Assessment of Ecosystem Services Delivered by Mixed Crop-Livestock Farming Systems

Abstract

Mixed crop-livestock farming systems are becoming a viable farming paradigm that can solve the current agricultural problems of food security, resource scarcity, environmental degradation and climate change. Traditional agriculture can use intensive inputs, leading to reduced soil health, biodiversity, and the effective use of resources, and a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this study is to provide a broad-based evaluation of the outputs of mixed crop livestock farming systems and to develop a framework for integrated ecosystem service assessment to facilitate decisions for sustainable agriculture. The proposed methodology integrates ecological, environmental, economic and social sustainability parameters along with contemporary assessment tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, Internet of Things (IoT) based monitoring, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for comprehensive assessment of the ecosystems. Comparative analysis shows that the mixed crop-livestock farming systems outperform conventional systems in terms of soil fertility (high vs. moderate), nutrient recycling (92% vs. 48%), water-use efficiency (88% vs. 65%), biodiversity index (0.84 vs. 0.52), carbon sequestration (4.5 vs. 1.8 t/ha/year), and benefit-cost ratio (2.18 vs. 1.55). In addition, the integrated framework maximizes the efficiency of resource use and decreases the reliance on outside resources, increases climate resilience, and improves farm profitability by implementing a circular approach to resource utilization. The results show that mixed farming of livestock and crops is a sustainable pathway of agricultural intensification, ecosystem conservation and long-term agricultural development which can support the formulation of evidence-based policy and precision agricultural management.