Abstract
<List><ListItem><ItemContent> • Current intensification trends in the Rio de la Plata need urgent re-direction. </ItemContent></ListItem><ListItem><ItemContent> •Integrated crop-livestock systems reconcile food production with ecosystem services. </ItemContent></ListItem><ListItem><ItemContent> •Case studies validate recoupling as a sustainable way to ecological intensification. </ItemContent></ListItem></List> <fig><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="2095-7505-8-1-97/fase-20380-cp-tu1.jpg"/><graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="2095-7505-8-1-97/FASE-20380-CP-tu1.tif"/></fig> The Rio de la Plata region comprises central Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil. Modern agriculture developed around 1900 with recent decades being characterized by the advance of cropping areas over native grasslands. Highly specialized agriculture has decoupled crop and livestock production but has succeeded in intensifying yields. However, significant losses of ecosystem services have been reported. Thus, questions have been raised on the sustainability of this pathway. A glance at world regions that have experienced similar trends suggests that an urgent course correction is needed. A major concern has been the lack of diversity in regions with highly specialized agriculture, promoting renewed interest in integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS), not only because ICLS are more diverse than specialized systems, but also because they are rare examples of reconciliation between agroecosystem intensification and environmental quality. Consequently, this paper discusses alternatives to redesign multifunctional landscapes based on ICLS. Recent data provide evidence that recoupling crop and animal production increases the resilience of nutrient cycling functions and economic indicators to external stressors, enabling these systems to face climate-market uncertainty and reconcile food production with the provision of diverse ecosystem services. Finally, these concepts are exemplified in case studies where this perspective has been successfully applied.
Highlights
THE CURRENT INTENSIFICATION PATHWAYThe Rio de la Plata region is a grassland ecosystem covering 70 Mha in South America
During 1960–1990, agricultural systems were mainly characterized by extensive production of ruminant livestock on native grasslands and annual crop rotations under multi-pass tillage coupled with extensive livestock production[5]
Up to 95% of P and K and 99% of Ca and Mg exported from the integrated crop-livestock systems (ICLS) area in the Eldorado do Sul experiment occurred through the removal of grain produced during crop harvest, while contribution of livestock was of minor importance
Summary
The Rio de la Plata region is a grassland ecosystem covering 70 Mha in South America. The remaining area (~ 66% of the total agricultural land, i.e., 6 Mha) is covered with winter service crops in no-till systems, mainly grass species such as black oat (Avena strigosa) and Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), or fallow in systems managed under multi-pass tillage practices Those areas represent an opportunity for the coupling of crop and livestock production to provide additional provisioning services. Both the production systems and advising have become more specialized Another recognized challenge is the need to increase research on ICLS in the Rio de la Plata region, which is necessary to generate reliable knowledge of the benefits of animal grazing wellmanaged pastures in the cash-crop areas[36,50] and provide support for farmers to use that information on their farms. Government actions based on public policies and research funding are needed to promote ecological intensification, which should be based on more ICLS research generated by research agencies and the national universities
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