ABSTRACT
Crop management is an integral part of the sustainable agriculture. Because of the advantage of repetitive coverage and synoptic overview, satellite remote sensing has emerged as a cost-effective tool covering all aspects of soil, water and crop management. A sustainable agricultural system has to be economically viable, agrotechnically feasible, politically and socially acceptable, institutionally manageable and ecologically sound. Satisfying all the requirements of sustainability, fixation of the criteria and estimation of the indicators is a very complex task. Hence, the initial and boundary conditions need to be arrived at after giving due consideration to the prevailing conditions in relation to the expected levels of change. Some of the salient basic tenets of sustainable agriculture are given hereunder:
• Meeting the needs of the Present without compromising the future needs • Stewardship of both natural and human resources • Transition to Sustainable Agriculture (SA) is a Process, involving a series of small
and realistic steps • Critical for SA continuum • Participation of everyone involved is a must 3.2 Systems approach in sustainable agriculture
A ‘Systems’ perspective is essential to understand the sustainability. The system is envisioned in its broadest sense, from the individual farm to the local ecosystem and to the communities affected by the farming system both locally and globally. An emphasis on systems allows a larger and more thorough view of the consequences of farming on both humans and the environment. The systems approach gives us tools to explore the interconnections between farming and other aspects of the environment. It automatically calls for inter-disciplinary efforts in research and education.
