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With the rise in the global population size there has been a parallel increase in the food demand. The agricultural sector in most of the countries has now come up with the uses in the modern technologies resulting into high yield rates besides environmental damage. The new agricultural practices of today have thus both economic positivity and environmental negativity. The present book intends to investigate the growth of agricultural sector and its implications to national output and environmental sustainability. It covers up economic and environmental implications of the agricultural practices in the modern world across the nations and groups of nations. The summary output of the coverage of the entire book shows that modern agricultural practices have led to high growth of the agricultural sector but environment has lost its in situ feature leading to sustainability problems. The recommendations are offered in terms of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices which can mitigate the challenges of climate change.

Food waste is a challenging and vital issue in the world today. Despite the fact that agricultural technological advancements have effectively improved food production, one-third of worldwide produced foods are being lost or wasted. The fact that large volumes of food are produced but not consumed by humans has serious environmental, social and economic consequences. However the issue of food waste has drawn attention in the last 10 years both in academic and social fields. Under the background, this study aims to examine whether the countries having high agriculture as well as per capita incomes are responsible for food waste or not. The study uses the data on food waste out of export and import channels across the world’s selected 20 countries having about 70 per cent contribution to food waste. Using the period 1971–2019, the study finds that food waste is associated with agriculture as well as per capita incomes of the developing and developed countries, positive for majorly developing countries and negative for majorly developed countries. The time series analysis involving food waste, per capita agriculture income and per capita income as the indicators, the study finds that there are long-run relations; among them across many countries implying countries having high incomes are responsible for food waste in most cases due to their food preference, although having good infrastructural facilities for preservation of foods.

Agriculture is one of the important sectors for the sustainable development of any country. In order to achieve the SDG1 and 2, improvization of productivity and performance in agricultural development is needed. The present study attempts to analyse the change in productivity and cropping pattern among the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries that comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The study also examines the performance of BIMSTEC countries in exporting the agricultural products. The study is based on the secondary data collected from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In accordance with the importance for the development of the country, the study also analyses the export and import of these cereal crops among the BIMSTEC countries. For the empirical investigations the study uses co-efficient of variation, Coppock’s instability index and Balassa’s index. The study reveals that productivity and cropping pattern of the cereal production has been changing gradually over time in all BIMSTEC countries which show the importance of products substitution. It also reveals that the development cooperation among the BIMSTEC countries through promotion of exports and imports is required to meet their needs.

The study aims to investigate the evolving dynamics of India’s agricultural sector, particularly the shift from reliance on informal money lenders to a more prominent role of institutional credit in recent decades. This transition is seen as empowering farmers with increased access to funds for crucial investments in areas such as better seeds, fertilizers, irrigation systems and mechanization. Employing the Vector Autoregressive methodology on secondary data sources spanning from 1990 to 2022, the researchers seek to explore the impact of institutional credit on the agricultural sector. To address this, researchers used direct institutional credit and the share of gross value added of agriculture and allied sectors at current prices, finding that neither of them causes the other. Further analysis concludes that in the future, the contribution of credit will have some impact on development. Recognizing the significance of agriculture as the backbone of many economies, the study emphasizes the potential contributions of enhancing this sector through improved practices, advanced technologies and enhanced rural infrastructure. Ultimately, such developments are expected to drive increased productivity and overall output in the agricultural landscape, making a substantial contribution to economic growth.

Volatility in agricultural commodity prices assumes a lot of significance since its associated uncertainty is one of the major factors affecting the income security of producers and traders. The study aims to investigate the fluctuations and instability of the two crops, paddy and wheat, in the states of India. It has estimated instability in prices over the years (2006–2023) for paddy and wheat for the top three producing states by using coefficient of variation (CV), Cuddy-Della Valle index and Coppock’s index. Then it estimates volatility by generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) framework. It is observed that the average standard deviation of prices across mandis for paddy in a given month is 0.18 and for wheat it is 0.22. Both for paddy and wheat Punjab has the maximum instability among the three states if we consider CV and Coppock’s index. But if we consider the Cuddy-Della Valle index, Madhya Pradesh has the maximum instability for wheat. The noticed unpredictability in the price series of paddy revealed that the value of ARCH (α) has significant term and value of GARCH (β) was also significant for all the price series. The volatility (α + β) was quite persistent of the order of 0.985 in case of Uttar Pradesh. In case of wheat Punjab has the maximum value 0.95 signifying explosiveness. In case of wheat Punjab has the maximum value 0.95 signifying explosiveness.

This study examines the improvement of rice production in Nigeria through the government’s policy of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). Rationalized by the production theory, the study utilizes quantitative methods such as surveys. The study investigates the influence of ABP on rice production, with particular emphasis on the experiences of smallholder rice farmers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study employed a cross-sectional survey research approach, and the target population comprised smallholder rice farmers in the state who have benefitted from ABP. The study obtained a representative sample of 400 respondents through stratified random sampling. The study adopts the administration of a structured questionnaire with rice farmers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, as the primary data collection method. Regression was used to test the hypotheses in SPSS version 23. From the findings, the study reveals the need for the ABP, banks and other lending agencies/programmes to train farmers. It shows that modern farming contributes to rice production in Ebonyi State.

As technology aspect of agriculture becomes more and more important with the time to increase agricultural productivity in a sustainable and smart way, agriculture practices become more interdisciplinary. Furthermore, agricultural practices are affected by urban and rural planning enabling urban and rural farming. Architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry can support food security through the integration of agricultural practices and technologies into the built environment, its interior design, and greenhouses supporting urban and rural farming. Based on the literature review, this chapter aims to investigate ways for enhancing AEC industry’s and its professionals’ contribution to food security and sustainable agricultural practices. This chapter highlights roles of the AEC industry in enhancing food security and sustainable agricultural practices. This chapter emphasizes the importance of undergraduate and graduate curriculums of future AEC industry professionals (e.g., architects, interior architects, civil engineers) to equip them with the skills and knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices and technologies integrated greenhouses, built environment and indoor environment, and interior design. For this reason, agricultural policies need to cover food security-related interdisciplinary education and training (e.g., renewable energy-based agriculture integrated built environment) of AEC industry professionals. Agricultural policies need to be designed with the contribution of and considering AEC industry professionals as they are among the main stakeholders of food security and renewable energy-based agriculture-integrated built environment. Furthermore, this chapter highlights how AEC industry, in compliance with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and countries sustainable and resilient development plans, can contribute to food security and sustainability. This chapter can be beneficial to all stakeholders of the sustainable agricultural practices.

UNESCO heritage Sundarbans is perhaps the largest island where people are solely dependent upon natural resources. Indian part of Sundarban covers around 4,263 sq. km. area and mostly situated in the district of South 24 Parganas of West Bengal. Here, people are mainly dependent on agriculture and fishing activities. Since forestry is reserved and people are allowed to collect the non-timber forest products only, the burden of livelihood earning comes on both fisheries and agricultural activities. The mechanization of agriculture and fishery, both of which are costly, have kept on swinging accordingly. People’s perception for the sustainable use cum development of these two resources, thus, becomes immensely crucial. Here, we have applied contingent valuation method to know about the people’s perception or willingness for saving these resources. The study is based on primary field survey conducted in late 2023 in two different parts of Sundarbans – both of which are dependent on both the resources. We find that people are more willing towards protection of fishery than the agricultural, probably because of its high market value and business opportunities than agricultural products. Again, climate change and frequent storms are more devastating on agricultural products than fishery. Such an analysis, in the era of climate change, is not only significant but also unique.

Sustainability promotes specific and balanced circumstances which favours the survival of human population with the surrounding Mother Nature with proper synchronization. This practice ensures the use of all available natural resources in an equilibrated manner to satisfy the present needs along with the requirements of the succeeding generations. Agricultural sustainability reckons the role of healthy environment; society and economy in an integrated manner to promote food security and socio-economic development of the rural individuals. Normal agricultural practices have an unfathomed burden on the environment. This leads to various forms of environmental degradation like air and water pollution, soil depletion, climate change and loss of biodiversity. The sustainable agricultural practices aim to protect the environment, expand the Earth’s natural resource base and preserve or improve fertility of soil. Sustainable agriculture comprises with environmentally friendly farming methods that allow crops to be produced without harming natural systems. This prevents adverse impacts on soil, water, biodiversity as well as surrounding or downstream resources. In this present article we will analyse all issues related to mitigating environmental degradation through agricultural sustainability. Along with the proper assessment for agricultural sustainability is very crucial to understand the real scenario. This helps to take necessary measures for designing and its actual execution. The study constructed a composite index of agricultural sustainability by applying the principal component analysis method. Significant differences in agricultural sustainability were found among the states in India. It is important to mention that agricultural sustainability improved for all states in 2019 compared to 2016.