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Sustainable Intensification (SI) has recently emerged as a key concept for agricultural development, recognising that yields must increase to feed a growing world population, but it must be achieved without damage to the environment, on finite land resources and while preserving social and natural capital. It also recognises that all initiatives must cope with the challenges of climate change to agricultural production, food security and livelihoods.
This multidisciplinary book presents state-of-the-art reviews of current SI approaches to promote major food crops, challenges and advances made in technology, and the institutional and policy measures necessary to overcome the constraints faced by smallholder farmers. Adressing the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 2, the various chapters based on evidence and experiences of reputed researchers show how these innovations, if properly nurtured and implemented, can make a difference to food and nutrition security outcomes. Case studies from around the world are included, with a particular emphasis on Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus is not only on scientific aspects such as climate-smart agriculture, agroecology and improving input use efficiency and management, but also on institutional and policy challenges that must be met to increase the net societal benefits of sustainable agricultural intensification. Agricultural Development and Sustainable Intensification is aimed at advanced students and researchers in sustainable agriculture and policy, development practitioners, policy makers and non-governmental and farmer organisations.
1. Agricultural Development and Sustainable Intensification: Technology and Policy Innovations
2. Save and Grow: Translating Policy Advice into Field Action for Sustainable Intensification of Rice Production
3. Sustainable Intensification and maize value chain improvements in Sub-Saharan Africa
4. The role of wheat in global food security
5. Innovative practices in potato production for food and nutrition security
6. Pulses-Millets crop diversification by smallholders and their potential for sustainable food and nutrition security
7. Global challenges in today's horticulture and prospects offered by protected vegetable cultivation
8. Sustainable crop-livestock intensification in the Sub-Saharan Africa: Improving productivity through innovative adaptation
9. Community-driven approaches to sustainable intensification in river deltas: Lessons from the Ganges and Mekong Rivers
10. Sustainable agriculture intensification: Innovations to strengthen extension services and market linkages
11. Multi-level policy measures to support sustainable agriculture intensification for smallholders
12. Summary, technology and policy options
Udaya Sekhar Nagothu is a Research Professor and Director (Centre for International Development), Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Ås, Norway. He is the editor of the books Food Security: Country Case Studies (Routledge, 2014) and Climate Change and Agricultural Development: Improving Resilience through Climate Smart Agriculture, Agroecology and Conservation (Routledge, 2016).
"In an epoch of a changing climate – and aware that we have not inherited our planet's natural resources from our ancestors but rather borrowed them from our posterity – this book highlights indispensable innovations needed to sustainably increase productivity in some of the world's most relevant crops to nourish humanity in the coming decades."
– Hans Dreyer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy
"We have now entered the UN Sustainable Development Era where Goal No.2 aims to promote sustainable agriculture and nutrition security through ecotechnologies. This book on agricultural development and sustainable intensification by Dr. Udaya Sekhar Nagothu is therefore a timely one. I hope it will be read and used widely."
– M. S. Swaminathan, UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology and Founder Chairman, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, India
"A superb addition to the rapidly expanding evidence base on the sustainable intensification of agriculture. We can develop processes and agroecosystems where productivity is increased without adverse environmental impact and without the cultivation of more land. Sustainable intensification offers novel pathways to the reduction of food insecurity that will also help meet some of the vital targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. This timely book shows that significant innovations are emerging in many contexts and systems."
– Jules Pretty, University of Essex, UK
