If you had to choose, which would you prefer to eat: food that is grown more naturally or food that is enhanced by spraying it with pesticides or applying chemical fertilizers? Most people would prefer natural food that is free of chemicals and artificial enhancements. Unfortunately, the majority of the food we consume is produced using industrialized agriculture, which is a type of agriculture where large quantities of crops and livestock are produced through industrial techniques for the purpose of sale. This type of agriculture relies heavily on a variety of chemicals and artificial enhancements, such as pesticides, fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms. This type of agriculture also uses a large number of fossil fuels and large machines to manage the farmland. Although industrialized agriculture has made it possible to produce large quantities of food, due to the negative aspects of this technique, there has been a shift towards sustainable agriculture.

There are many farming strategies that are used that help make agriculture more sustainable. Some of the most common techniques include growing plants that can create their own nutrients to reduce the use of fertilizers and rotating crops in fields, which minimizes pesticide use because the crops are changing frequently. Another common technique is mixing crops, which reduces the risk of a disease destroying a whole crop and decreases the need for pesticides and herbicides. Sustainable farmers also utilize water management systems, such as drip irrigation, that waste less water.

The sustainability of agricultural systems is of global concern today and many definitions of sustainable agriculture have become available. The five main components of these definitions are: production of enough food and fiber to meet the increasing needs of the people, conservation of natural resources, maintaining the quality of the environment, achieving community and gender equity, and avoidance of regional imbalances.

Sustainable agriculture, in a simple way, is “capable of maintaining productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely”. In other words, it is resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially competitive, and environmentally sound. Under the law, the term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application and such a system over the long term satisfies human food and fiber needs, enhances environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends, makes the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls, sustain the economic viability of farm operations and enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

Therefore, sustainable agriculture does not mean a return to either the low yields or poor farmers that characterized the 19th century. Rather, sustainability builds on current agricultural achievements, adopting a sophisticated approach that can maintain high yields and farm profits without undermining the resources on which agriculture depends.

Sustainable agriculture refers to the ability of farmland to produce food perpetually. It involves two key issues long-term effects of various practices on soil properties and processes essential for crop productivity, and the long-term availability of inputs. Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals environmental health, economic profitability, and social-economic equity. A variety of philosophies, policies, and practices have contributed to these goals. People in many different capacities from farmers to consumers have shared this vision and contributed to it.

Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, stewardship of both natural and human resources is of prime importance. Stewardship of human resources includes consideration of social responsibilities such as working and living conditions of laborers, the needs of rural communities, and consumer health and safety both in the present and the future.

Stewardship of land and natural resources involves maintaining or enhancing this vital resource base for the long term. A systems approach is required to understand and achieve sustainability. It gives us the tools to explore the interconnections between farming and other aspects of our environment. It requires not only the input of researchers from various disciplines but also farmers, farmworkers, consumers, policymakers, and others.

Therefore, sustainable agriculture addresses many environmental and social concerns and offers innovative and economically viable opportunities for growers, laborers, consumers, policymakers, and many others in the entire food system. The key to reducing world hunger, poverty, and the harmful environmental effects of both industrialized and traditional agriculture is to develop a variety of systems of sustainable agriculture.

Each region has a unique set of agro-ecosystems that result from local variations in climate, soil, economic relation, social structure, and history. Keeping this in view, sustainable agricultural practices have to be designed and implemented in different eco-regions of any country. 

In sustainable agriculture, the soil is viewed as a fragile and living medium that must be protected and nurtured to ensure its long-term productivity and stability. Further, it recognizes that “healthy” soil is a key component as it is the base to produce healthy crop plants that have optimum vigor and are less susceptible to pests. Methods such as cover crops, compost, and/or manures, reducing tillage, avoiding traffic on wet soils, and maintaining soil cover with plants and/or mulches, if followed, protect and enhance the productivity of the soil.

The land requires replenishment from time to time without which the land would suffer from nutrient depletion and becomes unusable for further farming. Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas in converting atmospheric nitrogen into synthetic fertilizer or mineral ores like phosphate. Rainfall is an important component; in some areas, sufficient rainfall is available for crop growth while many areas require irrigation. In such areas, irrigation systems should be sustainable, managed properly to avoid salt accumulation, and use water from the source rationally.

Sustainable agriculture allows growing crops and raising livestock based on organic fertilizers, soil and water conservation, and biological control of pests, and minimal use of non-renewable fossil fuel energy. It speaks about the ability of a farm to continue production indefinitely with a minimum of outside inputs. Crops depend on nutrients from the soil, air, water, and sunlight to produce the foodstuff that human beings need to live.

When farmers harvest crops, they take what crops have produced from the resources available to them. These resources must be replenished to allow the production cycle to continue. Otherwise, the resources would be exhausted and the land would be unusable for further farming. Although resources like the sun, air, and rain are generally available in most geographic locations, nutrients in the soil are easily exhausted.

Adding off-farm inputs, such as fertilizer for plants, or petroleum products to run machinery, reduce sustainability due to a reliance on non-renewable resources. The fewer outside inputs the farm needs to maintain production levels, the greater is its sustainability. Nutrients in the soil may be replenished through recycling of crop residues and livestock manure with their nutrients into the soil. Labor by animals or farmers is another form of energy recycling if they are fed with the food grown and harvested from the farm.

From an environmental perspective, given the finite supply of natural resources, agriculture that is inefficient and low on the sustainability scale will eventually exhaust the available resources, or the ability to afford them, and cease to be viable as a farming method. It will also generate a negative externality, an economic term for by-products of production, such as pollution, financial and production costs. Agriculture that relies mainly on inputs, which are extracted from the Earth’s crust or produced by the society, contributes to the depletion and degradation of the environment.

In an economic context, the farm must generate revenue to acquire things that cannot be produced directly. The way that crops are sold must then be accounted for in the sustainability equation. Fresh food sold from a farm stand requires little additional energy, beyond cultivation and harvest, though the cost of consumers’ transport to the site must be included.

Food that is packaged and sold at a remote location, such as a farmers’ market, incurs a greater energy cost for materials, labor, transport, and so forth. A more complex economic system in which the farm producer is just the first link in a long chain of processors and handlers leads to greater costs and greater reliance on the use of externals. Such a system is vulnerable to fluctuation in prices of imported external materials.

Sustainable development requires a variety of approaches. Specific strategies must take into account the aspects like topography, soil characteristics, climate, pest, local availability of inputs, and the individual grower goals. Despite the site-specific and individual nature of sustainable agriculture, several general principles can be applied to help grower’s select appropriate management practices such as selection of species and varieties that are well-suited to the site and to the condition of the farm and diversification of crops and cultural practices to enhance the biological and economic stability of the farm and manage soil to enhance and protect the soil quality.

Sustainable environmental management in agriculture ensures a sound balance between optimum agricultural productivity and renewal of natural resources. This is possible only if the pragmatic principles of ecology are properly adhered to in planning, management, and developmental activities in agriculture, giving due care to agrochemical and socio-economic needs.

Sustainable agriculture is a model of social and economic organization based on the equitable and participatory vision of development that recognizes the environment and natural resources as the foundation of economic activity. Agriculture is sustainable when it is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, culturally appropriate, and based on a holistic scientific approach.

It preserves biodiversity, maintains soil fertility and water purity, conserves and improves the chemical, physical and biological qualities of the soil, recycles natural resources, and conserves energy. It produces diverse forms of high-quality foods, fibers, and medicines.

It uses locally available renewable resources, appropriate and affordable technologies and minimizes the use of external and purchased inputs, thereby increasing local independence and self-sufficiency and ensuring a source of stable income for peasants’ families and small farmers and rural communities.

This allows more people to stay on the land, strengthens rural communities, and integrates humans with their environment. Sustainable agriculture respects the ecological principles of diversity and interdependence and uses the insights of modern science to improve rather than displace the traditional wisdom accumulated over centuries by innumerable farmers around the world.

It does not refer to a prescribed set of practices. Instead, it challenges producers to think about the long-term implications of practices and the broad interactions and dynamics of agricultural systems. It also invites consumers to get more involved in agriculture by learning more about and becoming active participants in their food systems.

Finally, it is a whole-systems approach to food, feed, and other fibber production that balances environmental soundness, social equity, and economic viability among all sectors of the public, including international and intergenerational peoples. Inherent in this definition is the idea that sustainability must be extended not only globally, but indefinitely in time, and to all living organisms including humans.

Therefore, sustainable agroecosystems maintain their natural resource base, rely on minimum artificial inputs from outside the farm system, manage pests and diseases through internal regulating mechanisms and recover from the disturbances caused by cultivation and harvest. In view of the many negative effects of modern agriculture, which have far-reaching consequences on the environment, sustainable agriculture has become an integral component of many governments, commercial, and non-profit agriculture research efforts.

The sustainable agriculture concept is a big threat to people involved in agribusiness and to successful farmers with large investments in industrialized agriculture and to specialized farmers unwilling to learn the demanding art of fanning sustainably. Further, it may receive resistance from many consumers unwilling or unable to pay higher prices for food, because full cost accounting would include agriculture’s harmful environmental and health costs in the market prices of food.

Despite these difficulties, environmentalists believe that a shift from modern agriculture to sustainable agriculture could be brought about over the next 30-50 years by instituting several policies with some subsidies and tax breaks.

Sustainable agriculture is a broad concept that covers a number of different approaches. Everyone tries to achieve an environmentally sound, economically profitable, ethically acceptable, and socially responsible form of land husbandry.

Organic agriculture was developed as a holistic, ecosystem-based approach, conceived as an alternative to conventional agriculture. However, it is necessary to distinguish between certified and non-certified organic agriculture.

Different countries have introduced regulations determining what can be recognized and sold as ‘organic’ as well as procedures for inspection and certification. Many of these regulations are based on standards set by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM), an international grouping of NGOs and groups of organic producers. In India, the government’s National Programme for Organic Production accredits inspection and certification agencies.

Many traditional agricultural practices around the world refrain from using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They do this because farmers cannot afford agrochemicals. This traditional form of organic agriculture is not necessarily sustainable, even if it has been adapted to local conditions over many generations.

Population growth, declining prices, insecure land tenure, and water-use rights, along with many other factors, have often led to overuse, loss of diversity, soil degradation, and other environmental problems. In many instances, traditional forms of agriculture can no longer produce enough income and a secure livelihood. Hence there is an urgent need for a more sustainable approach.

This approach tries to cut down on costly inputs and minimize negative environmental impacts by making intelligent use of existing ecological factors. It was developed as an alternative to the increasingly intensive use of irrigation and fertilizers and tries to free farmers from constraining factors in the local natural environment.

This aims to practice sustainable agriculture with minimal use of external inputs but does not completely exclude the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

IPM approach reduces the use of synthetic pesticides by integrating a range of ways to control pests and disease pathogens, from crop rotation to determining damage thresholds before applying plant protection measures.

This approach makes a special effort to minimize fertilizer inputs.

The rehabilitation of degraded watershed areas has become a high priority. Watershed management aims to adapt land management practices in ecologically vulnerable hill and mountain regions to the natural carrying capacity by means of systematic management. Watershed management is not an agricultural production system.

Rather, it is a process that plans and regulates the use of land, water, and other resources within a watershed area, in ways that sustain these resources. It involves not just technologies, but also devising policies and usage guidelines. It emphasizes adapting technical solutions to the socio-economic circumstances of users, respecting the needs of different resource users, and attempting to reconcile their interests.

This aims to conserve the soil structure and improve the water storage capacity of the soil. Introduced on a large farm level it is often combined with weed management through pesticides. Because it eliminates plowing, conservation agriculture needs less labor, so is a viable option for areas with a labor shortage. By using crop rotation and intercropping, it reduces risk through diversification.