Summary
Agroecological approaches have the potential to reduce the adverse impacts of agriculture on the environment whilst sustaining productivity, yet rigorous assessments of associated policies’ ability to achieve these dual aims at farm scale remain scarce. Here, we evaluate the impacts of the Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) programme – a large-scale government-led agroecological strategy in South India – on the ecological and productivity performance of an emerging commodity crop associated with high deforestation-risk: cashew ( Anacardium occidentale L.). ZBNF increased the abundance and species richness of insects visiting cashew flowers (including known cashew pollinators) by almost 400 % and 250 % respectively, with visitation rates to cashew flowers rising nearly fivefold compared to
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