http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11429 2020-04-08T17:08:34Z info:eu-repo/semantics/descriptiveMetadata http://oar.icrisat.org/11429/ Crop-livestock integration to enhance ecosystem services in sustainable food systems Homann-Kee Tui, S Valdivia, R O Descheemaeker, K Senda, T Masikati, P Makumbe, M T Van Rooyen, A F Sustainable Agriculture Livestock Cropping and Farming Systems Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics Agricultural systems in developing countries are challenged to produce more food from the same area of land and from scarce water resources. Integrated croplivestock systems hold intensification options that can improve the production of nutritious food and environmental sustainability, while reducing people’vulnerability to climate-related hazards (Tarawali et al. 2011; Lemaire et al., 2013; Garrett et al., 2017). Through an integrated relationship between crop and livestock components, farmers can increase agricultural productivity per unit of land and water, beyond the productivity of the individual components (Bonaudo et al., 2014; Peyraud et al., 2014). More diversified crop-livestock systems provide more opportunities for integration compared with systems that are composed of single farm components (Kremen et al., 2012; Valbuena et al., 2015). The multiple benefits deliver important ecosystem functions and services which help to use increasingly scarce resources more efficiently and conserve the natural environment (Hendrickson et al., 2008; ThorntonandHerrero,2015).Inamarket-orientedproductioncontext,returnsonintegration and diversification increase as farmers produce more biomass of better nutritional quality. They can do this using available technologies, while becoming less dependent on external inputs; this, in turn, makes them less sensitive to price fluctuations (Ryschawy et al., 2012; Homann-Kee Tui et al., 2015). Charlotte Cockle Rusinamhodzi, L 2020 Book Section PeerReviewed Homann-Kee Tui, S and Valdivia, R O and Descheemaeker, K and Senda, T and Masikati, P and Makumbe, M T and Van Rooyen, A F (2020) Crop-livestock integration to enhance ecosystem services in sustainable food systems. In: The Role of Ecosystem Services in Sustainable Food Systems. Charlotte Cockle, United Kingdom, pp. 141-169. ISBN 978-0-12-816436-5 info:eu-repo/semantics/humanStartPage