Sustainable Agriculture: The science of cultivating land to raise crops is called agriculture. Sustainable agriculture means successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy the changing human needs, while maintaining or enhancing the quality of environment and conserving natural resources. Due to steady increase of human population, it is necessary to increase the crops production, that can be achieved by efficient management of natural resources, such as soil, water, forest, fertilisers, pesticides, etc. 

Various method of sustainable agriculture: Mixed farming is the crop production including horticulture and rearing of farm animals, poultry and piggery, etc. 

Types of mixed crop farming are: Food-fodder, horticulture-pastoral, agro-forestry and mixed cropping-cereal crops and milch animals, etc. Mixed cropping is the practice of growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same piece of land. 

Some mixed cropping practices are: 

(a) Soybean + Pigeon pea 

(b) Wheat + Mustard 

Advantages of mixed cropping: 

(a) The risk of total crop failure due to uncertain monsoon is reduced. 

(b) Farmers tend to harvest a variety of produce, such as cereals, pulses, vegetables or fodder, to meet the various requirements of family or of agricultural farms. Crop rotation: One method of crop production which ensures high yield is crop rotation. Crop rotation is defined as the practice of growing of different crops on a piece of land, in a preplanned succession. Depending upon the duration, crop rotation is done for different crop combinations. If crop rotation is done properly, then two or three crops can be grown in one year with good harvests.

Advantages of crop rotation: 

(a) Crop rotation helps in the replenishment of soil fertility. 

(b) It enhances the production, by increasing the soil fertility. 

(c) It prevents building up of diseases and pests of a particular crop. 

(d) It prevents depletion of selective nutrients. 

1. One year rotation-Rice – Wheat; Maize – Mustard. 

2. Two-year rotation-Maize – Potato; Sugarcane – pea. 

3. Three-year rotation-Rice, Wheat-Mung, Mustard, Sugarcane, Burseem.