**3. Trends of agricultural diversification in South Asian Countries**

South Asia has a long history of intensive agriculture, particularly irrigated rice cultivation techniques. Sector strategies in the region are mostly based on food self-sufficiency policies [14]. Throughout the last 30 years, the system's research and agricultural support services have increased food production faster than population expansion and diminished the percentage of people living in poverty. There has been significant income increase, diet diversification, and decreases in per capita grain intake throughout the comparable time span. South Asian countries are actively diversifying their economies in favor of high-value commodities such as fruits, vegetables, livestock, and fisheries, with some inter-country variation. Price policy, infrastructure development (particularly markets and highways), urbanization, and technical advancements all have a significant impact on agricultural diversification. Agricultural diversification in favor of high-value crops by substituting inferior coarse grains has helped rainfed areas more [15]. Agricultural diversification is also helping to increase export markets and create new job possibilities. Using appropriate institutions, it is necessary to properly coordinate the production and selling of high-value commodities. Market reforms in the form of building and strengthening desired institutions through necessary legal changes might go a long way toward encouraging agricultural growth, increasing small farm income, and boosting exports. Diversifying rural production is the process by which families create several livelihoods utilizing different variations of resources and assets in order to be less influenced by changes in the marketplace (such as price decreases) and to secure market stability [16]. So, if a region has high demographic pressure but minimal diversification, low-profit traditional commodities cultivation will increase and the farming frontier will spread, causing deforestation and soil erosion [17, 18]. As a result, investing in agricultural diversification can help to prevent environmental degradation by allowing for the production of a wider range of commercially feasible and productive crops [19]. Various options of crop diversification in South Asian countries are presented in the below **Figure 2**.

**Figure 2.** *Various options of crop diversification.*
