits, herbs, fibre and oil crops, face many challenges, not only due to their longer life cycle but many other physiological and environmental factors affecting yield and quality of plant products. Furthermore, major impacts on crop production due to catastrophic diseases and global climate change needs urgent and innovative solutions. Therefore a systematic approach, employing various leading-edge technologies that enable the functional elucidation of key pathway genes via ‘omics tools, genome wide association with desired phenotypes and development of cost effective and practicable molecular tools for selection, is vital. The International Conference on Crop Improvement was held to address these and other pressing issues. This volume summarizes the keynote presentations from the meeting and highlights addition discussions that are critical to crop improvement in a challenging time.

This volume is a ready reference on sustainable agriculture and reinforce the understanding for its utilization to develop environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems. It describes ecological sustainability of farming systems, present innovations for improving efficiency in the use of resources for sustainable agriculture and propose technological options and new areas of research in this very important area of agriculture.

The book offers a rich toolkit of relevant, adoptable ecosystem-based practices that can help the world's 500 million smallholder farm families achieve higher productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency while enhancing natural capital.