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Up-scaling organic agriculture to enhance food and water security in South Asia

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Abstract

To combat the adverse climatic condition in agriculture, a sustainable production system like organic agriculture is inseparable, which stimulates and increases agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. Throughout this context, this study examined the current literature on organic agriculture's contribution to food and water security, as well as its expansion in South Asia. Relevant research documents were retrieved using Elsevier's Scopus database and other sources in order to do this (by applying search equations). The authors have accordingly underlined the huge scope and opportunity of organic agriculture that can contribute to ecological sustainability, especially in the developing countries of South Asia and other regions. Our assessment found that six case studies of organic agriculture have potentiality that could boost the production of quality food, proper utilization of renewable resources, maintaining long-term soil fertility, biological pest control, and efficient use of water resources. This review discussed the organic agricultural practices that secure the food and water status from a South Asian perspective.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been underpinned by the project ‘Developing Urban-Rural partnerships framework to mitigate climate-induced water availability impacts on Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) security at regional level’ funded by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) with the project reference number CRRP2020-05MY-Shaw.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agroforestry and Environment, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, 1706, Bangladesh

    Ashim Kumar Das & Md. Abiar Rahman

  2. Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Kanagawa Prefecture, Minato, 252-0882, Japan

    Priyanka Mitra, Vibhas Sukhwani & Rajib Shaw

  3. Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), 2108-11, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama, 240-0115, Japan

    Bijon Kumer Mitra

  4. Department of Atmospheric Science, School of Earth Sciences, Central University of Rajasthan, NH-8 Bandarsindri, Kishangarh Ajmer, 305817, India

    Devesh Sharma

  5. Department of Architecture and Planning, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Maharashtra, 440010, India

    Sameer Deshkar & Bhumika Morey

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  1. Ashim Kumar Das
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  2. Md. Abiar Rahman
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  3. Priyanka Mitra
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Contributions

A.K.D., M.A.R.,and V.S. made conceptualization; A.K.D., M.A.R., and B.M. did data curation; A.K.D., P.M., and V.S. done writing—original draft preparation; M.A.R., R.S., B.K.M., D.S., and S.D. contributed to writing—review and editing; A.K.D., V.S., and B.M. made figures and tables; M.A.R., R.S., and B.K.M. supervised the study. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Md. Abiar Rahman.

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Das, A.K., Rahman, M., Mitra, P. et al. Up-scaling organic agriculture to enhance food and water security in South Asia. Org. Agr. 12, 475–494 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13165-022-00403-4

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