Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits
Traditional cropping practices in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, South Asia, are resource intensive, requiring large inputs of water, energy and human labor. They are also inefficient, with relatively low productivity for the inputs used although the climate, soil and water resources of the region indicate that greater productivity is achievable. In on-farm experiments conducted across three countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal) we compared the performance of traditional and improved management practices to understand which better facilitated the production of food-grain crops while reducing energy and water demands, thus improving the sustainability of cropping system energy requirements. Benefits of improved over traditional management practices included increases of up to 10% in crop grain yields; up to 19% in water productivity; up to 26% in energy productivity; and reductions of up to 50% in labor. These metrics combined to reduce the cost of production under improved management by up to 22% and to increase gross margins by up to 100% (although in most instances gross margins increased by 12–32%). CO2-equivalent emissions reduced by 10%–17% compared to traditional practices. The principles behind the improved management practices, which we demonstrate improve the food-energy-water nexus while concurrently promoting more sustainable use of energy resources, are applicable across smallholder farming systems throughout South Asia and in many emerging-economy countries. These improvements to traditional management practices combined with our approach of supporting farmers through the implementation of new methods has widespread applications and the potential to assist many countries transitioning to low-energy, sustainable food production.
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Elsevier
2020-03
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Subjects: | climate change, agriculture, food security, smallholders, sustainability, |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111152 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.109645 |
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dig-cgspace-10568-1111522023-12-08T19:36:04Z Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits Gathala, Mahesh K Laing, Alison M Tiwari, Thakur P Timsina, Jagadish Islam, Saiful Chowdhury, Apurba K Chattopadhyay, Chirantan Singh, Adityakumar Bhatt, Bhagwati P Shrestha, Renuka Barma, Naresh CD Rana, Dharamvir S Jackson, Tamara M. Gerard, Bruno G. climate change agriculture food security smallholders sustainability Traditional cropping practices in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, South Asia, are resource intensive, requiring large inputs of water, energy and human labor. They are also inefficient, with relatively low productivity for the inputs used although the climate, soil and water resources of the region indicate that greater productivity is achievable. In on-farm experiments conducted across three countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal) we compared the performance of traditional and improved management practices to understand which better facilitated the production of food-grain crops while reducing energy and water demands, thus improving the sustainability of cropping system energy requirements. Benefits of improved over traditional management practices included increases of up to 10% in crop grain yields; up to 19% in water productivity; up to 26% in energy productivity; and reductions of up to 50% in labor. These metrics combined to reduce the cost of production under improved management by up to 22% and to increase gross margins by up to 100% (although in most instances gross margins increased by 12–32%). CO2-equivalent emissions reduced by 10%–17% compared to traditional practices. The principles behind the improved management practices, which we demonstrate improve the food-energy-water nexus while concurrently promoting more sustainable use of energy resources, are applicable across smallholder farming systems throughout South Asia and in many emerging-economy countries. These improvements to traditional management practices combined with our approach of supporting farmers through the implementation of new methods has widespread applications and the potential to assist many countries transitioning to low-energy, sustainable food production. 2020-03 2021-02-04T14:59:08Z 2021-02-04T14:59:08Z Journal Article Gathala MK, Laing AM, TTiwari TP, Timsina J, Islam MS, Chowdhury AK, Chattopadhyay C, Singh AK, Bhatt BP, Shrestha R, Barma NCD, Rana DS, Jackson TM, Gerard B. 2020. Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 120:109645. 1364-0321 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111152 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.109645 en Copyrighted; all rights reserved Limited Access 109645 Elsevier Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews |
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climate change agriculture food security smallholders sustainability climate change agriculture food security smallholders sustainability Gathala, Mahesh K Laing, Alison M Tiwari, Thakur P Timsina, Jagadish Islam, Saiful Chowdhury, Apurba K Chattopadhyay, Chirantan Singh, Adityakumar Bhatt, Bhagwati P Shrestha, Renuka Barma, Naresh CD Rana, Dharamvir S Jackson, Tamara M. Gerard, Bruno G. Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
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Traditional cropping practices in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, South Asia, are resource intensive, requiring large inputs of water, energy and human labor. They are also inefficient, with relatively low productivity for the inputs used although the climate, soil and water resources of the region indicate that greater productivity is achievable. In on-farm experiments conducted across three countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal) we compared the performance of traditional and improved management practices to understand which better facilitated the production of food-grain crops while reducing energy and water demands, thus improving the sustainability of cropping system energy requirements. Benefits of improved over traditional management practices included increases of up to 10% in crop grain yields; up to 19% in water productivity; up to 26% in energy productivity; and reductions of up to 50% in labor. These metrics combined to reduce the cost of production under improved management by up to 22% and to increase gross margins by up to 100% (although in most instances gross margins increased by 12–32%). CO2-equivalent emissions reduced by 10%–17% compared to traditional practices.
The principles behind the improved management practices, which we demonstrate improve the food-energy-water nexus while concurrently promoting more sustainable use of energy resources, are applicable across smallholder farming systems throughout South Asia and in many emerging-economy countries. These improvements to traditional management practices combined with our approach of supporting farmers through the implementation of new methods has widespread applications and the potential to assist many countries transitioning to low-energy, sustainable food production. |
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Journal Article |
topic_facet |
climate change agriculture food security smallholders sustainability |
author |
Gathala, Mahesh K Laing, Alison M Tiwari, Thakur P Timsina, Jagadish Islam, Saiful Chowdhury, Apurba K Chattopadhyay, Chirantan Singh, Adityakumar Bhatt, Bhagwati P Shrestha, Renuka Barma, Naresh CD Rana, Dharamvir S Jackson, Tamara M. Gerard, Bruno G. |
author_facet |
Gathala, Mahesh K Laing, Alison M Tiwari, Thakur P Timsina, Jagadish Islam, Saiful Chowdhury, Apurba K Chattopadhyay, Chirantan Singh, Adityakumar Bhatt, Bhagwati P Shrestha, Renuka Barma, Naresh CD Rana, Dharamvir S Jackson, Tamara M. Gerard, Bruno G. |
author_sort |
Gathala, Mahesh K |
title |
Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
title_short |
Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
title_full |
Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
title_fullStr |
Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
title_full_unstemmed |
Enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
title_sort |
enabling smallholder farmers to sustainably improve their food, energy and water nexus while achieving environmental and economic benefits |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2020-03 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111152 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.109645 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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