Compatible package-based agriculture systems: an urgent need for agro-ecological balance and climate change adaptation

Besides contributing majorly in the growth of a country, agriculture is one of the severely affected sectors at present. Several modifications and adaptations are being made in agricultural practices to cope-up with the declining soil fertility and changing climate scenarios across the world. However, the development and adoption of a single agricultural practice may not help in the holistic mitigation of the impacts of climate change and may result in economic vulnerability to farmers. Therefore, it is high time to develop and recommend a group of agricultural practices i.e., package-based agriculture system having some compatibility for one another in the long term. In this article, a viewpoint has been given on some emergent agronomic practices adopted in the tropical agro-ecosystems which have potential to be developed as compatible agricultural package in combination. Moreover, we also emphasized on exploring some key indicators/environmental factors to assess the compatibility of different agronomic practices. For identifying the research transition from single to combined agricultural practices, a bibliometric analysis was performed by using conservation agriculture (CA), the system of rice intensification (SRI), organic agriculture and soil (biochar) amendment as the major agronomic practices being used for improving agro-ecological services such as improving nutrient cycling, soil fertility and crop productivity as well as climate change mitigation. The results revealed that scientific communities are now paying attention to exploring the role of combined agricultural practices for agro-ecological balance and climate change adaptation. Moreover, the limitations of the adoption of agronomic packages under different agro-climatic zones have also been highlighted. The recommendations of the study would further help the environmental decision-makers to develop potential measures for climate change mitigation without compromising the agro-ecological balance. (C) Higher Education Press 2021

Automated summary

Agriculture plays a vital role in a country's growth, but it is also severely affected currently. In order to cope with declining soil fertility and changing climate, there is a need to develop package-based agriculture systems and explore the compatibility of different agronomic practices.