Integrated land systems for sustainable food production and biodiversity conservation in the semi-arid to moist tropics: stakeholder perspectives from Andhra Pradesh, India

Iris Berger^1,2*Manan Bhan³Rekha Bhangaonkar⁴Abhishek Chaudhary⁵Gopinath R Mallapu⁶Tanaya Nair⁷Eswarayya Ramireddy⁸Rengalakshmi Raj⁹Vijay Ramprasad¹⁰Vishnupriya Sankararaman¹¹Vartika Singh¹²Hareesha AS¹³Parthiba Basu¹⁴Boraiah Bheemappa¹⁵Chandrashekhar Biradar¹⁶Archana Chatterjee¹⁷Ramdas Dagam¹⁸Israel Oliver King Edwin Devarathna⁹Reuben Gergan¹⁹Vinuthna Patibandla²⁰Benjamin Paul²¹Vamshi Krishna Pulluri²²Nandini Rajamani¹³Mounika Ramireddy²³Imran Siddiqui²¹Sowmithri Vadaganambi Ramachari²⁰Farida Tampal²²Swati Udayraj¹³Tata Venkateswarlu^23,24Lynn V Dicks^1,2

• ¹Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
• ²Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
• ³Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
• ⁴Department of Land Economy, Institute of Criminology, School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
• ⁵Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
• ⁶Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad, Telangana, India
• ⁷Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, United Kingdom
• ⁸Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India
• ⁹M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
• ¹⁰Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States
• ¹¹Wildlife Conservation Society, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
• ¹²International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, Delhi, India
• ¹³Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India
• ¹⁴University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
• ¹⁵University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• ¹⁶Global Green Growth, Bengaluru, India
• ¹⁷IUCN India Country Office, New Delhi, India
• ¹⁸Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
• ¹⁹United Nations Environment Programme (India), New Delhi, India
• ²⁰Rainforest Alliance, Guntur, India
• ²¹Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• ²²World Wide Fund for Nature (India), New Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi, India
• ²³Rythu Sadhikara Samastha, Guntur, India
• ²⁴Indo German Global Academy for Agroecology Research and Learning, Venkatampalle, India

Land systems must urgently be transformed for social and environmental sustainability, which necessitates a better integration of food system and biodiversity governance. This is particularly pronounced in the south-Indian state Andhra Pradesh, where one of the largest agroecological transitions globally, namely Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), is currently underway, but involvement of conservation scientists and practitioners has been minimal and policy spheres are disjunct. Here, we report the results of a multistakeholder exercise to ascertain the multi-scalar and multi-institutional transformations needed for Andhra Pradesh 's landscapes to deliver both food and biodiversity targets. To achieve a vision of an equitable and sustainable food system and of multifunctional and nature-positive land systems, we advocate for an end to harmful subsidies, improvements in infrastructures and social organisations, dietary shifts, and creation of both supporting financial structures and sustainable and transparent value chains. We stress that approaches should be participatory and link across policy domains and scales, bridging bottom-up and top-down perspectives, and with spatial planning critical to balancing land system objectives. Specifically, we stress that the ZBNF transition needs to be better aligned with state-level conservation strategies to maximise biodiversity benefits. Top priority knowledge needs include quantifying the multidimensional performance and scaling-potential of agroecological systems, the effectiveness of different conservation interventions, and how different land system objectives trade off against each other. Our work highlights a lack of data and capacity sharing, which can be addressed through intersectoral partnerships and collaborative programmes to create effective, research-based policies and land management strategies.