Food–Water–Energy Nexus in Designing Sustainable Food Production Systems

Scope of horizontal expansion of agriculture is limited due to land, water, and energy shortages and therefore, an additional food demand must be met by vertical expansion, i.e., by increasing cropping intensity and productivity of existing agricultural land. Uncertainty of monsoon rain is a serious issue in attaining secured yield. Adoption of different resource conservation technologies (RCTs) could be instrumental in attaining sustainable productivity and higher cropping intensity. Declining soil health, irregularities in monsoonal rain, lack of irrigation facilities, low residual soil moisture, prevalence of long-duration rice variety, and free grazing/poor socioeconomic conditions of farmers are major issues leading to unsustainability of mono-cropped rice. In scenario of global climate change, low carbon emitting and low energy input farming systems are given paramount importance. The conservation agriculture-based systems having higher system productivity, better C-sequestration potential, lower C-footprint, and higher energy and water productivity have a very good potential for sustaining soil health and crop yield. The fertigation dose and maintaining optimal plant population under polythene mulched drip irrigation improves yield and increases nutrient and water-use efficiencies of many vegetable crops like tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and sweet corn in the uplands. Growing biomass-yielding plants in the alley area of orchards and recycling of harvested biomass in the plant basin of fruit trees have been found to improve soil fertility and plant growth of number of fruit trees. A multitier cropping system helps to maximize the use of resources like sunshine, land, water, and air by producing two or more crops of varying heights on a single plot of ground. Multitier cropping systems based on mango, litchi, and guava were shown to be suited for the highland environment for sustainable food production. Energy and carbon budgeting of different production systems are extremely reliant on the type of tillage operation, crop residue, and choice of crops. This calls for precise and accurate assessments of energy and carbon budget of diversified cropping systems. The interaction among the food, water, and energy systems emerges as an integrated tool for designing better cropping systems, energy, and carbon-efficient cropping systems in the region for sustainable food production systems.