Scaling out conservation agriculture based sustainable intensification approaches for smallholder farmers: regional policy brief for agricultural policy makers

Abstract

The Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India, Nepal and Bangladesh remains as a region with one of the world’s highest concentrations of poverty and is highly vulnerable to food insecurity and climate risk. Some 300 million people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, but productivity remains low, and the incidence of households living in poverty is the highest in the world. Population growth, climate change and competition for water and energy resources will further exacerbate these problems in the future without strategic action and widespread transformation of food systems. Farmers in the EGP need options to address challenges of food insecurity, extreme poverty and climate vulnerability. Policy makers need ways to support improved production to promote agricultural development that does not cause long term damage to the environment. Intensifying agricultural systems is one way of improving productivity. However, promoting agricultural intensification often leads to unintended and unsustainable environmental consequences such as polluted air, depleted groundwater and degraded soil. Thus, there is a need to promote the adoption of techniques that can improve productivity and profitability sustainably, while reducing inputs and minimizing risks to the environment and human population. These techniques must also be able to cope with the additional pressure of increased climate variability.