ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security

Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1594356

This article is part of the Research TopicNavigating Transitions for Sustainable and Just Food Systems: Pathways, Challenges, and InnovationsView all articles

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

Provisionally accepted
Iris  BergerIris Berger1,2*Manan  BhanManan Bhan3Rekha  BhangaonkarRekha Bhangaonkar4Abhishek  ChaudharyAbhishek Chaudhary5Gopinath  R MallapuGopinath R Mallapu6Tanaya  NairTanaya Nair7Eswarayya  RamireddyEswarayya Ramireddy8Rengalakshmi  RajRengalakshmi Raj9Vijay  RamprasadVijay Ramprasad10Vishnupriya  SankararamanVishnupriya Sankararaman11Vartika  SinghVartika Singh12Hareesha  ASHareesha AS13Parthiba  BasuParthiba Basu14Boraiah  BheemappaBoraiah Bheemappa15Chandrashekhar  BiradarChandrashekhar Biradar16Archana  ChatterjeeArchana Chatterjee17Ramdas  DagamRamdas Dagam18Israel Oliver King  Edwin DevarathnaIsrael Oliver King Edwin Devarathna9Reuben  GerganReuben Gergan19Vinuthna  PatibandlaVinuthna Patibandla20Benjamin  PaulBenjamin Paul21Vamshi Krishna  PulluriVamshi Krishna Pulluri22Nandini  RajamaniNandini Rajamani13Mounika  RamireddyMounika Ramireddy23Imran  SiddiquiImran Siddiqui21Sowmithri  Vadaganambi RamachariSowmithri Vadaganambi Ramachari20Farida  TampalFarida Tampal22Swati  UdayrajSwati Udayraj13Tata  VenkateswarluTata Venkateswarlu23,24Lynn  V DicksLynn V Dicks1,2
  • 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

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

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.

Keywords: agroecology, Biodiversity, Food system sustainability, transformative change, Policy coherence, Land-use planning, Zero Budget Natural Farming

Received: 15 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Berger, Bhan, Bhangaonkar, Chaudhary, Mallapu, Nair, Ramireddy, Raj, Ramprasad, Sankararaman, Singh, AS, Basu, Bheemappa, Biradar, Chatterjee, Dagam, Edwin Devarathna, Gergan, Patibandla, Paul, Pulluri, Rajamani, Ramireddy, Siddiqui, Vadaganambi Ramachari, Tampal, Udayraj, Venkateswarlu and Dicks. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Iris Berger, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, England, United Kingdom

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