4. Agricultural Sustainability and Climate Change Nexus

The phenomenon of climate change is affecting life on Earth in numerous ways, and agricultural sector is affected utmost as it is highly sensitive to the climatic factors. Agricultural sustainability is the call of the time when the growing population in the world needs to be nourished, while at the same time struggling with the effects of increasing pollution and deterioration of available agricultural land. As the resources obtainable on the earth are increasingly constrained, the stressed agricultural system has to survive and excel to be able to arrange for the basic human necessity of food. Water, energy and food systems are interconnected, and these systems must be linked to each other. However, the process is two-way round, wherein the climate is also distressed by the intensive practices applied to meet the increasing demand. This is the nexus of agricultural sustainability and climate change. The more one segment is stressed, the more the other segments are affected. A balance cannot be attained unless the complexity of the interconnections among the different sectors is understood and the challenge of adaptation is accepted, giving preference to the interdependence of the factors of the agricultural system.