The Sustainet project of the German Council for Sustainable Development produced the book "Sustainable Agriculture: A pathway out of poverty for India's rural poor" with examples of sustainable agricultural approaches. This book attempts to bring back sustainable agriculture into the development agenda.
The book not only shows that sustainable agriculture works; it also outlines what should be done and how it can be done. All the agricultural practices described in this book highlight in one or the other way how sustainable agriculture contributes directly to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They cover a whole range of improving sustainability: raising soil fertility, capability to cope with risks and withstand natural calamities, reducing energy consumption, minimizing risk, and so on.
Each part contains several cases, each telling the story of a sustainable agriculture project in India supported by a German development agency. The cases describe the project, its results and impacts, and draws lessons from it that can be applied to other projects elsewhere. At the end of each part is a section describing the potentials and constraints facing that aspect of sustainable agriculture, and some recommendations for policy changes and actions needed to realize the potentials and overcome the constraints.