Projects

Agricultural land use transition pathways in semi-arid India

PI:

Current agricultural systems are failing the people and the planet, while negative biophysical and socio-ecological feedbacks are decreasing resilience to future shocks. Meanwhile, there is limited systematic evidence on how the adoption of alternative agricultural practices improves farmer incomes and ecosystem services. We are building this evidence by tracking farmer cohorts and monitoring economic and ecological indicators over multiple growing seasons. We also ask what motivates farmers to adopt and sustain these practices. This approach allows us to describe future economic and ecological flows within semi-arid agricultural systems, easing the adoption of such alternatives beyond a handful of participating farmers.