Synecological Farming for Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Smallholding Farms and Foods: Implication for Agriculture in India

Abstract

We experimented a novel system of small-scale market gardening, namely synecoculture, in the temperate zone of Japan and semi-arid tropic in Burkina Faso. Synecoculture is based on highly biodiverse mixed polyculture of crops, including underutilized and neglected species, on the basis of no-till, no-fertilizer, and no-chemical practices. Through the measurements and analyses of species diversity, vegetation surface distribution, plantinsect interactions, soil environmental variables, yield performance, food and nutrition diversity, spontaneous organization of ecosystem functions in response to the introduced diversity of plant community was revealed to be compatible with productivity and various regulation services even in marginal environment. The results provide promising possibilities for the application to smallholding agriculture in India, which could potentially recover historical loss of biodiversity and multiple regulation services such as pollination and water cycle, and contribute to resolve poverty and malnutrition, if institutional supports on the access to PGRFA and leveraging technologies were properly coordinated.