Planet friendly agriculture: Farming for people and the planet

Abstract

Agriculture is central to overall development of humankind and plays a decisive role in the timely realization of several UN-Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, agriculture is the largest nonpoint source of pollution primarily due to rampant use of agrochemicals, and contributes ~34% of the annual greenhouse gases emission globally. Agricultural practices are also one of the major drivers of global biodiversity loss, and exerts a heavy footprint on water amounting to 70% of the world's freshwater withdrawal annually. As per projections of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, agricultural production has to be doubled by the year 2050 to feed a global population of ~9.7 billion. However, this intensification must be done in an ecological way (not at the cost of planetary resilience) while designing novel strategies to reinforce agriculture's crucial role in achieving Global Goals. Hence, the notion of ‘planet friendly agriculture’ wherein food production has to be achieved within the planetary boundaries is getting global priority as a transitional as well as transformative solution for improving the wellbeing of people while safeguarding life-supporting systems of a heavily polluted, overexploited and resource crunched planet. This graphical review aimed to portray various planet friendly farming practices based on resource conservation and replenishment to strengthen food and nutrition security of the current and future generation while reducing pollution, greenhouse gases emission, biodiversity loss, and water footprint, even under changing climatic conditions.

Keywords

• Agriculture
• Biodiversity loss
• Food security
• Resilience
• Nutrition security
• Planet friendly agriculture