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Improvement of the Sustainability of Agricultural Systems through the Ecological Intensification of Cropping Systems

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2022) | Viewed by 2921

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Matthieu Carof

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
L’institut Agro, Agrocampus Ouest, 35000 Rennes, France
Interests: crop diversification; cropping system design; multi-criteria assessment; sustainable agricultural systems
Dr. Olivier Godinot

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
L’institut Agro, Agrocampus Ouest, 35000 Rennes, France
Interests: integrated crop and livestock farming systems; environmental assessment; territory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ecological intensification of cropping systems is a promising but complex way to improve the sustainability of agriculture. In short, ecological intensification is nature-based agriculture as opposed to high-anthropogenic-input agriculture.

Ecologically intensive cropping systems are based on practices such as crop diversification, intercropping, living mulch, crop–livestock integration, agroforestry, biological pest control, and genetic engineering. In recent years, scientists around the world have sought to understand the functioning of such cropping systems that favor biological interactions at field, farm, and landscape scales.

The Special Issue “Improvement of the Sustainability of Agricultural Systems through the Ecological Intensification of Cropping Systems” will present original research articles dealing with the advantages and challenges of ecological intensification in the near future. It will accept contributions on the following themes:

  • development of design methods for ecologically intensive cropping systems, in particular methods that integrate the dimensions of space (farm, territory) and time (mid-term, long-term);
  • crop modeling to help in the design and assessment of ecologically intensive cropping systems;
  • pros and cons of ecological intensification practices;
  • our understanding of the ecological processes that occur in ecologically intensive cropping systems;
  • integration of ecologically intensive cropping systems in modern agriculture; and
  • transitioning from high-input agriculture to nature-based agriculture.

Dr. Matthieu Carof
Dr. Olivier Godinot
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • agroecology
  • integrated crop livestock system
  • cropping system design
  • biological regulation
  • innovative agricultural practices.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 803 KiB  
Article
Crop Diversification in Rice—Based Cropping Systems Improves the System Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability
by Md Jahangir Alam, Abdullah- Al-Mahmud, Md Aminul Islam, Md Faruque Hossain, Md Akkas Ali, Eldessoky S. Dessoky, Ehab I. El-Hallous, Mohamed M. Hassan, Nasrin Begum and Akbar Hossain
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6288; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116288 - 02 Jun 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2377
Abstract
Cropping systems in the Level Barind Tract (LBT) of Bangladesh are highly diverse, as Transplanted (T.) Aman and Boro (T. Boro) rice are a common practice in the area. Although. T. Aman is generally cultivated in the rainy (monsoon) season, but the T. [...] Read more.
Cropping systems in the Level Barind Tract (LBT) of Bangladesh are highly diverse, as Transplanted (T.) Aman and Boro (T. Boro) rice are a common practice in the area. Although. T. Aman is generally cultivated in the rainy (monsoon) season, but the T. Boro rice is the intensive irrigation-based winter rice with high establishment costs as a result of exhaustive tillage and high labours for transplanting of seedlings. Furthermore, pumping of a large amount of irrigation during T. Boro cultivation declines the level of groundwater, which is not environmentally friendly nor cost-effective. Therefore, the replacement of the T. Boro rice from the cropping pattern in the LBT area is the major concern of policymakers. In this context, a replicated three to four crop-based cropping systems (CS) field trial was conducted in LBT of Gaibandha, Bangladesh for consecutive three years (2018–2020) to evaluate productivity, profitability and sustainability of the multiple crop-based cropping systems. Among these CS, existing three crops based CS, CS1: T. Aman–Potato–T. Boro (introduction of the local potato in the existing cropping system) were compared with four crops based CS2: T. Aman–Potato–Cucumber–T. Aus (Introduction of high yielding potato, cucumber and T. Aus as an improved cropping system). After two years of observations, significantly higher system productivity (rice equivalent yield; REY) was found in the improved CS2 than that of existing CS1 in both years (two years’ average 49% or 11.1 t ha−1). As a result of the introduction of the high yielding potato, cucumber and T. Aus rice instead of the T. Boro rice. The CS2 was also found profitable as compared to the CS1 in terms of higher gross margin (by 74%), net return (double) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) (1.69 vs. 1.44) due to higher gross return with slightly higher (by 28%) production cost. It is due to farmers received higher prices for potato, cucumber and two rice crops in the improved CS2 than the existing CS1. On the other hand, protein and energy output was lower (by 17% and 9%, respectively) in the CS2 than the existing CS1, due to the less content of protein and energy value in the vegetable cucumber. The results of the study revealed that crops diversification in the existing T. Boro based CS with high yielding potato, cucumber, and T. Aus rice, improved the system productivity, profitability and sustainability; which lead to improve the food security of the increasing population and also reduce the adverse effect on the environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Improvement of the Sustainability of Agricultural Systems through the Ecological Intensification of Cropping Systems)
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