Agroecological Approach to Farming for Sustainable Development: The Indian Scenario
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Agroecology is the application of ecological principles to agricultural systems and practices and the application of social justice principles to whole food systems. Agroecological farming, an unfamiliar concept to those who treat agriculture and ecology as separate subjects, refers to farming for producing food, employment and economic benefits in addition to cultural, social and environmental services and benefits. Additionally, agroecology empowers farming communities, as the key agents of change, and addresses the root cause of problems of unsustainable agricultural systems in an integrated way and provides holistic and long-term solutions to transform the food and agricultural systems. As agroecology is at the forefront of transforming farming and food system sustainability, the present chapter specifically explores the state of Indian traditional farming agroecosystems, evidence collected under the ongoing Indian UNEP-GEF project “Mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity conservation and utilization in agricultural sector to ensure ecosystem services and reduce vulnerability”. We discuss traditional Indian farming in view of FAO’s 10 principles of Agroecology which is key to help policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders, in planning, managing and evaluating agroecological transitions.
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Agroecology is correlated with increased performance on the women's empowerment index by encouraging active participation in decision-making, which fosters equity and involvement in natural resource governance and management.
“Agroecology is correlated with increased performance on the women's empowerment index, a proxy to women empowerment, agency and inclusion in agriculture (Banerjee et al., 2024), by encouraging active participation in decision-making, which fosters equity and involvement in natural resource governance and management (Singh Bisht et al., 2022).”
From Agroecology for sustainable development: evidence on multidimensional performance from a cross-country TAPE assessment in Africa (2025) · cites this paper as Singh Bisht et al., 2022
Section 3.7 (page unavailable) says women in self-help groups gained a greater say in family decisions and that agroecology can create opportunities for women and address gender inequalities. It also describes women’s role in conserving biodiversity, but does not establish that their increased decision-making leads to involvement in natural-resource governance and management. The women’s empowerment index is attributed to a different citation in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Adoyo, B., Geck, M. S., Adeyemi, C., Alpuerto, J., Arinloye, A. A. D.-D., Ateku, D., Autfray, P., Barahona, C., Chacha, R., Cluset, R., et al. (2025) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · doi:10.3389/fsufs.2025.1667882 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
- Authors
- Singh Bisht, I., Chand Rana, J., Jones, S., Estrada-Carmona, N., & Yadav, R.
- Venue
- Biodiversity of Ecosystems
- Publisher
- IntechOpen
- Published
- 2022-09-28
- OpenAlex
- W3205293025
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 5.08
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- IntechOpen eBooks (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- IntechOpen (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant and soil sciences
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Agricultural Systems and Practices
- Keywords
- agroecology, agroecological production, sustainable development, traditional farming systems, agricultural biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, agroecological transition, food system sustainability, Indian agriculture
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