Sustainable Agriculture Systems and Technologies

2Diversification for Restoration of Ecosystems and Sustainable Livelihood

Sanjay S. Rathore¹, Kapila Shekhawat¹, R.K. Singh¹, S. Babu¹, and V.K. Singh²

¹ Division of Agronomy, ICAR‐IARI, New Delhi, India

² Division of Agronomy, ICAR‐Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

CONTENTS

• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 The Need for Agricultural Diversification for Sustained Livelihood
• 2.3 Crop Diversification and Ecosystem Services
• 2.4 Reducing Emission of Greenhouse Gases
• 2.5 Effect of Technology‐Induced Crop Diversification
• 2.6 Congenial Conditions for Crop Diversification
• 2.7 Crop Diversification and Composition
  • 2.7.1 Diversification with Oilseed Crops
  • 2.7.2 Diversification with Pulse‐Based Cropping Systems in Different Agroclimatic Zones
  • 2.7.3 Diversification with Horticultural Crops
• 2.8 Constraints in Crop Diversification
• 2.9 Conclusion and Future Perspectives
• References

2.1 Introduction

The agriculture is the predominant means of livelihoods of majority of the people around the world and especially in the third world countries and also land use type occupying about 40% of the terrestrial surface of the Earth (FAO 2009). It has been widely perceived that Agroecosystems are both providers and consumers of ecosystem services. Along with provisioning services (the produce, e.g. food, timber, and other raw materials), the other components of the ecosystem like plants, animals, fungi, microbials ensure indispensable regulating services such ...