Around 10000 years ago, humans began domesticating plants and understanding the role of weather and soil in agriculture. Over generations, they developed environmentally friendly farming practices, that sustained productivity while preserving local ecosystems. This historical perspective underscores the value of indigenous knowledge in developing alternative resource management approaches. Traditional techniques, refined through centuries, hold immense significance and must be safeguarded from extinction. These methods are eco-friendly and community-centric, offering viable solutions to contemporary agricultural challenges, including climate change, resource depletion and food insecurity. Their low-cost, sustainable nature makes them an essential complement to modern high-input farming. Integrating these practices with contemporary agriculture can foster resilient, environmentally sound and culturally significant farming systems. However, to fully leverage their potential, further research scientific validation and systematic documentation are imperative. Research institutions, NGOs and policymakers must collaborate to revive, adapt and disseminate these techniques among farming communities. This synergy between traditional wisdom and modern innovation can bridge the gap, ensuring a more sustainable agricultural future. By recognizing, validating and integrating traditional agricultural knowledge, we can create robust farming systems that preserve biodiversity, improve resilience and support food security for future generations.

Changes in food production, often driven by distant demand, have a significant influence on sustainable management and use of land and water, and are in turn a driving factor of biodiversity change. While the connection between land use and demand through value chains is increasingly understood, there is no comprehensive conceptualisation of this relationship. To address this gap, we propose a conceptual framework and use it as a basis for a systematic review to characterise value-chain connection and explore its influence on land-use and -cover change. Our search in June 2022 on Web of Science and Scopus yielded 198 documents, describing studies completed after the year 2000 that provide information on both value-chain connection and land-use or -cover change. In total, we used 531 distinct cases to assess how frequently particular types of land-use or -cover change and value-chain connections co-occurred, and synthesized findings on their relations. Our findings confirm that 1) market integration is associated with intensification; 2) land managers with environmental standards more frequently adopt environmentally friendly practices; 3) physical and value-chain distances to consumers play a crucial role, with shorter distances associated with environmentally friendly practices and global chains linked to intensification and expansion. Incorporating these characteristics in existing theories of land-system change, would significantly advance understanding of land managers’ decision-making, ultimately guiding more environmentally responsible production systems and contributing to global sustainability goals.

Rice, a staple crop for over half the global population, faces severe yield losses due to insect pests, such as the rice stem borer (Scirpophaga incertulas), brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) and leaf folder (Cnaphalocrocis medinalis) and minor insect pests, which are significant threats to global food security. Traditional reliance on chemical pesticides for pest control has negatively impacted the environment, human health and non-target organisms. This has necessitated a shift toward sustainable pest management strategies that minimize chemical inputs. Botanicals, derived from plants as essential oils, extracts and secondary metabolites, have emerged as an eco-friendly alternative due to their biodegradability, targeted efficacy and reduced environmental footprint. These plant-based compounds act through various mechanisms, including antifeedant activity, growth inhibition, oviposition deterrence, ovicidal effects and toxicity, effectively disrupting pest lifecycles without harming non-target species. Studies underscore the potential of botanicals in suppressing pest populations and mitigating crop losses, making them vital components of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. When incorporated into IPM programs alongside biological control agents, cultural practices and resistant rice varieties, botanicals enhance pest control efficacy while preserving ecosystem balance and promoting biodiversity. Their use aligns with sustainable agriculture principles, offering a viable path to reduce pesticide dependency and ensure long-term agricultural resilience. This review highlights the critical role of botanicals in IPM for rice cultivation, emphasizing their potential to mitigate pest impacts while supporting environmentally sustainable and economically viable food production systems.