Sustainable Intensification Of Agriculture Research Articles

Biochar Systems in Ghana

Biochar is a pyrolysed biomass, incorporated into soil for improvement of soil health. Biochar added to soils holds the potential of a triple-win for livelihoods, environment and the climate. In environments where a lot of biomass is generated and poses disposable challenges, biochar remains a viable alternative for solving both agronomic and environmental problems, especially in highly degraded soils. Considerable research into biochar over the years have indicated its potential to solve many environmental problems, however there is still lack of knowledge about specific aspects of biochar production and use. Also, a number of assertions related to the positive impact of biochar in agriculture have not been well explained scientifically and verified. In Ghana, research on biochar is recent and currently uncoordinated with research outputs not clearly documented and visible. There is the urgent need to review available information on biochar research outputs in Ghana and provide expert opinion on the feasibility of embedding the technology in specific farming systems. The aim of this paper is to present an in-depth review of biochar research in Ghana, as it relates to agriculture and environmental management. Challenges to the biochar technology, formulation, feedstock availability and adoption rates are discussed. There is wide array of potential feedstocks for biochar production from agricultural residues. The -l quantity of biochar application has pronounced effect on maize grain yield where 5 t ha -l significantly yielded more maize grain than 2.5 t ha . Soils amended with cocoa pod biochar increased maize grain yield by 56 % compared to un-amended soil. Biochar can contribute to improving crop productivity on smallholdings although its supply and value chains are not formalized and the product is unfamiliar in most farming communities. Policies that integrate biochar to sustainable intensification in agriculture is recommended.

Identification of management zones with different potential moisture availability for sustainable intensification of dryland agriculture

Identification of management zones with different potential moisture availability for sustainable intensification of dryland agriculture

Land Use Changes in the Teles Pires River Basin’s Amazon and Cerrado Biomes, Brazil, 1986–2020

The Teles Pires River basin in Brazil’s center-west has recently expanded agricultural economic development at the expense of both the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savannah. We evaluated these changes occurring in this basin over the last 34 years. Maps were generated to determine changes in land use classifications between 1986, 1991, 1996, 2000, 2005, 2011, 2015, and 2020. The supervised classification of Landsat 5 and 8 images used the maximum likelihood algorithm. Satellite spatial data on land use downloaded from the United States Geological Survey were validated according to 1477 locations, where our research team categorized land use in the field during 2020. The growth in agricultural crops (+643%) and pasture (+250%) from 1986 to 2020 were detrimental to natural areas, such as the rainforest and savannah. The percentage increase in the agricultural areas between the evaluated years peaked around 1996 and stabilized in 2020 at 40% of the Teles Pires River basin’s land area. Land use change patterns were related to political/economic events in Brazil, forest/pasture conversions until 2011, and the change from pasture to crops from 2011 to 2020. There was greater intensity in the changes in the upper Teles Pires River basin toward the south, which expanded northward over time. Sustainable agricultural intensification is needed in such stabilized, frontier areas.

Aquaculture sustainability: Global challenges need local actions

Aquaculture sustainability: Global challenges need local actions

Understanding the spatio-temporal behavior of crop yield, yield components and weed pressure using time series Sentinel-2-data in an organic farming system

ContextOrganic farming has begun to represent a practical alternative for reducing the environmental impact of crop production and increasing biodiversity. In agricultural systems, the growing demand for stable crop production requires the adoption of useful tools for the sustainable intensification of agriculture. While organic farming systems face various drawbacks, which affect crop yield. Among the limiting factors, weed management is one of the most difficult aspects of organic farming. ObjectiveThe aim of the study was (i) to evaluate the effect of weed pressure on yield spatial variability (ii) to analyze the spatial variability of yield and yield components based on hand-sampled yield data (iii) to evaluate the ability of the most commonly used vegetation index (NDVI) derived from Sentinel-2 satellite platforms to understand within-field spatial and temporal variability during the crop cycle (iv) to evaluate the ability of the cluster analysis procedures on NDVI satellite data to identify, discriminate and map sub-areas with different yield, yield components, and weed pressure at the farm level in an organic farming system. MethodsRemote sensing techniques (Sentinel-2 images), vegetation index (NDVI), cluster analysis (Hierarchical clustering Ward’s minimum variance approach) and hand-sampled data (georeferenced yield and yield components field data) were used for understanding the spatio-temporal behavior of crops. Results and conclusionsThe cluster analysis of NDVI data from Sentinel-2 collected at eight different stages detected the crop spatial and temporal variability at an early stage. In an open field of 24 ha, an area of about 9 ha, showed a high weed level with a yield average value 78 % lower than the most productive cluster area. The yield components, especially the spike number per square meter, also recorded very low values, mainly due to the negative effect of the high presence of weeds (in particular oats), which reached average values of 250 g m-2. An area of 7.3 ha showed the highest yield at harvest with a yield value 45 % higher than the mean harvest data. The study highlights that from the early tillering stage to the booting stage the NDVI maps derived from the Satellite Sentinel-2 and clustered by Ward’s method represent the weeds distribution impact on crop yield and yield components and an early warning for the assessment of one of the most important limiting factors in organic farming. SignificanceSentinel-2 data and cluster analysis can improve an efficient assessment and management strategies in an organic farming agricultural system. Furthermore, the use of precision agriculture tools in organic farming can lead to a site‐specific management at the farm level and therefore a sustainable intensification of agriculture systems.

Intensification differentially affects the delivery of multiple ecosystem services in subtropical and temperate grasslands

Intensification, the process of intensifying land management to enhance agricultural goods, results in “intensive” pastures that are planted with productive grasses and fertilized. These intensive pastures provide essential ecosystem services, including forage production for livestock. Understanding the synergies and tradeoffs of pasture intensification on the delivery of services across climatic regions is crucial to shape policies and incentives for better management of natural resources. Here, we investigated how grassland intensification affects key components of provisioning (forage productivity and quality), supporting (plant diversity) and regulating services (CO2 and CH4 fluxes) by comparing these services between intensive versus extensive pastures in subtropical and temperate pastures in the USDA Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network sites in Florida and Oklahoma, USA over multiple years. Our results suggest that grassland intensification led to a decrease in measured supporting and regulating services, but increased forage productivity in temperate pastures and forage digestibility in subtropical pastures. Intensification decreased the net CO2 sink of subtropical pastures while it did not affect the sink capacity of temperate pastures; and it also increased environmental CH4 emissions from subtropical pastures and reduced CH4 uptake in temperate pastures. Intensification enhanced the global warming potential associated with C fluxes of pastures in both ecoregions. Our study demonstrates that comparisons of agroecosystems in contrasting ecoregions can reveal important drivers of ecosystem services and general or region-specific opportunities and solutions to maintaining agricultural production and reducing environmental footprints. Further LTAR network-scale comparisons of multiple ecosystem services across croplands and grazinglands intensively vs extensively managed are warranted to inform the sustainable intensification of agriculture within US and beyond. Our results highlight that achieving both food security and environmental stewardship will involve the conservation of less intensively managed pastures while adopting sustainable strategies in intensively managed pastures.

Sustainable intensification of agriculture as a tool to promote food security: A bibliometric analysis

Sustainable intensification (SI) of agriculture is required to satisfy the growing populations' nutritional needs, and therefore food security while limiting negative environmental impacts. The study aims to investigate the global scientific output of sustainable intensification research from 2010 to 20 August 2021. The data was retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection and was analyzed using a bibliometric method and VOS viewer to determine the most productive countries and organizations by collaboration analysis, including the keywords to analyze the research hotspots and trends, and the most cited publications in the field. From the 1,610 studies published in the theme of sustainable agriculture by 6,346 authors belonging to 1,981 organizations and 115 countries, the study found an increased number of publications and citations in 2020, with 293 publications and 10,275 citations. The United States ranked highest in countries collaborating with the most publications in the field. The occurrence of keywords like “food security”, “climate change”, “agriculture”, “ecosystem services”, “conservation agriculture”, “Sub-Sahara Africa”, “Africa”, “biodiversity”, and “maize” in both author and all keywords (author and index) reveal the significance of sustainable intensification in Africa, as a solution to food insecurity under climate change conditions. The availability of funding agencies from big economies explains the growing interest by developing countries in the SI of agriculture research due to the growing population, food insecurity, and access to limited land for farming.

Relay cropping for sustainable intensification of agriculture across temperate regions: Crop management challenges and future research priorities

Relay cropping for sustainable intensification of agriculture across temperate regions: Crop management challenges and future research priorities

Structural conditions of the sustainable intensification of agriculture in the regions of the European Union

Sustainable intensification (SI), understood as an increase in resource productivity in the agricultural sector, achieved without harming the natural environment, is getting more and more attention from researchers and policy makers in the European Union. There is however still lack of the research, taking into account a dynamic perspective, structural features in a regional scope and social dimension of sustainability. To fill this research gap we used regional FADN data from the years 2004–2018 which were clustered using the latent profile analysis and Ward method. In the second step of the analysis we measured the intensity of SI process by the means of metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger TFP Index and then to verify the hypothesis about the impact of structural features on the sustainable intensification process, a MANOVA analysis was applied. We identified four clusters of the regions, which differed in the structural features such as concentration, specialisation and orientation of the production in agricultural sector. They can be described as: 1) small farms with predominance of mixed type of production; 2) large farms with predominance of animal production; 3) post-communist, industrial farms; 4) small, unspecialised farms, highly polarised. SI assessment revealed that in the years 2005–2018 process was uneven, with particularly turbulent period of global financial crisis 2008–2013, after changes were more stable and positive. Furthermore, technological gap between the groups of regions decreased. On the other hand, in the whole analysed period cumulative productivity change was below one in all the clusters, what indicates that SI did not occur.

Integrated modeling framework for sustainable agricultural intensification

Agricultural scientists are pursuing sustainable intensification strategies to increase global food availability, but integration from research to impact at the local-level requires knowledge of demographic and human-environment to enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers cultivating <10 ha. Enhancing close collaboration among transdisciplinary teams and these smallholders is critical to co-elaborate policy solutions to ongoing food security crises that are likely to be attuned with local conditions. Human and socio-cultural aspects need to be considered to facilitate both adoption and dissemination of adapted management practices. Despite this well-known need to co-produce knowledge in human systems, we demonstrate the inequality of current agricultural research in smallholder farming systems with heavy focus on a few domains of the sustainable intensification agricultural framework (SIAF), ultimately reducing the overall impact of interventions due to the lack compatibility with prevailing social contexts. Here we propose to integrate agriculture and agronomic models with social and demographic modeling approaches to increase agricultural productivity and food system resilience, while addressing persistent issues in food security. Researchers should consider the scale of interventions, ensure attention is paid to equality and political processes, explore local change interactions, and improve connection of agriculture with nutrition and health outcomes, via nutrition-sensitive agricultural investments.

Agricultural Project Interventions and Livelihoods of Beneficiaries in Rwanda: A Case of Sustainable Agriculture Intensification and Food Security Project (Saip) in Rwamagana District

Agricultural Project Interventions and Livelihoods of Beneficiaries in Rwanda: A Case of Sustainable Agriculture Intensification and Food Security Project (Saip) in Rwamagana District

Connecting Climate Change Mitigation to Global Land Regeneration, Doubling Worldwide Livestock, and Reduction of Early Deaths from Noncommunicable Diseases.

Aim and background This article aims to link early deaths due to diet-related noncommunicable diseases at the global level, low animal food intake, primarily in developing countries, regenerative/organic agriculture, worldwide food security, and global warming mitigation. On statistically modeling Global Burden of Disease (GBD) risk factor and health outcome data, the unexpected finding was that early deaths(death before age 70) per year per 100k population due to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs, such as coronary artery disease, emphysema, liver failure, kidney failure, and cancers) were much higher in cohorts with low consumption of animal-sourced foods (processed meat, red meat, dairy, fish, poultry, eggs, and saturated fats). Relatively low NCD rates are associated with high animal food consumption. This unexpected finding led to exploring the implications of climate change. Methods I critiqued the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC's) definitions of "sustainability in land management, sustainable intensification (of agriculture), climate-smart agriculture," and "sustainability-focused socioeconomic pathway 1 (SSP1)"-the most climate-favorable scenario that the IPCC modeled. I modeled doubling the global livestock together with global regenerative/organic agriculture compared with the IPCC's SSP1, using the IPCC's mean 2010-2019 global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) as the baseline for comparison. Results This study found that all the IPCC's agricultural land-related definitions of interest were aspirational without detailing the farming methods used and those not allowed. The IPCC's land management-related definitions differed from the same or similar terms in the literature. The status quo net global agriculture and other land useGHGs (2010-2019) totaled 11.9 ± 4.4 gigatonnes (GT) carbon dioxide equivalent per year (11.9 ± 4.4 GTCO2-eq yr-1). The IPCC's modeling of the SSP1 scenario reduced GHGs to 3 GTCO2-eq yr-1 by 2050. Transitioning to global regenerative/organic agriculture (5 billion hectares) and doubling the global livestock for human consumption and agricultural land fertilization corresponded to net global GHGs = -24.1 GTCO2-eq yr-1 for 2-3 decades, totaling -482 to -723 GTCO2-eq of CO2 sequestration. Conclusions Doubling global livestock combined with worldwide regenerative/organic agriculture has the potential to mitigate climate change significantly more than SSP1 while providing global food security by reversing land degradation. Worldwide transitioning from intensive industrial agriculture that degrades land to regenerative/organic agriculture that sequestersCO2in soil ​​​​​and doubling global livestock would require initial support with finances, resources, and additional workersfor farms in both developing and developed countries.Subsequently, farms and farmers would be sustainably self-supporting with food sales. Retainingthe existing farm workers and attracting hundreds of millions more workers would likely require transitioning most agricultural lands into worker-owned cooperatives.

Harnessing potential of legumes for sustainable intensification of Indian agriculture

Harnessing potential of legumes for sustainable intensification of Indian agriculture

Efeito de bioagentes e coberturas vegetais em atributos do solo e no desenvolvimento de feijoeiro

ABSTRACT The search for cultivation techniques that provide productive, social and environmental benefits to the agroecosystem is of great seriousness for the sustainable intensification of agriculture. This study aimed to determine the effect of crop cover crops on the soil attributes and development of bean plants treated with the consortium of bioagents Serratia marcencens + Trichoderma koningiopsis grown in the winter. The experiments were conducted for three crop seasons, in a randomized blocks design arranged in a 2 × 8 factorial scheme, with four replications. The treatments consisted of the combination of eight cover crops with two microbial treatments. The bioagents and the mix of cover crops, especially the treatment 2 (corn) and the mixes 3 (millet, Crotalaria ochroleuca, black oat, white oat, buckwheat and coracana grass) and 5 (black oat, buckwheat, millet, Piatã grass and C. Ocholeuca), provided significant increases in the soil chemical and biological quality, with increases in the contents of Ca, Mg, K, H + Al and organic matter, as well as in the main soil pathogens that affect the bean crop, concerning fallow. In addition, there was an increase in the number of pods per plant and grains per pod. The use of these technologies provided savings, if compared to the use of chemical fertilization.

Evaluation of a subtropical maize-rice rotation system maintained under long-term fertilizer inputs for sustainable intensification of agriculture

The impacts of long-term (1996–2019) fertilizer inputs on grain yield and edaphic factors of upland maize and wetland rice rotation system were assessed for sustainable intensification of agriculture. Subtropical field treatments included swine manure compost (CP), chemical fertilizer (CF, control), no fertilizer (CK, blank), inorganic N-amended CP (CPN1 and CPN2), peat (PN1) and green manure (GMN1). Maize exhibited a significantly increased yield trend under CF, GMN1 and CP-based inputs (CP, CPN1 and CPN2), whereas rice yield displayed a non-significant marginal improvement or negative result. Principal component analysis of edaphic factors revealed distinct clustering of CP-CPN1-CPN2, CF-GMN1-CK and PN1 samples during maize-rice rotation. CP-based inputs in particular improved OM, EC, microbial metabolism and nutrient availability during crop rotation. Pronounced soil microbial activity and Bacterial abundances were recorded during maize cultivation. In contrast, low aerobic metabolism coupled with high Bacterial and Archaeal species richness, diversity and evenness were found during rice cultivation. In conclusion, increasing maize yield trends observed under long-term CP-based inputs were on par with CF and GMN1 amendments that concurrently acidified soil. Numerically dominant aerobic Bacteria appear to drive nutrient recycling and promote maize grain yield, whereas metabolically lethargic diverse prokaryotes constrained nutrient turnover stagnating the rice yield.

A critical comparative review of evidence on alternative instruments for supporting research and innovation in agri-food systems in the Global South

Financial support is a critical enabling factor for healthy agri-food innovation systems, particularly within resource-limited settings, though additional forms of support are also necessary. This motivated a critical comparative review of evidence in peer-reviewed and gray literature on the range of instruments that support innovation in agri-food systems in the Global South, toward achieving sustainable agriculture intensification. The main aim is to provide recommendations to innovation managers on the choice of different instruments for supporting innovation. The key guiding questions for the comparative analysis were whether the instrument fosters uptake of innovation and whether it promotes inclusive development. A review of the literature was supplemented with a scan of websites for sources of peer-reviewed and gray literature documenting the application of the 12 selected instruments. The study revealed three categories of instruments: (Type A) those that support entrepreneurship; (Type B) those that primarily finance innovation; and (Type C) those that support innovation in real-life contexts. Our analysis indicates that innovation managers and funders need to select instruments that are likely to fit the specific context as well as to address the mandates of their organizations, and in so doing, they must consider how to ensure the sustainability of their investments and meet the needs of their beneficiaries. This review represents one of a handful that have compared the use of multiple instruments across multiple continents in the Global South, and can serve as an important decision-making tool for investors and funders looking to invest in agri-food innovation systems.

Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Climate Smart Agricultural Practices for Improved Food and Climate Security

The grand challenge of increasing production and access to nutritious and safe food to meet growing populations under threat to climate change and climate variability requires systems and transdisciplinary approaches towards agri-food systems. Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) focuses on increasing agricultural production from existing farmland without any adverse environmental impacts. There are three major components of SAI which include: (i) genetic intensification (e.g., focused on improving yields, resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance to abiotic stresses, increasing nutritional quality of food products, and using precision breeding, genetics, and genomics tools); (ii) ecological intensification (e.g., focused increasing diversification, farming, cropping and agroforestry systems, resource use efficiency, integrated water, nutrient and pest management); and (iii) socio-economic intensification (e.g., focused on markets, value addition, income generation, policy, creating enabling environment, and building social capital). Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices emphasize greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint, and focus on both adaptation and mitigation strategies. Few selected SAI and CSA practices include minimum and no-tillage; cover crops; crop diversity and genotypes selection for effective water use and stress tolerance; diversification (crop mixtures and rotations; perennials, agroforestry systems; forage crops; dual purpose crops); and nutrient recycling from livestock. Overall, developing adoption and scaling of these practices will require convergence of biophysical and social sciences, participatory approaches, public and private sector engagement and commitment of resources from all donor agencies for research and development, human and institutional capacity building.

SRI Adoption through Innovative Alliance-Building: Learning from the SRI-LMB

Given the challenges presented by climate change, water shortage, and land degradation, sustainable agriculture strategies that increase farming systems’ resilience are needed more than ever. This is especially true for sustaining rice production which is the staple food for hundreds of millions of people. Agroecology-based System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is seen as a way forward in transforming food and agriculture systems, especially for the smallholder farmers to build an inclusive, safe, sustainable and resilient society. The findings reported here are based on the engagement that the Asian Center of Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (ACISAI), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand had in the Lower Mekong River (LMB) basin countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) using a regional project commonly known as “SRI-LMB”. Using a local, national and regional innovation platform that was designed to systematize engagement and strengthen communication for fuelling innovation, more than 15 institutions were involved in the six-year-long farmers’ participatory action research (FPAR) trial located in the 33 districts of 11 provinces in the LMB. The SRI was used as an ‘entry point’ for such engagement-led-transition. Average yield along with factor productivity increased by more than 50% with a significant reduction in cultivation costs, energy use, and greenhouse gas emission. The purpose of this paper is to share results, and also to detail three key processes that led to innovations in different areas for better adoption: 1. the multi-stakeholder platforms used for action; 2. The FPAR that led to community development; the evidence-based policy and strategies that can support the sustainability of rural livelihoods.

Can green manure contribute to sustainable intensification of rainfed rice production in Madagascar?

Green manure can be a source of nutrients for crops to spare some of the mineral fertilizer required for sustainable intensification of agriculture in smallholder context. We explored with a calibrated model the potential of legume green manure to help spare mineral fertilizer for sustainable intensification of rainfed rice production in Madagascar highlands. This study builds on a two-year rice experiment with rice and green manure as previous crop. The experiment investigated the response of rainfed rice growth to the incorporation into the soil of i) rice residue only (C:N ratio of 44.9) and ii) mucuna + crotalaria green manures (C:N ratio of 18.7). Two levels of fertilizer were investigated: manure only (5 t DM ha −1 ) (F1) and manure (5 t DM ha −1 ) in combination with mineral fertilizer (136 kg N ha −1 ) (F2). The crop model STICS was calibrated against observed soil water and soil mineral N, plant N uptake, aboveground biomass and grain yield to reproduce the impact of residue type and fertilizer input on mineralization of organic N in soil and in crop residue, crop growth and grain yield. The calibrated crop model was then used to explore rice response to mineral N fertilizer, with or without green manure, for the historical climate (1994–2018). Relative Root Mean Square Error (rRMSE) of model simulations fell within the observed relative variation in grain yield due to treatment effect. With green manure, mineral N available for rice increased compared with the situation without green manure, leading to greater agronomic use efficiency of N fertilizer. Green manure helped spare mineral fertilizer to achieve a reference yield set at 75 % of potential yield. This reference yield (3.67 t ha −1 on average across years) was reached with 40 kg N ha −1 with 6 t ha −1 of green manure, and 100 kg N ha −1 without green manure. The analysis of rice yield inter-annual variability indicated that (i) N leaching increased with total seasonal rainfall, which undermined the benefits of green manure on rice productivity in wetter years, and (ii) the increase in rice productivity allowed by the green manure did not fully compensate the rice yield foregone with the cultivation of the green manure. The calibrated model can be a useful tool to explore additional management strategies that will help maximize the benefit of green manure for sustainable intensification of rice-based cropping systems, especially in low-input cropping systems. • Impacts of green manure incorporation into the soil was assessed using modeling approach. • Rice response to mineral N fertilizer and green manure was evaluated with historical climate. • N available for crop increased with the use of green manure. • Green manure helped spare mineral fertilizer to achieve potential yield. • Benefits of green manure is undermined in wet years partly due to N leaching.

Bt maize can provide non-chemical pest control and enhance food safety in China.

China is the world's second-largest maize producer and consumer. In recent years, the invasive fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) has adversely affected maize productivity and compromised food security. To mitigate pest-inflicted food shortages, China's Government issued biosafety certificates for two genetically modified (GM) Bt maize hybrids, Bt-Cry1Ab DBN9936 and Bt-Cry1Ab/Cry2Aj Ruifeng 125, in 2019. Here, we quantitatively assess the impact of both Bt maize hybrids on pest feeding damage, crop yield and food safety throughout China's maize belt. Without a need to resort to synthetic insecticides, Bt maize could mitigate lepidopteran pest pressure by 61.9-97.3%, avoid yield loss by 16.4-21.3% (range -11.9-99.2%) and lower mycotoxin contamination by 85.5-95.5% as compared to the prevailing non-Bt hybrids. Yield loss avoidance varied considerably between experimental sites and years, as mediated by on-site infestation pressure and pest identity. For either seed mixtures or block refuge arrangements, pest pressure was kept below established thresholds at 90% Bt maize coverage in Yunnan (where S. frugiperda was the dominant species) and 70% Bt maize coverage in other sites dominated by Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) and Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée). Drawing on experiences from other crop/pest systems, Bt maize in se can provide area-wide pest management and thus, contribute to a progressive phase-down of chemical pesticide use. Hence, when consciously paired with agroecological and biodiversity-based measures, GM insecticidal crops can ensure food and nutrition security, contribute to the sustainable intensification of China's agriculture and reduce food systems' environmental footprint.