Jason Clay identifies eight steps that, taken together, could enable farming to feed 10 billion people and keep Earth habitable.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7356/full/475287a.html

The impacts of tobacco cultivation on traditional agro-practices and knowledge, food security, agro-biodiversity and socio-economic conditions of a remote hilly tribal community of Bangladesh were investigated. Sixty per cent households were found practicing shifting cultivation compared with 10 yrs back changing local food availability. Local crop varieties were being lost due to low cultivation and weak seed preservation system. Despite better benefits from traditional cultivation, 90% people now fully depended upon tobacco cultivation for significant cash flow at a time.

Down To Earth finds out how analog forestry has created an economically productive and ecologically diverse landscape in Sri Lanka

Climate changes will have an impact on food production and will require costly adaptive responses. Adapting to a changing environment will be particularly challenging in sub-Saharan Africa where climate change is expected to have a major impact.

Only when farming is based upon "natural principles" can it be truly sustainable. Ecological farming is based on nurturing and nourishing the soils. Emphasizing soil conservation and building up organic matter are key to maintain these natural ecological balances in crop ecosystems. Mojo plantation is one such attempt.

Farming like any profession requires dedication, understanding, constant learning and application of new ideas and above all a desire to view it as a part of the greater ecosystem. Here is a case of a young farmer who has nurtured his farm with utmost care and sensitivity to the environment.

The Asian green revolution trebled grain yields through agrochemical intensification of monocultures. Associated environmental costs have subsequently emerged. A rapidly changing world necessitates sustainability principles be developed to reinvent these technologies and test them at scale. The need is particularly urgent in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields have stagnated.

The prime objective of the study is to estimate and compare the CO2 and carbon emission by direct use of fossil fuels in farm operations under the conventional and resource conservation systems in major wheat growing regions of India.