Comparative assessment of ecosystem services under conservation agriculture, agroforestry, and traditional integrated farming systems in tribal regions of central India

Agricultural landscapes in the tribal regions of Central India are dominated by smallholder, low-input, and highly diversified farming systems integrating crops, trees, and livestock. However, despite increasing promotion of conservation agriculture and agroforestry for sustainable intensification, the long-term ecosystem service contributions of traditional integrated farming systems practiced by tribal communities remain poorly quantified. To address this gap, the present study evaluated and compared conservation agriculture, agroforestry, and traditional integrated farming systems for their capacity to deliver provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural ecosystem services across six tribal villages of Bastar district, Chhattisgarh, over a ten-year period (2014–2024). Long-term field assessments were conducted on representative farm households, encompassing measurements of soil physical and chemical properties, biomass and carbon stocks, greenhouse gas emissions (CH4, N2O, CO2), energy inputs and outputs, crop and livestock productivity, economic returns, agrobiodiversity, and composite ecosystem service indices, with carbon sequestration and global warming potential estimated using IPCC-recommended coefficients and productivity expressed as rice-equivalent yield. Results showed that traditional integrated farming systems combining trees, rice, livestock, and vegetables delivered the highest overall ecosystem service performance, recording the maximum rice-equivalent yield (2078.5 q ha−1), net income (US$ 201,543 ha−1), employment generation, nutrient recycling, and agrobiodiversity. Agroforestry systems contributed most strongly to carbon sequestration (mean 9.54 Mg C ha−1) and microclimate regulation, whereas conservation agriculture was characterized by lower energy use and moderate greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions were highest under wet-seeded rice, whereas tree-based components consistently exhibited the lowest global warming potential, indicating that diversified, integrated systems enhance soil fertility, reduce emission intensity, stabilize livelihoods, and simultaneously support multiple ecosystem services in tribal agroecosystems.