Concept Of Sustainable Intensification Research Articles

UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACTS OF CROP DIVERSIFICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE: A MACHINE LEARNING APPROACH

Abstract. The concept of sustainable intensification in agriculture necessitates the implementation of management practices that prioritize sustainability without compromising productivity. However, the effects of such practices are known to depend on environmental conditions, and are therefore expected to change as a result of a changing climate. We study the impact of crop diversification on productivity in the context of climate change. We leverage heterogeneous Earth Observation data and contribute a data-driven approach based on causal machine learning for understanding how crop diversification impacts may change in the future. We apply this method to the country of Cyprus throughout a 4-year period. We find that, on average, crop diversification significantly benefited the net primary productivity of crops, increasing it by 2.8%. The effect generally synergized well with higher maximum temperatures and lower soil moistures. In a warmer and more drought-prone climate, we conclude that crop diversification exhibits promising adaptation potential and is thus a sensible policy choice with regards to agricultural productivity for present and future.

Relevance of portfolio effects in adopting sustainable farming practices

The concept of sustainable intensification (SI) unifies ecologically and socially sustainable agricultural practises while preserving economically viable farm businesses. To fully exploit their ecological advantages, smart mixes of SI measures at both the farm and local scale are required. This paper investigates farmers' adoption decisions using a mixed-methods approach for the northern German Plain. Based on focus group discussion, we first identify the study region's relevant SI measures. Using an existing data set, we then quantitatively assess the complementarity of the locally relevant measures using a multivariate probit model. Finally, we use a path modelling approach to explore how the perceived economic and environmental benefits of farmers' applied measures relate to their intentions to broaden their SI portfolios through complementary practices. We find support for complementary use of measures and positive reinforcements of current and intended use of measures. We conclude that such paths are relevant for analysing adoption behaviour. Such expanded and contextualised behavioural approaches are necessary to develop intervention schemes for upscaling sustainable farming practices.

Determinants of the Adoption of Sustainable Intensification in Southern African Farming Systems: A Meta-Analysis

Climate change and environmental degradation are major threats to sustainable agricultural development in Southern Africa. Thus, the concept of sustainable intensification (SI) has become an important topic among researchers and policymakers in the region over the last three decades. SI involves getting more output from less input using practices such as agroforestry, organic fertilizer, sustainable water management, among others. A comprehensive review of the literature on adoption of SI in the region identified nine relevant drivers of adoption of SI among (smallholder) farmers. These drivers include (i) age, (ii) size of arable land, (iii) education, (iv) extension services, (v) gender, (vi) household size, (vii) income, (viii) membership in a farming organization and (ix) access to credit. We present the results of a meta-analysis of 21 papers on the impact of these determinants on SI adoption among (smallholder) farmers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) using random-effects estimation techniques for the true effect size. While our results suggest that variables such as extension services, education, age, and household size may influence the adoption of SI in SADC, factors such as access to credit are also of great importance. Decision-makers should, therefore, concentrate efforts on these factors in promoting SI across the SADC. This includes increasing the efficiency of public extension service, as well as the involvement of the private sector in extension services. Furthermore, both public and private agriculture financing models should consider sustainability indicators in their assessment process.

Implementation of the concept of sustainable intensification to a real farm – Was its development over 17 years a sustainable intensification?

ABSTRACT ‘Sustainable intensification’ (SI) in agriculture is the objective of several contributions. An important question concerns whether farms have already reached SI? To answer this question, an assessment approach is required. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted approach available. This study presents an assessment approach that was adapted for the assessment of a real farm. The farm was analysed for over 17 years, and the development of the farm is presented and evaluated in terms of SI. Within this study, the adaption of the approach for the assessment is first described based on a defined procedure. Based on these results, whether the farm has reached SI is discussed. The most important results are that the farm has established a process of intensification. To assess the ‘environmental sustainability’ of this process, several subthemes and indicators are analysed. From 17 selected parameters, 7 declines, 6 improve and 4 remain almost constant. Whether the development can be called ‘sustainable intensification’ is discussed then. We finally draw attention to existing methodological deficits and limitations that will be included in later work or that could be considered in other assessment approaches.

Advancing the Sustainability of US Agriculture through Long-Term Research.

Agriculture in the United States must respond to escalating demands for productivity and efficiency, as well as pressures to improve its stewardship of natural resources. Growing global population and changing diets, combined with a greater societal awareness of agriculture's role in delivering ecosystem services beyond food, feed, fiber, and energy production, require a comprehensive perspective on where and how US agriculture can be sustainably intensified, that is, made more productive without exacerbating local and off-site environmental concerns. The USDA's Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network is composed of 18 locations distributed across the contiguous United States working together to integrate national and local agricultural priorities and advance the sustainable intensification of US agriculture. We explore here the concept of sustainable intensification as a framework for defining strategies to enhance production, environmental, and rural prosperity outcomes from agricultural systems. We also elucidate the diversity of factors that have shaped the past and present conditions of cropland, rangeland, and pastureland agroecosystems represented by the LTAR network and identify priorities for research in the areas of production, resource conservation and environmental quality, and rural prosperity. Ultimately, integrated long-term research on sustainable intensification at the national scale is critical to developing practices and programs that can anticipate and address challenges before they become crises.

Efficiency in sugar beet cultivation related to field history

Abstract The concept of sustainable intensification in crop production has become more and more important over the last years. Calls for an efficient production demand an increase in yield without extending the agricultural area or increasing the amount of agricultural inputs. Thus, our study aimed to identify which variables influence the efficiency in crop cultivation in Central Europe and how we can explain the variances between fields. The data base for the present study was a survey among sugar beet farmers in all parts of Germany in the years 2010–2014. In order to structure the fields, variables representing environment, management and farm characteristics were extracted. The performed analysis according to components (principal component analysis) did not result in a nationwide structure of the data. Thus, fields were grouped according to similar preconditions such as regions and crop rotations. Sugar yield ranged from 12.5 t ha −1 in 2010 to 15.4 t ha −1 in 2014 on nationwide average. The median value for N fertilization over all fields and years was 137.4 kg ha −1 , the median treatment index (TI) reached 3.7, the median field evaluation index (Ackerzahl) was 70 and the median field size 8 ha. We found that over 50% of the variance among the data was explained by environment, management and farm characteristics. The comparison of fields on a regional basis was more sensible than on a nationwide basis as the variance of farms and fields was too broad for a useful clustering. It was concluded that the adaption of the farmer’s management to regional specific conditions is an opportunity to reduce yield gaps and to increase efficiency in terms of a sustainable intensification in sugar beet production.

A social\u2013ecological perspective on harmonizing food security and biodiversity conservation

The major challenges of improving food security and biodiversity conservation are intricately linked. To date, the intersection of food security and biodiversity conservation has been viewed primarily through an agricultural “production lens”—for example, via the land sparing/sharing framework, or the concept of sustainable intensification. However, a productionist perspective has been criticized for being too narrow, and failing to consider other relevant factors, including policy, equity, and diversity. We propose an approach that conceptualizes rural landscapes as social–ecological systems embedded within intersecting multi-scalar processes. Based on such a framing, empirical research can be more clearly set in the context of system properties that may influence food security, biodiversity conservation, or both. We illustrate our approach through a description of contrasting agricultural systems within Brazil’s Cerrado region. We emphasize the need for new empirical research involving systematic comparisons of social–ecological system properties in landscapes threatened by food insecurity and ecosystem degradation.

Extractive Conservation

ABSTRACTIn view of the Aichi international policy targets to expand areas under conservation, we analyze to what extent conservation has become an inherent element of extraction. We scrutinize the Land Sparing versus Land Sharing debate by explicitly incorporating environmental justice issues of access to land and natural resources. We contend that dominant conservation regimes, embedded within Land Sparing, legitimize the displacement of local people and their land use to compensate for distant, unsustainable resource use. In contrast, the Land Sharing counternarrative, by promoting spatial integration of conservation in agroecological systems, has the potential to radically challenge extraction. Common ground emerges around the concept of sustainable intensification. We contend that if inserted in green economy’s technocentric and efficiency-oriented framework, sustainable intensification will contribute to undermining diversified peasant agroecological systems by transforming them into simplified, export-orientated ones, thereby stripping peasant communities of the capacity to provide for their own needs.

Food security as a function of Sustainable Intensification of Crop Production

The challenge to eradicate hunger and establish food security across all its four pillars (availability, accessibility, health and safety, and continuity) is ongoing. The actual situation in global food production leads most of the attention to improving accessibility and safety of food, particularly to vulnerable populations. However, in view of the growth in demand, which includes changes in preferences for example towards food of animal origin, availability and continuity will play larger roles in future. Food production needs to increase over the coming decades at challenging rates, while facing problems of degradation and reduced availability of natural resources for production such as soil and water, and facing increasing challenges from climate change. The actual trends in yield development suggest that a simple gradual improvement of production within the existing concepts will not provide a sustainable or feasible solution, and that more fundamental changes in the agricultural production paradigm are required to face these future challenges. The Sustainable Intensification represents such a change in paradigm in which high production levels are combined with sustainability. The concept of sustainable intensification, the rationale for it and its functional elements, represented by Conservation Agriculture, are presented in this paper.

Static yields and quality issues: Is the agri-environment program the primary driver?

The Finnish agri-environmental program (AEP) has been in operation for 20 years with >90 % farmer commitment. This study aimed to establish whether reduced nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) use has impacted spring cereal yields and quality based on comprehensive follow-up studies and long-term experiments. We found that the gap between genetic yield potential and attained yield has increased after the AEP was imposed. However, many contemporary changes in agricultural practices, driven by changes in prices and farm subsidies, also including the AEP, were likely reasons, together with reduced N, but not phosphorus use. Such overall changes in crop management coincided with stagnation or decline in yields and adverse changes in quality, but yield-removed N increased and residual N decreased. Further studies are needed to assess whether all the changes are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable, and acceptable, in the long run. The concept of sustainable intensification is worth considering as a means to develop northern European agricultural systems to combine environmental benefits with productivity.

Develop, Then Intensify

We applaud the recent effort by T. Garnett et al. (“Sustainable intensification in agriculture: Premises and policies,” Policy Forum, 5 July, p. [33][1]) to place the concept of sustainable intensification into a decision-making context. The authors emphasize that sustainable intensification

Grassland and globalization – challenges for north‐west European grass and forage research

AbstractThe concept of sustainable intensification has recently been developed to raise productivity (as distinct from increasing volume of production) while reducing environmental impacts. This means increasing yields per unit of inputs (including nutrients, water, energy capital and land) as well as per unit of undesirable outputs (such as greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution or loss of biodiversity). It is thus helpful to understand ‘intensification’ as referring to ‘environmental factor productivity’ or ‘eco‐efficiency’. Worldwide, grassland is the most important agroecosystem delivering ecosystem services ranging from feed supply for ruminants and soil carbon storage to habitats of biodiversity. However, worldwide, grassland is under threat due to intensified land use and land‐use changes from grass to arable. In this article, we (i) highlight ecosystem services of selected grassland biomes abroad of Europe, (ii) show evidence of sustainable as well as non‐sustainable intensification options in these grassland biomes linked to European agriculture by exports of agricultural commodities (e.g. soy) and (iii) derive research strategies for north‐west European grassland research and management to match sustainable intensification strategies for the grassland‐based dairy industry.