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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Pradeep Kumar Dubey

Gopal Shankar Singh
Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash
Adaptive
Agricultural
Practices
Building Resilience
in a Changing
Climate
123
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Pradeep Kumar Dubey • Gopal Shankar Singh
Adaptive Agricultural
Practices
Building Resilience in a Changing Climate
Pradeep Kumar Dubey Gopal Shankar Singh
Institute of Environment & Sustainable Institute of Environment & Sustainable
Development Development
Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi, UP, India Varanasi, UP, India

Institute of Environment & Sustainable
Development
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi, UP, India
ISSN 2191-5547 ISSN 2191-5555 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science
ISBN 978-3-030-15518-6 ISBN 978-3-030-15519-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15519-3
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Foreword
Maximizing food production for the rapidly growing human population is one of the
major sustainability challenges of this twenty-first century. Unfortunately, global
agricultural production is under threat because soil productivity is decreasing,
mainly because of the rapid loss of essential micro- and macronutrients. The indis-
criminate use of agrochemicals to enhance crop production during the past few
decades has resulted in rampant environmental pollution. Changing climatic condi-
tions also cause various biotic and abiotic stress in plants and thereby negatively
affect the yield and nutritional quality of agricultural produce. Therefore, the inte-
gration of suitable climate-resilient and adaptive agronomic practices along with
proper agro-biotechnological interventions are of paramount importance to feed the
rapidly growing population. In this context, the present book, Adaptive Agricultural
Practices: Building Resilience in a Changing Climate, is a topical and timely con-
tribution that provides sustainable solutions for carrying out agriculture under
changing climatic conditions.
Apart from building resilience under a changing climate, adaptive agricultural
practices are believed to have a major role in reducing trace gas emissions from the
soil and also in sequestering more carbon in the soil. One of the striking features of
this book is that the authors have provided various adaptive agricultural practices at
three levels, ranging from species to farm to landscape level, across different global
locations. Moreover, the authors showcased different adaptive strategies and prac-
ticing those results in better crop productivity, profitability, and net gains while
reducing environmental externalities. For example, practices such as agroforestry,
mulching, intercropping, organic farming, and the push–pull system of biological
pest control are described in detail. Adaptive practices addressing different biotic
and abiotic stresses in crop plants that can certainly facilitate decision making are
also illustrated with suitable examples. Brief highlights on crop and climate model-
ling approaches and sustainable agricultural intensification and extensification,
along with farmers’ perceptions about adaptive agricultural practices, further
enhance the reader’s understanding. Overall, the book is highly informative, timely,
and demands wide readership to learn about these promising adaptive practices and
their success stories. I sincerely congratulate the authors for putting different
v
vi Foreword
p erspectives together and bringing such adaptive and resilient practices for trans-
forming agriculture as a sustainable enterprise to our attention.
The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) Panjab Singh

New Delhi, India
Preface
Sustainable agriculture is imperative for feeding the rapidly growing human popula-
tion. However, agricultural production under changing climatic conditions is a chal-
lenging task because climate change negatively affects the availability of critical
natural resources as well as the growth, yield, and nutritional quality of agricultural
produce. In this context, adaptive and climate-resilient practices come to the fore,
and proper validation and field implementation of such practices at different scales
and agro-climatic regions are necessary for ensuring the food security of current and
future generations. In this backdrop, the present book, Adaptive Agricultural
Practices: Building Resilience in a Changing Climate, is aimed to showcase such
promising adaptive and climate-resilient agricultural practices from all over the
world for transforming agriculture as a sustainable enterprise, especially under
changing climatic conditions. This book also pays considerable attention to enhanc-
ing the livelihood of small, medium, and subsistence-level farmers in developing
countries and also provides insights on how crop, field, and landscape level resil-
ience practices can be built up against untoward incidences such as drought, salinity,
floods, and diseases. Moreover, the policy implications and future prospects of vari-
ous adaptation strategies are well addressed. We shall be grateful if this work can
serve as a primer for students, researchers, agricultural scientists, environmental
and plant scientists, policy makers, regulatory agencies, and agronomists interested
in adaptive and climate-resilient agricultural practices.
Varanasi, UP, India Pradeep Kumar Dubey

Gopal Shankar Singh
vii
Acknowledgments
We sincerely wish to thank the local farmers of eastern Uttar Pradesh for providing
necessary information related to the various adaptive agricultural practices employed
by them for enhancing agricultural productivity and profitability. We specially
acknowledge Mr. Ram Charitra Singh, Mr. Paras Nath Singh, and Mr. Ajeet Singh
for their active support and heartfelt cooperation for conducting field surveys in the
Mirzapur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. We wish to give our sincere gratitude to
Prof. H.B. Singh, Prof. R.K. Mall, Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Dr. J.P. Verma, Mr. Rama
Kant Dubey, Mr. Vishal Tripathi, Mr. Sheikh Adil Edrisi, Ms. Mansi Bakshi, and
Mr. Rajan Chaurasiya for their support and encouragement during the entire course
of the preparation of this book. Pradeep Kumar Dubey is thankful to the University
Grant Commission, New Delhi for the Senior Research Fellowship (UGC-SRF).
P.C. Abhilash is grateful to ICAR for the Lal Bhadur Shastri Outstanding Young
Scientist Award in Natural Resource Management. Special thanks go to Prof. Panjab
Singh, The President, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), for his
continuous motivation and encouragement. We also thank DST-Mahamana Centre
for Excellence in Climate Change Research (MCCECR) for logistic support. Thanks
are also due to Dr. Sherestha Saini and Mr. P. Silembarasan from Springer for their
editorial support, guidance, and cooperation.
ix
Introduction
Meeting the food and nutritional demand for the rapidly growing human population
is one of the major sustainability challenges of this twenty-first century. Changing
environmental conditions combined with the changing climatic conditions drasti-
cally affect the agriculture production across the world and thereby pose serious
challenges to the good quality of life and well-being of the billions of subsistence-
level to medium-scale farmers in the developing world. It has been predicted that if
no immediate climate-resilient measures have taken place during the first half of
this century, the second half-century will face many serious environmental chal-
lenges. Therefore, systemic and transformational practices based on adaptive and
resilient capacity are needed to maintain global agricultural production under
adverse climatic conditions. Specifically, the validation and large-scale implemen-
tation of such adaptive, climate–resilient, and resource-conserving agronomic prac-
tices at different levels ranging from species to farm/field to landscape level, and the
customization for different agro-climatic regions of the world, are imperative for
enhancing sustainable agricultural production. Such adaptive practices are not only
meant for attaining the first three UN-Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG)—
(1) no poverty, (2) zero hunger, and (3) good health and well-being—but are also
imperative for achieving almost all other SDGs. This SpringerBriefs provides such
adaptive agronomic innovations practiced at different scales and regions of the
globe. The remaining knowledge gaps of such practices are also highlighted, so that
suitable policy recommendations can be implemented in accordance with future
climatic conditions.
Keywords Adaptive agricultural practices, Climate change, Farm-level practices,
Food security, Knowledge sharing, Landscape-level practices, Population explo-
sion, Species-level practices, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
xi
Contents
1 Agriculture in a Changing Climate�� 1

1.1 Introduction�� 1
1.2 Changing Environmental Constraints Facing
Agricultural Systems�� 2
1.3 Adaptive Agricultural Practices and Their Intervention
at Three Different Levels: Crop/Species, Farm/Field,
and Landscape Level�� 6
References�� 8
2 Adaptive Agronomic Practices for Sustaining Food Production �� 11
2.1 Brief Overview of Adaptive Practices�� 11
2.2 Crop Diversification�� 12
2.2.1 Intercropping�� 12
2.2.2 Crop Rotation and Double/Companion Cropping�� 19
2.2.3 Perenniation�� 21
2.3 Agroforestry: A Farm/Field- and Landscape-Level Practice�� 22
2.4 Mulching �� 26
2.5 Organic Farming �� 30
2.5.1 Integration of Livestock into Farm Lands�� 30
2.5.2 Replacement of Chemical Fertilizers
by Organic Inputs�� 32
References�� 35
3 Increasing Resilience in Crops for Future
Changing Environment �� 45
3.1 Use of Resilient Crop Varieties: A Species-Level Practice�� 45
3.2 Coping Under Abiotic Stress Environment�� 46
3.2.1 Conferring Drought Tolerance�� 46
3.2.2 Conferring Salinity Tolerance�� 48
3.2.3 Conferring Flood Tolerance�� 49
xiii
xiv Contents
3.3 Coping Under Biotic Stress Environment�� 50

3.3.1 Crop Weed Resistance�� 50
3.3.2 Crop Pests and Disease Resistance �� 50
3.4 Future Crops for Elevated Temperature and CO2 �� 53
3.5 Use of Climate/Crop Models for Building Adaptive
Capacity in Agriculture for a Future Environment �� 55
References�� 56
4 Resource Conserving and Innovative Practices
for Agricultural Sustainability�� 63
4.1 Increasing Nutrient and Water Use Efficiency�� 63
4.2 Conservation Agriculture (CA)�� 66
4.3 Farm Innovations for Enhanced Production
of Major Cereals Crops�� 73
4.4 Sustainable Agriculture Intensification
and Extensification�� 77
4.5 Sustainability Issues in Agriculture from the
Farmers’ Perspective�� 81
References�� 87
5 Adaptive Agricultural Practices Employed in Eastern
Uttar Pradesh, India�� 93
5.1 Introduction�� 94
5.1.1 What Are Adaptive Agricultural Practices?�� 94
5.1.2 Objectives of the Present Study�� 95
5.2 Methodology Employed�� 95
5.2.1 Study Area: Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India �� 95
5.2.2 Field Survey�� 96
5.2.3 Geographic and Meteorological Conditions
of the Study Region�� 99
5.3 Results and Discussion �� 100
5.3.1 Challenges and Threats Faced by Farmers �� 100
5.3.2 Adaptive Agronomic Practices Employed
by Local Farmers�� 106
5.4 Conclusions and Future Policy Implications�� 117
5.4.1 Conclusions�� 117
5.4.2 Future Policy Implications�� 118
References�� 120
6 Policy Implications, Future Prospects and Conclusion�� 123
6.1 Policy Implications and Future Prospects�� 123
6.2 Conclusions�� 125
References�� 128
Index�� 129
About the Authors
Pradeep Kumar Dubey is a senior research fellow in the Institute of Environment

& Sustainable Development at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Botany, Chemistry, and Zoology from Kamla
Nehru Institute of Physical and Social Sciences and his master’s in Environmental
Sciences from Banaras Hindu University; he is currently pursuing his PhD in
Environmental Science and Technology at Banaras Hindu University. His main
research interests include climate-resilient agriculture, sustainable agriculture,
resource conservation techniques, food security, and adaptive agricultural practices.
He is a member of the Agro-ecosystem Specialist Group of Commission on Ecosystem
Management, IUCN, Managing Editor of Climate Change & Environmental
Sustainability, and a regular reviewer for many international journals.
Gopal Shankar Singh is a professor in the Institute of Environment and Sustainable

Development at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India, and leads the
Department and Faculty of Environment & Sustainable Development in the capac-
ity of Head and Dean. He completed his master’s from BHU and PhD from
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His research interests include natural
resource management, biodiversity conservation, traditional ecological knowledge,
ethnobotany, climate change, watershed management, sustainable development,
and bridging the gaps of natural sciences with social sciences components during
the past 25 years. He is an expert member of several national and international sci-
entific committees including UN-IPBES.
Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash is a senior assistant professor of sus-

tainability science in the Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development at
Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, and Chair of the Agroecosystem
Specialist Group of IUCN-Commission on Ecosystem Management. He is a Fellow
of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), and his latest research
interests include land degradation and restoration, adaptive land management,
nature-based solutions, climate-resilient agriculture, indigenous and local
xv
xvi About the Authors
knowledge (ILK), and ecosystem-based approaches for managing agrobiodiversity

for food and nutritional security. He is an expert member of four IUCN commis-
sions (CEM, CEC, SSC, & CEESP), IUCN Task Force on Oil Palm & Biodiversity,
UN-FAO, UN-IPBES, UNDP-BES Network, UNFCCD, and International Resource
Panel of UNEP. He is also serving on the editorial board of the journals Agronomy,
Biodegradation, Biomass & Bioenergy, Energy, Ecology & Environment,
Environmental Management, Land Degradation & Development, Land, Restoration
Ecology, Sustainable Earth, and Tropical Ecology.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
ABA Abscisic acid

ACC 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate
APSIM Agricultural production systems sIMulator
AFOLU Agriculture, Forestry or Other Land Use
AMF Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
APX Ascorbate peroxidase
BPH Brown plant hopper
CA Conservation agriculture
CAFOs Concentrated animal feeding operations
CAM Crassulacean acid metabolism
CERES Crop environment resource synthesis
DAP Diammonium phosphate
DSSAT Decision Support System for Agro-Technology Transfer
EBL 24-Epibrassinolide
EPS Exopolysaccharides
EUE Energy use efficiency
FACE Free air CO2 enrichment
FYM Farm yard manure
GHGs Greenhouse gases
GIS Geographic Information System
GSH Glutathione reductase
GWP Global warming potential
ICM Integrated crop management
IDM Integrated disease management
IGP Indo-Gangetic Plain
INM Integrated nutrient management
IPM Integrated pest management
IRM Integrated rice management
IWM Integrated weed management
LUE Land use efficiency
NPK Nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium
xvii
xviii Abbreviations and Acronyms
NUE Nutrient use efficiency

OTC Open top chamber
PGPM Plant growth-promoting microorganism
PGPR Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria
PSB Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria
PSM Phosphate-solubilizing microorganism
REDD+ Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
RM system Rice–maize system
ROS Reactive oxygen species
RR system Rice–rice system
RW system Rice–wheat system
RWCS Rice–wheat cropping system
SCI System of crop intensification
SOC Soil organic carbon
SOD Superoxide dismutase
SOM Soil organic matter
SRF Short rotation forestry
SRI System of rice intensification
SWAT Soil and Water Assessment Tool
UN-FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation
UPAF Urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry
VOCs Volatile organic carbon
VPD Vapour pressure density
WUE Water use efficiency
Chapter 1
Agriculture in a Changing Climate
Abstract Maximizing agricultural production for ensuring the food and nutritional
requirements of a rapidly growing human population is a major sustainability chal-
lenge of this twenty-first century. This introductory chapter briefly address the vari-
ous environmental challenges faced by agricultural system such as overgrowing
human population, climate change, biotic and abiotic stress in crop plants etc., and
the need of transition towards a resilient farming practices for feeding a growing
population. In this backdrop, the sustainable execution of adaptive agricultural prac-
tices at different levels i.e. crop/species, farm/field, and landscape levels are impera-
tive to meet the food and nutritional security of the growing human population.
Keywords Adaptive agriculture · Climate change · Food security · Resilience
1.1 Introduction
Global food security is at the crossroads as our ever-growing population (Godfray

et al. 2010; UNDES 2013) and changing climatic conditions (IPCC 2014) exert
tremendous pressure on agriculture systems worldwide. For one example, an
increasing population leads to decreased land holdings per person (Abegaz and
Keulen 2009; Abhilash et al. 2016) and thereby has resulted in continuous exploita-
tion of croplands without any fallow periods. Consequently, the soil does not have
enough time to recuperate its fertility, thus showing nutrient loss. These stresses
ultimately enhance the process of land degradation and may lead to reduction in
average cultivated land per person to less than 0.17 ha (FAO 2011; Abhilash 2015).
Apart from that, the changing climatic conditions also pose serious threats to agri-
culture and food security (Dubey et al. 2016a, b; Dubey and Singh 2017).
The threat to ‘food security’ is also threatening ‘good quality of life’ at various
levels and scales (i.e., local, regional, global) with the ultimate results of poverty
and unequal sharing of food resources among the rich and poor peoples in the world.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

P. K. Dubey et al., Adaptive Agricultural Practices, SpringerBriefs
in Environmental Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15519-3_1
2 1 Agriculture in a Changing Climate
Even today, nearly one billion people are not so fortunate to have two full meals per
day (Sheeran 2011). Developing countries are most vulnerable to food security and
poverty (IPCC 2014), and millions of poor and smallholder farmers are prone to
malnutrition and hunger. Without immediate interventions, the problem will persist
for the coming decades (Godfray et al. 2010; Abhilash et al. 2015) and will seri-
ously undermine the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framed by the UN as
their 2030 agenda for development. In particular, 1.5 billion people in South Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa are under the grind of food poverty, a number expected to
reach 3.9 billion by middle of this century (Wheeler and von Braun 2013). The
global population is projected to increase to 9 (Godfray et al. 2010) or 9.6 billion
(UNDES 2013) by mid-century, and therefore feeding this overgrowing population
in the near future using the existing land area and also by current agricultural prac-
tices seems unimaginable. Moreover, the lack of information, knowledge sharing,
and extension services provided to farmers also have a major effect in narrowing the
agricultural yield in developing countries.
Climate scientists have already predicted that if immediate adaptation (particu-
larly crop-level adaptation) strategies are not properly implemented (Challinor et al.
2014; Abhilash et al. 2016), the agriculture sector is going to witness severe reper-
cussions in coming decades. To feed this rapidly growing population, at least 60%
additional agricultural extensification must happen by 2050 (Alexandratos and
Bruinsma 2012). However, land is a limited resource, and apart from agricultural
activities, the growing population also needs land for habitation and other develop-
mental activities. Therefore, adopting systemic and transformational practices based
on the adaptive capacity of farms and fields are imperative for ensuring food avail-
ability in coming decades (Morton 2007; Challinor et al. 2014; Dubey et al. 2016a)
(Fig. 1.1).
1.2 hanging Environmental Constraints Facing

C
Agricultural Systems
As we mentioned earlier, the agriculture sector is badly impacted by changing envi-

ronmental conditions, facing various biotic and abiotic stresses daily. Major biotic
stress includes herbivore or pathogen attack and crop pests and diseases (Figs. 1.2
and 1.3).
Abiotic stress includes drought, flood, salinity, heat shock, chilling stress, and
UV radiations (Fig. 1.4) (Wani et al. 2016; Schwalm et al. 2017). Although crop
plants bear a self-defence mechanism against these stresses and tend to show toler-
ance or sensitivity during different stages of growth and development (Chinnusamy
et al. 2004; Abhilash et al. 2012), they are vulnerable to multiple stresses. The plants
either release phytohormones such as abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene or express
multiple traits (e.g., volatile-based emissions to repel pests/pathogens, etc.) to
combat various abiotic and biotic stresses (Barrett and Heil 2012; Wani et al. 2016).
1.2 Changing Environmental Constraints Facing Agricultural Systems 3
Need of adaptive agricultural practices
•Overpopulation
•Climate change
•Erratic weather changes or climate variability’s.
•Biotic and abiotic stress in different agro-climatic regions of
the world.
•Rising food demand and change in dietary preferences.
•Use of land and water resources for non-agricultural purposes
and everyday increasing rivalry for it.
•Constrain in agricultural land capacity to produce substantial
amount of food to feed overgrowing population.
•Soil degradation due to pollution by anthropogenic activities.
•Need of higher input cost in agricultural sector.
•Need of mitigating GHGs emissions from agricultural lands
Advantages of Adaptive Agricultural practices

•Conserve soil and improve its fertility.
•Ensure carbon sequestration
•Improve water availability.
•Increased nutrient use efficiency of crops
•Cope with events such as drought, flood/submergence, pest
diseases or salinity stress etc. in crop plants.
•Increased crop yield
•Enhancement of nutritional quality in crops or crop
improvements.
•Preservation of landscapes, rivers, streams, marshes and
mangroves.
•Conservation of natural resources, natural habitats and
associated biodiversity.
•Reduce greenhouse gas emissions into atmosphere.
Fig. 1.1 Why do we need adaptive agricultural practices? Indeed, adaptive practices are the need
of the hour. Pictorial representation of the need as well as the benefits of various adaptive agricul-
tural practices
For example, several crops such as cereals (wheat and maize; Kong et al. 2010;
Chen et al. 2014), oilseeds (soybean; Komatsu et al. 2015), vegetables (tomato and
cucumber; Ahsan et al. 2007; He et al. 2012), condiments (cacao; Bertolde et al.
2014), and spices (red/white clover; Stoychev et al. 2013) have been seen to show
adaptation under flood conditions by expressing diverse traits. However, because of
continuous, long-time domestication, most of the species have lost their natural
traits (Stenberg et al. 2015). In addition, intermittently occurring multiple stresses
pose additional challenges. For instance, events such as salinity and drought (IPCC
2008), heavy rainfall, floods, and drought (Iijima et al. 2016) are affecting the resil-
ience of agricultural systems.
Fig. 1.2 Crop pests are the major biotic stress in the agriculture sector. Common pests of rice
crops: (a) young caterpillar of cutworm, (b) damselfly, (c) slender rice bug (d–f), grasshoppers, (g)
gundhi bug, (h) whorl maggots, (i) stink bug. (Photo credit: Mr. Ajeet Singh, IESD, BHU)
Modelling studies have predicted that a climate-smart crop production system

alone cannot solve the burden of food security under changing climatic conditions
(Van Wijk et al. 2014). Looking at the shortage of plant-derived foods, various
national and international initiatives such as concentrated animal-feeding opera-
tions (CAFOs) (CLYEC 2007) and intensive livestock farm management (IAESD
and NIES 2009) have already been started in recent years to promote the consump-
tion of animal-derived foods for human well-being. Consequently, the majority of
the global population has been more inclined towards consumption of animal food
1.2 Changing Environmental Constraints Facing Agricultural Systems 5
Fig. 1.3 Damage caused in rice by (a) gundhi bug, (b) cutworms, (c) green horned caterpillar, (d)
stink bug, and (e–f) false smut disease caused by Ustilaginoidea virens. (Photo credit: Mr. Ajeet
Singh, IESD, BHU)
in the past two decades (Pan 2011). Initiatives such as CAFOs are expanding in
developing as well as developed nations including the US (USEPA 2009). However,
insofar as environmental and human health is concerned, over-dependence on ani-
mal food cannot be considered as a better alternative to crop-derived food.
Overall, the changing environmental conditions will negatively affect the crop
growth, yield, soil quality, and even the vegetation of a particular region (Abhilash
et al. 2013; Thornton et al. 2014; Rakshit et al. 2016a, b). Therefore, better adaptive
practices or strategies at different levels must be incorporated for sustainable agri-
cultural production.
Fig. 1.4 Abiotic stresses in crops such as (a) drought, (b) flood, (c) cold, and (d) salinity are the
major stresses affecting agricultural production across the globe. (Photo credits (d) Mr. Sheikh
Adil Edrisi, IESD, BHU)
1.3 daptive Agricultural Practices and Their Intervention

A
at Three Different Levels: Crop/Species, Farm/Field,
and Landscape Level
The foregoing assertions clearly indicate that adaptive practices are imperative for
sustainable agriculture as these adaptive practices should bring stability in the crop-
ping system by retaining crop yield potential in terms of both quality (nutritional
value) as well as quantity. It also allows recuperation of the functional integrity of
agricultural systems even under stressed environmental conditions (Di Falco and
Chavas 2008; Lin 2011). Thus, it is anticipated that adaptive agricultural practices
can ensure both food security and environmental sustainability and thereby improve
the livelihood of one and all. The implementation of such adaptive agronomic prac-
tices at various levels (i.e., ranging from crop/species to farm/field to landscape
level) will also provide benefits at three different scales: local, regional, and global
(Fig. 1.5).
For example, a better adaptation to ‘salinity stress’ or ‘region having lack of
freshwater resources’ could be either to use saline water as a new resource for
1.3 Adaptive Agricultural Practices and Their Intervention at Three Different Levels… 7
Fig. 1.5 Levels at which adaptive agricultural practices can be employed: (1) crop/species level,
(2) farm/field, and (3) landscape level
irrigation or other agricultural purposes in an innovative way (Pang et al. 2010), or

to develop salt-tolerant crop varieties by suitable crop and nutrient management
strategies (Singh et al. 2016). The former one is an example of farm/field/landscape
adaptation whereas the latter is crop/species level adaptive practices. Another exam-
ple of a species-level adaptive practice is to select the suitable crop/intercrops for
providing defence against pest attacks. For instance, use of such intercrops that can
mimic the pathogen/herbivore which induces emissions of volatile organic com-
pound (VOC) in crops and plants to provide resistance against pests is a successful
practice used by farmers for a long time (Khan et al. 1997). However, recent studies
suggest such practices of providing an indirect plant defence system against pests
was beneficial only in cases of monoculture (Rodriguez et al. 2015). Therefore,
there is always a need to explore more new insights of adaptive agricultural prac-
tices that could resolve both current and future problems under a changing environ-
ment. For instance, Stenberg et al. (2015) suggested that nectar-based food rewards
for biocontrol agents can be given combined with volatile-based tri-trophic interac-
tions to resolve problems of pest attacks on crop plants.
In the present book, we articulate such promising adaptive agronomic practices
from different agro-climatic zones of the world as model practices for enhancing the
sustainability of global food production and also for building resilience under
changing climatic conditions. Moreover, the book also exemplifies the knowledge
gaps and future prospects for transforming agriculture as a sustainable enterprise in
a changing environment.
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Chapter 2
Adaptive Agronomic Practices
for Sustaining Food Production
Abstract Agronomic practices play a major role in enhancing the productivity of

agricultural crops. However, such agronomic practices under changing climatic
condition is not adequate to enhance crop production as the changing climatic con-
ditions are reported to negatively affect crop growth, yield, soil quality and thereby
the nutritional quality of agricultural produce. Furthermore, maintaining critical
resources including water is a challenging task under changing climatic conditions.
Therefore, the wise adoption of various adaptive, specifically resource-conserving
agricultural practices such as intercropping, crop rotation, agroforestry, mixed crop-
livestock farming, mulching, and the push–pull system of crop pest and disease
management etc. are imperative to cope-up with such adverse situations. The pres-
ent chapter describes such agronomic practices and their benefits in detail.
Keywords Adaptive agricultural practices · Crop diversification · Mulching ·

Organic farming · Resource conserving practices
2.1 Brief Overview of Adaptive Practices
Management of agricultural systems, technical and equipment support, policy/eco-

nomic makeover, and infrastructural upkeep are of prime importance to improve the
agriculture sector of any nation. However, to cope with agricultural production
under the present and future warming climate, adaptive and climate-resilient agri-
cultural practices should be implemented immediately (Dubey et al. 2016a; Dubey
and Singh 2017). Many international conventions and agreements, viz. RIO + 20
(2012), the Paris Agreement (UNFCC, 2015), and the United Nation Sustainable
Development Goals (UN-SDGs) have commonalities in their targets. They all are
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 11

P. K. Dubey et al., Adaptive Agricultural Practices, SpringerBriefs
in Environmental Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15519-3_2
12 2 Adaptive Agronomic Practices for Sustaining Food Production
framed to meet global food and nutritional security to eradicate hunger, poverty, and
malnutrition, thereby attaining sustainable development by the year 2030.
Because agriculture is a dominant economic sector in many developing nations,
it has a major role in deciding the livelihood and income status of farmers (Collier
and Dercon 2014). Therefore, farmers are also equally concerned for employing
climate-resilient agricultural practices at the local level (Galdies et al. 2016). They
continue to employ various indigenous and adaptive practices at either the crop/
species, farm/field, or landscape level. Adaptive practices at the first two levels are
adopted by all groups of farmers, whether farming at a small, medium, or large
scale, whereas the landscape-level adaptive practices (for example, agroforestry)
are being done mostly by large-scale farmers or sometimes by small farmers pro-
vided they are being paid for this work by industrial interference or through govern-
ment support (Hartoyo et al. 2016). Overall, the adoption of climate-resilient,
adaptive, and resource-conserving agronomic practices can ensure high productiv-
ity, profitability, crop biodiversity, minimal emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs),
and reduced environmental risks associated with the agriculture sector (Abhilash
2015; Abhilash et al. 2013). Detailed description of promising practices with exam-
ples from different locations around the world and their benefits are discussed in
this chapter and shown in Table 2.1.
2.2 Crop Diversification
Crop diversification means switching from single or mono-cropping towards dou-

ble/companion/multiple cropping practices, intercropping practices, crop rotation,
or perenniation, etc. (Glover et al. 2012; Boudreau 2013): it is a more efficient way
of utilizing natural resources such as soil, water, and light energy for agricultural
production. Crop diversification strategies simultaneously increase net crop produc-
tion and also improve soil health by imparting interspecific interactions among dif-
ferent crop species both above and below ground, respectively (Abhilash and Dubey
2014; Rakshit et al. 2017, 2018). Aboveground diversification increases canopy heat
and light capture whereas belowground diversification assists in better utilization of
water and soil macro- and micronutrients such as phosphorus (P), iron (Fe), and
zinc (Zn) by increasing soil microbial load and activity (Singh et al. 2016c; Li et al.
2016; King and Hofmockel 2017).
2.2.1 Intercropping
Intercropping is a traditional (but often neglected) agricultural practice in which two

or more than two crops are grown at the same place simultaneously (Dwivedi et al.
2015). Intercropping alters the microclimate of the soil by changing soil tempera-
ture and moisture: it changes the pattern of dispersal through wind, rain, or a vector
2.2 Crop Diversification 13
Table 2.1 Promising adaptive agricultural practices employed at species, farm, and landscape
level from across the world for sustainable food production under changing climate
Sample Location
no. Adaptive agronomic practices Benefits of adaptive practices (country)
(a) Landscape level
1. Integrated soil crop management Higher crop yield and N use China
system (Meng et al. 2016) efficiency; low environmental
risk
2. Crop residue management Maintains SOC over a long Southern Italy
strategies (Ventrella et al. 2016) period of time; higher crop
productivity
3. Transition from conventional Improved soil quality, soil Typical mid-hill
agriculture practice to fertility, and productivity region of Nepal
agroforestry practices (Schwab
et al. 2015)
4. Agroforestry practice in larger Increases soil fertility, decreases All Europe
landscape (Torralba et al. 2016) soil erosion, conserves
biodiversity, and improves
ecosystem services
5. Replacement of nitrogenous Nitrogen supply capacity and China
fertilizer by green manure (Xie production sustainability are
et al. 2016) improved; minimised
environmental risk
6. Selective irrigation practices; Enhanced soil quality; New Delhi, India
zero tillage; use of FYM and optimized water and fertilizer
domestic sewage sludge (Bhaduri use for rice and wheat
and Purakayastha 2014)
7. Conversion of tropical forest site Reduced NO2 fluxes from farm French Guiana,
into agricultural cropland or land France
pasture by using fire-free chop
and mulch method (Petitjean
et al. 2015)
8. Climate-adapted push-pull Enhanced pest and weed Western Kenya,
system in a companion cropping control; better growth; higher Eastern Uganda,
system as a pest and weed soil fertility and soil microbial Northern
management strategy (Midega diversity; higher grain yield by Tanzania
et al. 2015) companion cropping
9. Use of biofertilizer Higher grain yield with reduced North and South
(Rhodopseudomonas palustris) in CH4 emission Thailand
organic and saline flooded paddy
field (Kantachote et al. 2016)
10. Integrated agronomic practices, Enhanced faunal diversity; Bengolea, Monte
i.e., mixed crop rotation; use of increment in litter and soil Buey, Pergamino
cover crops; rational use of quality Province,
agrochemicals; integrated pest, Argentina
weed, and disease management;
no-tillage (Bedano et al. 2016)
(continued)
Another random document with
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clever; the Gordian knot of every question might easily be solved in
this way.
Bearing in mind that the question we are now trying to solve is
this, “What is the evidence afforded by Geology, as to the history of
creation, and in what way does the geological age of the world affect
the supposed statement of Scripture, that the world is only 6,000
years old?” I reply thus, and I prefer to use the words of others rather
than my own, lest it should be supposed that I am introducing mere
novelties of opinion on this subject:—“That the first sentence in
Genesis is a simple, independent, all-comprehending axiom to this
effect; that matter, elementary or combined, aggregated only or
organized, and dependent, sentient and intellectual beings have not
existed from eternity, either in self-continuity or in succession: but
had a beginning; that their beginning took place by the all-powerful
will of One Being, the self-existent, independent and infinite in all
perfection, and that the date of that beginning is not made known.”
These are the words of Dr. Pye Smith,[123] of whose name as an
authority, both in matters of science and philology, no one need be
ashamed.
Dr. Redford says, “We ought to understand Moses as saying,
indefinitely, far back, and concealed from us in the mystery of eternal
ages, prior to the first moment of mundane time, ‘God created the
heavens and the earth.’”
“My firm persuasion is,” says Dr. Harris, “that the first verse of
Genesis was designed by the Divine Spirit to announce the absolute
origination of the material universe by the Almighty Creator, and
that it is so understood in the other parts of Holy Writ; that, passing
by an indefinite interval, the second verse describes the state of our
planet immediately prior to the Adamic creation; and that the third
verse begins the account of the six days’ work.”
Dr. Davidson, in his “Sacred Hermeneutics,” says,—“If I am
reminded, in a tone of animadversion, that I am making science, in
this instance, the interpreter of Scripture, my reply is, that I am
simply making the works of God illustrate His word in a department
in which they speak with a distinct and authoritative voice; that it is
all the same whether our geological or theological investigations have
been prior, if we have not forced the one into accordance with the
other. And it may be deserving consideration whether or not the
conduct of those is not open to just animadversion who first
undertake to pronounce on the meaning of a passage of Scripture,
irrespective of all appropriate evidence, and who then, when that
evidence is explored and produced, insist on their à priori
interpretation as the only true one.”
But I quote no more: such are some of the eminent theological
contributions to this department of science:—satisfactory in this
respect, that a fair interpretation of Scripture does not require us to
fix any precise date, much less the inconsiderable one of six
thousand years, as the period of the earth’s formation.
Geology teaches the same thing.—Of the various formations that
compose the earth’s trust, to the ascertained extent of ten miles,
suppose we select two,—the Old Red Sandstone and the Chalk
formations. Laborious and scientific men have been at the pains to
calculate the gradual increase of some of these now proceeding
deposits,—such as the Deltas, in course of formation at the mouth of
the Nile, and at the gorges of the Ganges; and they find that the
progress of the depth of increase is exceedingly small,—probably not
more than a foot in many years. Mr. Maculloch, a name standing
very high for accurate investigation, states, from his own
observation, that a particular Scottish lake does not form its deposit
at the bottom, and hence raise its level, at the rate of more than half-
a-foot in a century; and he observes, that the country surrounding
that lake presents a vertical depth of far more than 3,000 feet, in the
single series of the Old Red Sandstone formation; and no sound
geologist, he hence concludes, will, therefore, accuse the computer of
exceeding, if, upon the same ratio as the contiguous lake, he allows
600,000 years for the production of this series of rock alone.
A last instance which may here be adduced, of the apparent length
of time required for the construction of a particular rock, offers itself
in the Chalk formation. The enormous masses of this rock,
presenting their tall white precipices in such simple grandeur to our
view, might well excite our astonishment at the periods which would
seem needful for their collection and deposition, even if they were
mere inorganic concretions of calcareous matter. But what shall we
say when the investigations of the microscope have lately revealed to
us that these mountains of chalk, instead of being formed of mere
inert matter, are, on the contrary, mighty congeries of decayed
animal life,—the white apparent particles, of which the chalk masses
are composed, being each grain a well-defined organized being, in
form still so perfect, their shells so entire, and all their characteristics
so discoverable, as to cause no doubt to naturalists as to the species
in the animal economy to which they belonged. How justly does Sir
Charles Lyell, who in his “Elements” records at length this surprising
discovery, exclaim,—
“The dust we tread upon was once alive!”
“Look at the lofty precipices which lay naked a slight section of the
Chalk at the Culvers, or the Needles in the Isle of Wight, or the still
loftier Shakspeare Cliff at Dover, and let the mind form a conception,
if it can, of the countless generations of these minutest of living
creatures it must have required to build up, from their decayed
bodies and their shelly exuviæ, layer on layer, those towering masses
thus brought to our view. Who shall dare to compute the time for this
entire elaboration? The contemplation almost advances us a step
towards forming a conception of infinitude.”[124]
I need not dwell longer on the antiquity of the globe:—Geology and
Scripture present no conflicting testimonies on this subject. Our
interpretation of Scripture has, undoubtedly, been modified; but the
living Word itself abideth, in all its grandeur and purity, for ever.
And “the time is not far distant when the high antiquity of the globe
will be regarded as no more opposed to the Bible than the earth’s
revolution round the sun and on its axis. Soon shall the horizon,
where geology and revelation meet, be cleared of every cloud, and
present only an unbroken and magnificent circle of truth.”[125]
The reader shall not be detained so long on the second point of
inquiry, which is
II. “Was death introduced into the world before the fall of man?
and if it was, how are the statements of Scripture, on this question, to
be explained?” To this I have replied by anticipation, that, in my
opinion, death, upon a most extensive scale, prevailed upon the
earth, and in the waters that are under the earth, countless ages
before the creation of man. Into the proof of this position allow me to
go very briefly, although I am well aware that I run the risk of
incurring the charge of heterodoxy, when I state my full conviction,
that death, as well as the world, was pre-Adamite. The general
impression is the contrary; but general impressions are not always
right:—“general impression” is a very unsubstantial ghost to deal
with, very like that cant phrase we spoke of at the beginning of this
lecture,—“the intelligence of the age.” “General impression” has it,
that death was not pre-Adamite; that there was no death before the
fall; and that, to say the contrary, is, at least, to tread on very
dangerous ground. In vain does Geology—“now happily a true
science, founded on facts, and reduced to the dominion of definite
laws”—lay bare the Silurian rocks, and discover even there extinct
forms of life in exquisitely beautiful preservation. In vain does
Geology, after showing us the fossil trilobite and coral, unfold the
volume of the Old Red Sandstone, and show us there the fossil
remains of fish—so perfect that we might imagine them casts rather
than fossils. In vain does Geology open its vast Oolitic system, and
show us there other forms of extinct life in fossil insects, tortoises,
mighty saurians, and huge iguanodons. In vain does Geology lay bare
the Chalk, with its marine deposits; and the Tertiary formation, with
its enormous theroid mammalia, far surpassing in size the largest
animals we are acquainted with. In vain are all these fossil remains
exhibited imbedded in the earth; and in vain do we search, amidst all
these, for one fossil remain of man, or one fossil vestige of man’s
works. The easy, the cheap, the unreflective answer is, “Oh! these
things were created there, or else Noah’s flood left them there.”
Of course, we can fall back upon a miracle as having done all this;
but to have recourse to miracles when no miracle is recorded, is just
to shake our faith in that all-inspired testimony, that supernatural
Book, the existence of which is the great miracle of time. But there
are the fossils! How did they come there if the forms of animal life,
once inhabiting those remains, had not previously lived and died?
Created! What? Created fossils? Then why not, when the Almighty
created man, did he not create, at the same time, some skeletons of
man, and place them in the earth, as he put skeletons of trilobites,
fishes, reptiles, and mammals there? Our common sense and
reverence both reject the idea. As to the puerile notion that Noah’s
flood put them there, did not Noah’s flood overwhelm man as well as
animals? and as the bones of man are as durable as the bones of
animals, how is it that we never meet with a fossil human skull or
thigh bone, or house?
We believe that death was a part of the divine plan of God’s
creation; that death is a law of all organic life—a necessary law and a
most benevolent provision; that the living structure of all animals
derives its substance from dead organic matter. We believe that,
altogether apart from human sin, preceding and successive
generations must be the order of being; for if there were no death,
animals would soon pass beyond the limit of provision sufficient for
nutritive support, or of localities for suitable habitations. We believe
that if there had been no death prior to man’s sin, it would involve
the supposition that all animals were herbivorous; whereas, even the
little ladybird cannot live without its meal of aphides; and, so
believing, we find our faith in Scripture deepened when, seeing on
every hand the extensive proofs of death, we find man, the moment
he lost his lordship and proud eminence, and reduced himself
voluntarily to the condition of animalism, immediately brought
penally within the influence of that law of death, whose existence he
must have recognised in the death of animals from the first day of his
creation.
Does any one reply, “This is contrary to Scripture?” I ask them
what Scripture teaches that the death of animals is the result of
man’s sin?—rather would not Scripture sanction the thought that
death was a part of the divine plan of God’s creation, and that the
certainty of man’s transgression was the reason for giving this
constitution to nature? True, Milton sings, in his noble poem, that
will live as long as the English language lives—
“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe:”
but we are not obliged to call the Paradise Lost our Bible; or to quote
Milton as a physiological authority, although the prevalence of the
opinion that death was not pre-Adamite, and a good deal of theology
besides, is more of Miltonic than of Scripture teaching.
I leave this branch of my subject far before it is exhausted: so far
from that, each of the three points enumerated might easily be
expanded into a lecture; and I can only hope that my brevity in
treating these topics will not be misconstrued into a desire to shirk
any of the difficulties with which their investigation is surrounded.
III. I come, lastly, to the question of the Noachian Deluge, and
shall again repeat my own words: “What was the character of the
Noachian Deluge?—was it partial or universal? and what are the
apparent discrepancies, in this case, between science and the Bible?”
And I have added to this my belief that the Noachian Deluge was
quite partial in its character, and very temporary in its duration: that
it destroyed only those animals that were found in those parts of the
earth habitable by man, and that it has not left a single shell or fossil,
or any drift boulders or pebbles, or any other remains that may be
traced to its action.
Very briefly we shall try and prove this; and perhaps the most
popular way will be the best remembered,—only that the reader will
bear in mind that this little book does not pretend to exhaust the
subject, but only to realize the idea expressed at the beginning of this
chapter. Presuming, that all have in their recollection the Scriptural
account of the Noachian Deluge, instead of quoting words with
which all are familiar, I will only remark, as the basis of my
illustrations, that rain descended, and probably the ocean
overflowed, for forty days; that the waters lay upon the land, and
covered them one hundred and fifty days; that at the end of that time
they began to subside, and that in twelve months and twenty-seven
days they were gone from the face of the earth, and the Noachian
family liberated from the ark.
The question is, was this flood universal, and were all kinds of
animals preserved in the ark? To which my answer, as involving my
belief, is this, that the flood was local, and that only the animals
peculiar to Armenia were provided for in Noah’s ark.
“Oh! but the Bible says it was universal,” says everybody. Yes; but
that, you know, is just the question between us. The terms “all the
earth” seem to imply universality, but they do not necessarily involve
this. “All countries came to Egypt to buy corn;” certainly not all the
world literally, but all the surrounding countries. So there were once
dwelling at Jerusalem devout Jews “from out of every nation under
heaven;” but not literally out of every nation, for the names of the
nations are immediately given, and we find the nations to have been
a few between Egypt and the Black Sea, and between Italy and
Palestine. There are many other illustrations of a similar character:
these will suffice: I only adduce these to show that at the beginning
Scripture does not oblige us to consider “all” as meaning “every one;”
or to understand literally “all the inhabitants of the earth” as
meaning every creature.
Now, looking at the structure and composition of the earth’s crust,
especially its fossiliferous rocks, I am driven to one of three
conclusions, each of them involving difficulty, I acknowledge, but the
one that involves the least is, of course, the most preferable. Either I
must admit—
1. That the fossils in these rocks were all deposited in order and in
succession, without injury, through a crust of rocks ten miles in
thickness, during twelve months’ violent diluvial action:
2. Or that they were all deposited there during the 15,000 or
16,000 years that had elapsed since the creation of man prior to the
Deluge; that is, supposing the creation of man and the creation of the
earth to have been synchronous. Or, lastly, which theory I accept—
3. That the date of the earth’s physical being is unknown to us, and
that the fossiliferous rocks were deposited in decades of ages before
the creation of man.
For, on the other hand, let us suppose the flood to have been
universal, in the strict and literal sense of the term; then let me
suggest some of the consequences and difficulties of such a theory.
1. One consequence would be that some remains of man or of his
works would have been found; but nothing of this kind has occurred.
Even Armenia has been geologically examined, and no human
remains have been found; and surely man’s bones would last as long
as the shells of a trilobite or terebratula?
2. And, secondly, the organic remains, the fossils themselves,
would have been found confusedly heaped together; whereas, the
remains in the crust of the earth are as carefully arranged as the
contents of a well-ordered cabinet. We know always to a certainty
what fossils will be found in any rock before we examine that rock.
3. Besides which, some, at least, of the organic remains found
ought to correspond with existing beings and species: yet the
contrary is the case, except only a few fossils found near the surface
of the earth, in that portion of the earth’s crust occupied by the
tertiary system.
Nor is this all. Consider the vast difficulties the universal flood
theory has to contend with, all of which are removed by the theory
we have adopted.
1. There is the quantity of water required. If all over the earth the
water rose twenty-two feet six inches above the tops of the highest
mountains, the quantity of water required would be eight times the
whole quantity of water now existing. Where all this could have come
from first and gone to afterwards, are prodigious stumbling-blocks.
Of course we can resort to miracle; but this is not the way to get rid
of difficulty in a manly and honest spirit.
2. Then consider the number of animals the ark must have
contained. There are 1,000 species of mammalia, 5,000 species of
birds, 2,000 species of reptiles, and 120,000 well-ascertained and
distinct species of insects. Do we pretend that all these were housed
and fed for nearly thirteen months in a vessel that was only 450 feet
long, 75 feet broad, and 45 feet high; and that such a vessel contained
room for them, and their food, besides that of man, for such a long
period. The little toys of Noah’s ark are certainly pretty, but very
mischievous, and most of the popular notions of the flood have
grown up from our nurseries as much from the use of this toy in this
case, as from the reading of Paradise Lost in the other: and the result
is, the Bible is made responsible for it all.
3. Then consider the subsequent distribution of animals: the polar
bear and the tropical elephant, the ferocious tiger and a young fawn,
going out together in order, and without violence: of course we can
suppose another miracle to repress passions and violence. Besides
which, in addition to the fauna, the animal kingdom, we must ask
what became of the flora or vegetable kingdom during this period, if
the flood were universal? We have at least twenty-five botanical
provinces, with their peculiar and numberless farms of vegetable life;
what became of them? Were they preserved in the ark, or under the
water?—for such questions must be answered by those who charge us
with inconsistency in attempting to reconcile the facts of science with
the words of Scripture. And as a last difficulty, (suggested first, I
believe, by Dr. Pye Smith, and which I shall therefore state in his
words, lest it should seem that I use “plainness of speech,”) let us
look at the descent from Ararat out of the ark, into Armenia, with all
these animals, birds, insects, plants and trees. “That mountain is
17,000 feet high, and perpetual snow covers about 5,000 feet from
its summit. If the water rose, at its liquid temperature, so as to
overflow that summit, the snows and icy masses would be melted;
and on the retiring of the flood, the exposed mountain would present
its pinnacles and ridges, dreadful precipices of naked rock, adown
which the four men and the four women, and with hardly any
exception the quadrupeds, would have found it utterly impossible to
descend. To provide against this difficulty, to prevent them from
being dashed to pieces, must we again suppose a miracle? Must we
conceive of the human beings and the animals as transported
through the air to the more level regions below; or that, by a miracle
equally grand, they were enabled to glide unhurt adown the wet and
slippery faces of the rock?”
Such are some of the difficulties and some of the consequences
that must flow from an acceptance of any other theory than the one I
have proposed: that the flood was partial in its character, extending
only over the habitable parts of the earth; and that it was so
temporary in its character as not to have left a single trace of its
influence visible on rock or fossil.
I have thus endeavoured to suggest points of reconciliation
between the accepted facts of Geology and the recorded statements
of Scripture; and if this slight contribution be accepted as an aid to
faith, and a proof of candour on my part to meet those who linger on
the border land of doubt, my purpose will be fully answered.
Let me add, in the words of Chenevix Trench—words uttered in the
University of Cambridge not long since: “May we in a troubled time
be helped to feel something of the grandeur of the Scriptures, and so
of the manifold wisdom of that Eternal Spirit by whom it came; and
then petty objections and isolated difficulties, though they were
multiplied as the sands of the sea, will not harass us. For what are
they all to the fact, that for more than 1,000 years the Bible
collectively taken, has gone hand in hand with civilization, science,
law—in short, with the moral and intellectual cultivation of the
species, always supporting and often leading the way? Its very
presence as a believed book, has rendered the nations emphatically a
chosen race; and this, too, in exact proportion as it is more or less
generally studied. Of those nations which in the highest degree enjoy
its influences, it is not too much to affirm that the differences, public
and private, physical, moral, and intellectual, are only less than what
might be expected from a diversity in species. Good and holy men,
and the best and wisest of mankind, the kingly spirits of history
enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations, have borne witness to its
influence, and have declared it to be beyond compare the most
perfect instrument and the only adequate organ of humanity: the
organ and instrument of all the gifts, powers, and tendencies, by
which the individual is privileged to rise beyond himself, to leave
behind and lose his dividual phantom self, in order to find his true
self in that distinctness where no division can be,—in the Eternal I
am, the ever-living Word, of whom all the elect, from the archangel
before the throne to the poor wrestler with the Spirit until the
breaking of day, are but the fainter and still fainter echoes.”
M. CLAY, PRINTER HEAD STREET HILL.

1. Whewell’s Astronomy and Physics, p. 48.
2. From παλαιός, ancient, and ζωόν, life; ancient-life period.
3. Hughes, Physical Geography. 3d ed. p. 21.
4. Hughes, Physical Geog. p. 22.
5. Dr. Pye Smith.
6. As Chimborazo in South America, 21,414; Ararat, 16,000; Dhawalagiri, in
the Himalayas, 28,000 feet above the level of the sea; compared with which what a
mole-hill is Vesuvius, only 8,947 feet; or Blue Mountain Peak, 8,600, or even Mont
Blanc, that monarch of mountains, which is 15,816 feet above the sea!
7. Hughes, p. 16.
8. Chambers’ Rudiments of Geology, p. 71.
9. These wells are so frequently spoken of as to need no explanation, further
than to remind the reader that they are so called from having been first introduced
in the province of Artois, the ancient Artesium in France.
10. The deepest Artesian well is the famous one in the Plaine de Grenelle,
Paris. This well yields 516 gallons a minute; its temperature is 81° Fahr.; and its
depth is nearly 1,800 feet.
11. How truly hieroglyphics—sacred carvings; (ieros, sacred, glupho, I carve;)
and in this sense there is a holier meaning than Shakspeare could have dreamt of
in his well-known lines, when applied by the geologist to his researches:—
“And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
12. And I may say, my friend also, to whom, during my residence in Jamaica, I
was frequently indebted for contributions on natural history to the Jamaica
Friendly Instructor, of which I was Editor.
13. A Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica, by P. H. Gosse, Esq. pp. 496–7.
14. So called because of its grained or granular appearance.
15. First brought from Syene, in Egypt.
16. Feld-spar, written also felspar, a compound of feld, field, and spar.
17. See Ansted’s Ancient World, p. 21.
18. Memnon, or Ramesis. This famous head is in the British Museum; the
body is of greenstone, the head of syenite, and the bust one continuous mass.
19. From dis and integer. The separation of the whole parts of a rock, without
chemical action, by means of the light, the air, or the rain, is called disintegration.
20. Lieut. Portlock on Geology, p. 93.
21. Ansted’s Geology, Descriptive and Practical, vol. ii. pp. 290, 291.
22. Ansted’s Geology, p. 291.
23. As the ancients did not know or use the compound metal brass, though
bronze was common amongst them, we must in this verse, and all others in which
the word “brass” is used, understand it to mean copper.—Hughes’ Scripture
Geography, Art. Geology of Palestine, p. 133.
24. Murray’s Hand-book for Cornwall, p. 199.
25. Ansted, vol. ii. p. 418.
26. Whewell, Anniversary Address to Geol. Society, 1839.
27. In Memoriam.
28. Dr. Pye Smith says 140,000 feet.
29. See a valuable map of fossils published by the Christian Knowledge
Society.
30. Trilobite: treis, three, and lobos, a lobe; having three lobes.
31. Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i. p. 396.
32. A fossil shell allied to the Argonauta and Carinaria.
33. “Man has no tail, quantum mutatus; but the notion of a much-ridiculed
philosopher of the last century is not altogether without foundation; for the bones
of a caudal extremity exist in an undeveloped state in the os coccygis of the human
subject.” Poor man!—Vestiges of Creation, p. 71.
34. Sedgwick, p. 216, “On the Studies of the University of Cambridge.”
35. “My School and Schoolmasters,” by Hugh Miller.
36. “Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field;” by Hugh Miller, p.
48.
37. “By mind, by hand, and by hammer.”
38. “Old Red Sandstone,” p. 66.
39. Ichthyolite: ichthus, a fish, lithos, a stone: fossil fish, or the figure or
impression of a fish in the rock.
40. “Old Red Sandstone,” pp. 41, 42.
42. From akanthos, a thorn, and pterugion, the fin.
43. From malakos, soft, and pterugion, the fin.
44. 1. Ganoid, from ganos, splendour, because the scales are coated with a
bright enamel.
45. 2. Placoid, from plax, a plate; sometimes large, sometimes reduced to a
point; e.g. shark.
46. 3. Ctenoid, from kteis (gen. ktenos, a comb); scales jagged like a comb.
47. 4. Cycloid, from kuklos, a circle; scales smooth and simple: e.g. salmon,
&c.
48. From kephalē, the head; aspis, a buckler.
49. Coccosteus, from kokkos, a berry, and osteon, a bone.
51. Pterichthys: pteron, a wing, and ichthus, a fish.
52. “Old Red Sandstone,” pp. 80, 81.
53. Osteolepis: osteon, a bone, and lepis, a scale.
54. Operculum, the flap which covers the gill.
56. “Vast quantities:” let any reader go and turn over the non-bituminous
shale lying on the waste heaps of every coalpit, and he will see that this is no
exaggeration.
57. Capillus Veneris.
58. Corruption of arrière-dos, a fire-place. See a view and description of one
in “A Visit to Penshurst,” in Howitt’s “Visits to Remarkable Places,” Second Series.
59. Juicy and soft, as peas, beans, plantains, bananas, &c.
60. “Ancient World,” pp. 76, 77.
61. This may seem strange at first; but I have journeyed through tropical
forests that realized completely this sketch, so far as stillness and silence are
concerned. A modern and most accomplished naturalist says of a Jamaica virgin
forest, “Animal life is almost unseen; the solitude is scarcely broken by the voices
of birds, except that now and then the rain-bird or the hunter (large cat-tailed
cuckoos that love the shade) sound their startling rattle, or the mountain partridge
utters those mournful cooings which are like the moans of a dying man.”—Gosse’s
Jamaica, p. 198.
62. From κάλαμος (calamus), a reed.
63. Ansted’s “Ancient World,” p. 82.
64. Mesozoic: i.e. middle life period; mesos, middle, zoos, life.
65. The Religious Tract Society.
66. Lyell’s “Manual of Elementary Geology.” Postscript, p. 13.
67. Ansted’s Geology, vol i. p. 306.
68. Ichnites; from ichnon, a footstep, and eidos, like.
69. Ornithos, a bird, and ichnon.
70. Marsupial, from marsupium, a pouch; animals of the fourth order of
Cuvier, that have a pouch in which the young are carried.
71. Batrachian, from batrachos, a frog; animals in Cuvier’s fourth class of
reptiles.
72. Cheir, the hand, therion, a wild beast; a wild beast with a foot like a hand.
73. From labyrinthus, a labyrinth, and odous, a tooth; so called from the
labyrinthine structure of the tooth.
74. In some cases we find, corresponding to a set of footmarks, a continuous
furrow, presumed to be the impression of a tail dragged along the sand by the
animal while walking.
75. Ansted’s Ancient World, pp. 125–127.
76. Knight’s Cyclopædia of Arts, &c.
77. Quarterly Review, May, 1852. Article on Roger de Coverley.
78. This is a corruption, we are inclined to think, of the word “layers;” one of
those provincial corruptions of the Queen’s English that get stereotyped.
79. Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise. pp. 351, 352.
80. A fossil bivalve, allied to the oyster, and very abundant in the secondary
strata.
81. Belemnite, from belemnos, a dart, and so called from its arrow-headed
shape.
82. Saurian, from sauros, a lizard, the name by which the great family of
lizards is designated.
83. From ichthus, a fish, and sauros, a lizard; so called from its resemblance to
both.
84. Heteroclite; heteros, another, and klitos, inclining; a word applied to any
thing or person deviating from common forms.
85. Very unlike the alligator, whose eyes are placed at a considerable distance
behind the nose.
86. From pleiōn, more, and sauros, a lizard; because it is more like a lizard
than the Ichthyosaurus.
87. Mantel’s Fossils of the British Museum, p. 341.
88. This formation is sometimes called the Jurassic system.
89. Lyell’s Manual of Elementary Geology, p. 12, ed. 1852.
90. “So vast an expanse!” Mr. Darwin traced coral reefs in the Pacific, 4,000
miles long and 600 broad. Between the coasts of Malabar and Madagascar there is
a chain of coral reefs, called the Maldives and Laccadives, 480 miles long and 50
miles wide. On the east coast of Australia there is an unbroken reef of 350 miles
long; and between Australia and Guinea, coral reefs extend 700 miles in length.
Truly the coral animals, like the “conies,” are a “feeble folk,” but their habitations
survive our proudest monuments.
91. Hugh Miller’s First Impressions, pp. 203, 204.
92. Brash is s Wiltshire word for short or brittle; and thus a quick-tempered,
irritable person, is said to have a brashy temper.
93. Geology for Beginners (Weale’s Series), p. 147.
94. Juke’s Popular Geology, pp. 42–44.
95. From krinos, a lily, and eidos, like; lily-shaped animals of the Radiated
division, forming a link between the animal and vegetable world.
96. From trochos, a wheel; wheel-shaped crinoideans.
97. From pteron, a wing, and dactulos, a finger; the wing-fingered animal.
98. The term Weald or Wold is the old Saxon for our present Wood; and now,
altered by pronunciation, is found in connexion with many words and names of
places: e.g. Waltham (Weald-ham), the wood house or home; Walthamstow, the
wood house store, and so on. Thus it is that words are “fossil poetry.”
99. Alison’s description of South America, in History of Europe (Article, South
American Revolution); vol. viii.
100. “Our disposition is, and has been, not to multiply miracles after the sort
in which this has been done by many more zealous than wise friends of revelation.
In all cases we allow the miracle without question, which is distinctly claimed to be
such in the Scriptures, and where the circumstances clearly indicate that a miracle
was necessary,—we say ‘necessary,’ because we are persuaded that the Almighty
has almost invariably chosen to act through natural agencies, and under the laws
which he has imposed on nature, whenever they are adequate to produce the
required result. We believe it is one of the beautiful peculiarities of the Bible, that it
has none of those gratuitous and barren wonders, which form the mass of the
pretended miracles which the various systems of false religion produce.... For our
own part, we do not wish to hear of small miracles, which leave us doubtful
whether there be any miracle at all. If we are to have miracles, let them be
decidedly miraculous, and let not our veneration for the Divine character be
offended by exhibitions of the Almighty, as laying bare his holy arm to remove the
small remaining difficulty which theorists leave him to execute.”—Dr. Kitto’s
Biblical History of Palestine.
101. We have a fine specimen before us which we brought from Demerara,
answering well to Gosse’s description of the iguana found in Jamaica. “In the
eastern parts of the island the great iguana (Cyclura lophoma), with its dorsal
crest, like the teeth of a saw, running all down its back, may be seen lying out on
the branches of the trees, or playing bo-peep from a hole in the trunk.” It is
considered a great delicacy by many, but it never seemed Christian food to us, and
we never ventured to provoke our palate with a taste.
102. Enaliosaurians are sea lizards, such as those found in the Lias; and
deinosaurians are terrible lizards, such as those found in the Wealden.
103. Ansted’s Ancient World, pp. 164–168.
104. Just published by Bohn, in his valuable “Scientific Library;” a marvel of
cheapness and value.
105. Since writing the above we have met with the following, which proves that
this origin of chalk is not so fabulous as some think it:—“Lieut. Nelson, Mr. Dance,
and others have shown, that the waste and débris derived from coral reefs
produces a substance exactly resembling chalk. I can corroborate this assertion
from my own observations, both on some very white chalky limestones in Java and
the neighbouring islands, which I believe to be nothing else than raised fringing
coral reefs, and on the substance brought up by the lead over some hundreds of
miles in the Indian Archipelago, and along the north-east coast of Australia, and
the coral sea of Flinders,”—Juke’s Physical Geology, p. 263.
106. We take the origin of the word Folkstone to mean, that that old town was
once built of the brick that may be made of the galt: it was the folk’s-stone.
107. “The Religion of Geology,” &c., by E. Hitchcock, LL.D. &c. p. 70.
108. Mantell’s “Geological Excursions,” p. 145.
109. Richardson, p. 391.
110. Under-borne rocks; upo, below, and ginomai, to be formed.
111. Middle life period: mesos, middle, and zoos, life.
112. Recent-life period: kainŏs, recent, and zoos, life.
113. Juke’s Practical Geology, p. 265.
114. Lyell’s Manual of Geology, pp. 97, 98.
115. Ansted’s Geology, vol. ii. p. 14.
116. Even Hitchcock’s good book is sadly disfigured and damaged, by trying to
make geology prove too much. How can geology teach or suggest sin and the
resurrection?
117. British Quarterly, Feb. 1852.
118. Owen’s British Fossil Mammals and Birds, p. 255.
119. Mantell, pp. 477–479.
120. Mantell, p. 471.
121. The skeleton is not more than 150 years old, and is probably one of an
Indian who fell in war; and has been covered with carbonate of lime, held in
solution in some spring.
122. Hugh Miller’s “First Impressions of England and its People,” p. 362.
123. No sooner did geology give signs of being able to speak from her
subterranean abode, and say something new about the history of this old world,
than Dr. Smith was among the foremost of the geologists, intent upon the
interpretation of these mysterious, and at first incoherent sounds. At times the
sounds seemed unscriptural, but his faith never failed; at other times it seemed in
confirmation of Scripture, and he was filled with delight. There were sepulchres
older than what he had accounted the era of death, and he must solve the mystery.
Mineralogy, to which from his youth he had given considerable attention, became
to him history more ancient than that of Moses, and poetry more fascinating than
that of Homer. His minerals became books of wonderful tales; his fossils, before
riddles of nature, the pictures of things in ancient worlds. The earth was a land of
monuments, and the rock which before seemed nothing more than the solid
masonry of the foundation on which men might build their dwellings, became the
enduring chronicle of the millions of years in which extinct ages had risen,
flourished and decayed. From that time he suffered no discovery of the geologists
to escape his attention; and every valuable book upon the subject in English,
German, or French, contributed its supplies to mitigate his insatiate craving after
further information.
Dr. Smith had another reason for devoting a large proportion of his time to
geological studies. The new science had something to say about Holy Scripture. It
threatened, as many understood its first ambiguous words, to contradict the book
of Genesis.
Whatever affected theology was of supreme importance in the estimation of
the Homerton professor. Having full confidence in the truth of God’s word, he was
sure that nature and revelation, however they appeared to superficial observers,
could not be really at variance. In that confidence he patiently listened to every
word the new science had to say about the creation of the world. To him belongs
the honour, in the opinion of the most eminent geologists, of having relieved their
science of every appearance of hostility to Scripture. Of his book on this subject,
Dr. Mantell said, “It is, indeed, the dove sent out from the ark of modern geology;
and it has returned with the olive branch in its mouth.”—British Quarterly, Jan.
1854. Art. Dr. Pye Smith.
124. Gray’s Antiquity of the Globe, pp. 57–59.
125. Hitchcock, p. 70.
August, 1854.
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Adaptive Agricultural Practices:

Building Resilience in a Changing

Applied Agricultural Practices for Mitigating Climate

Enabling Adaptive Water Management to Face Drought Risk

Agriculture and Ecosystem Resilience in Sub Saharan

Climate Smart Agriculture : Building Resilience to

Emerging Trends and Applications in Cognitive Computing

Cognitive Computing in Human Cognition Perspectives and

Resilience to Climate Change Candice Howarth

Electronic Systems and Intelligent Computing

Pradeep Kumar Dubey

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8868

Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash

ISSN 2191-5547 ISSN 2191-5555 (electronic)

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) Panjab Singh

Varanasi, UP, India Pradeep Kumar Dubey

1 Agriculture in a Changing Climate���������������������������������������������������������� 1

3.3 Coping Under Biotic Stress Environment������������������������������������������ 50

Pradeep Kumar Dubey is a senior research fellow in the Institute of Environment

Gopal Shankar Singh is a professor in the Institute of Environment and Sustainable

Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash is a senior assistant professor of sus-

knowledge (ILK), and ecosystem-based approaches for managing agrobiodiversity

ABA Abscisic acid

NUE Nutrient use efficiency

Keywords Adaptive agriculture · Climate change · Food security · Resilience

Global food security is at the crossroads as our ever-growing population (Godfray

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

1.2  hanging Environmental Constraints Facing

As we mentioned earlier, the agriculture sector is badly impacted by changing envi-

Need of adaptive agricultural practices

Advantages of Adaptive Agricultural practices

Modelling studies have predicted that a climate-smart crop production system

1.3  daptive Agricultural Practices and Their Intervention

i­rrigation or other agricultural purposes in an innovative way (Pang et al. 2010), or

Abstract Agronomic practices play a major role in enhancing the productivity of

Keywords Adaptive agricultural practices · Crop diversification · Mulching ·

2.1 Brief Overview of Adaptive Practices

Management of agricultural systems, technical and equipment support, policy/eco-

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 11

2.2 Crop Diversification

Crop diversification means switching from single or mono-cropping towards dou-

Intercropping is a traditional (but often neglected) agricultural practice in which two

M. CLAY, PRINTER HEAD STREET HILL.

“And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE & CO.

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The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) Panjab Singh

Varanasi, UP, India Pradeep Kumar Dubey

1 Agriculture in a Changing Climate�� 1

3.3 Coping Under Biotic Stress Environment�� 50

1.2 hanging Environmental Constraints Facing

1.3 daptive Agricultural Practices and Their Intervention

irrigation or other agricultural purposes in an innovative way (Pang et al. 2010), or

2.1 Brief Overview of Adaptive Practices

2.2 Crop Diversification