Sustainable Intensification Of Agriculture Research Articles

From diagnosis to action: Understanding youth strengths and hurdles and using decision-making tools to foster youth-inclusive sustainable agriculture intensification

By 2050, the youth population in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is expected to exceed 60%. To contain the ensuing youth bulge, reduce unemployment and ‘flight’ from rural areas, and increase agricultural productivity, countries seek policies to enhance youth engagement in agriculture. However, orthodox assumptions and locally-inappropriate policies keep youth engagement low.We use qualitative enquiry with focus group discussions and key informant interviews in Ghana and Malawi to examine youth strengths, aspirations, barriers to sustainable agriculture intensification (SAI), and implications for enhancing their inclusion. We further examine the potential of three equity-analysis tools to guide decision making on youth-inclusive SAI.Findings show that youth face limited access to land and capital, limited involvement in decision making and in farmer/development groups, and negative attitudes from community members and officials. Land access was complex, mediated by land-inheritance system, land type, population pressures, culture, and land markets. Land-access problems were acute in matrilineal Malawi, particularly for young men. Decision makers attested to the relevance and usefulness of selected youth-equity analysis tools, and to positive training outcomes on awareness, knowledge, and skills in using them.We contribute context-specific evidence on youth's positive contributions in SAI and the need to recognize them with more targeted and location-differentiated interventions on resources access, including land. Findings also inform the quest for pathways to move the youth-agriculture/SAI debate into tangible actions from below, equipped with youth-analysis tools for decision makers to foster youth-inclusive SAI in Ghana, Malawi, and other countries with similar contexts.

Traditional knowledge affects soil management ability of smallholder farmers in marginal areas

Soil fertility is key to sustainable intensification of agriculture and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. However, when soil nutrients are not adequately managed, smallholder farming practices slowly erode soils to almost inert systems. This case study contributes to the understanding of such failures in marginal areas. We integrate agronomic and social sciences approaches to explore links between smallholder households’ farming knowledge and soil fertility in an ethnopedological perspective. We interview 280 smallholder households in two areas of the Ethiopian highlands, while collecting measures of 11 soil parameters at their main field. By analyzing soil compositions at tested households, we identify a novel measure of soil management ability, which provides an effective empirical characterization of the soil managing capacity of a household. Regression analysis is used to evaluate the effects of household knowledge on the soil management ability derived from laboratory analysis. Results highlight the complexity of knowledge transmission in low-input remote areas. We are able to disentangle a home learning and a social learning dimension of the household knowledge and appraise how they can result in virtuous and vicious cycles of soil management ability. We show that higher soil management ability is associated with farmers relying to a great extent on farming knowledge acquired within the household, as a result of practices slowly elaborated over the years. Conversely, lower soil management ability is linked to households valuing substantially farming knowledge acquired through neighbors and social gatherings. The present study is the first to formulate the concept of soil management ability and to investigate the effects of the presence and the types of farming knowledge on the soil management ability of smallholder farmers in remote areas. We show that farming knowledge has a primary role on soil fertility and we advise its consideration in agricultural development policies.

An overview of the global fertilizer trends and India’s position in 2020

The growing world population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, which will increase the present demand for food by ~ 70%. Consequently, to boost agrarian production and achieve food security, within limited arable land, the effective use of fertilizers becomes critical. However, the economic efficiency of mineral fertilizers has fallen dramatically as the price hike in fertilizers became dearer than food. The current winds of global climate change due to continued emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities have been posing unprecedented challenges before the agriculture sector and fertilizer industry. The limited geological resources of raw material for the manufacture of fertilizers and market fluctuations of fertilizer minerals initiate wide-reaching competition and raise challenge of food security. It is observed since the last century that the production of fertilizer minerals has risen almost constantly; however, consumption varied greatly from one region to another. It remained constant or declined in Western Europe and North America, but increased rapidly in East and South Asia especially in China and India. The Asian share of global fertilizer consumption is more than 60% and growing rapidly. This supply-demand pattern influences mineral fertilizers’ trade-flow and thereby global competition. Hence, there is a need to develop the fertilizer mineral sector and adopt policies and strategies to ensure materials security. The sustainable agricultural intensification and the agronomical proportions, timing, and placement with the right source are crucial factors which determine the sustainable utility of fertilizer minerals. In the wake of the above, we provide a critical appraisal of fertilizer minerals.

The Role of Technology in Greenhouse Agriculture: Towards a Sustainable Intensification in Campo de Dalías (Almería, Spain)

Campo de Dalías, located in southeastern Spain, is the greatest European exponent of greenhouse agriculture. The development of this type of agriculture has led to an exponential economic development of one of the poorest areas of Spain, in a short period of time. Simultaneously, it has brought about a serious alteration of natural resources. This article will study the temporal evolution of changes in land use, and the exploitation of groundwater. Likewise, this study will delve into the technological development in greenhouses (irrigation techniques, new water resources, greenhouse structures or improvement in cultivation techniques) seeking a sustainable intensification of agriculture under plastic. This sustainable intensification also implies the conservation of existing natural areas.

ЕКО-БІО-ЕКОНОМІЧНА СТРАТЕГІЯ ЯК КОНЦЕПЦІЯ СТАЛОГО РОЗВИТКУ СІЛЬСЬКИХ ТЕРИТОРІЙ

In the article the scientific-theoretical substantiation of priority directions of development of rural territories is carried out. It is determined that the bioeconomy is seen as part of the transition to sustainable rural development, which promotes green and inclusive growth, while going beyond the “natural economy” with low productivity and economies with high consumption of fossil resources, which have reached their limit. It is noted that the process of formation of the bioeconomy involves the transition of the most important industries, including agriculture, to the use of renewable bioresources. The main visions and opportunities of the bioeconomy, in particular for the development of rural areas, developed by specialists of the CAP (General Agricultural Policy) in the EU have been studied. The main ones are the vision of bioresources (substitution), the vision of agricultural innovations and rural development, the vision of international cooperation and development, the vision of bioecology. The main risks associated with the transition to a bioeconomy are analyzed, namely the increase in the load on bioresources, the formation of additional demand and competition, increasing demand for land, water and other natural resources. The main risk associated with the transition to a bioeconomy is that industrialized countries, such as European countries, will maintain their resource-intensive consumption patterns, based on increased net imports of raw bioresources (using the bioeconomy as an excuse to continue doing business in normal mode), while at the same time some countries of the global south remain or become suppliers of these bioresources without advancing to the modern bioeconomy, which includes adding the value of biomass to the supply chain. It has been found that, depending on the context and pathways of the bioeconomy, some of the negative impacts may be even stronger per unit of bio-based products compared to fossil-based products. The implementation of the EU-Ukraine bioeconomic strategy should be supported by a database of information related to the production, processing and (reuse) of bioresources, as well as the benefits gained. It has been shown that a combination of sustainable biomass sources and sustainable agricultural intensification with the support of a coherent policy can increase the availability of bioresources and food security.

On-Farm Participatory Evaluation and Selection of Legumes Intercropped With Finger Millet ( <i>Eleusine coracana</i> L) in Western Amhara

Background and Objective: Sustainable intensification of agriculture reduces the demand for increased land resources and intercropping is one of the sustainable intensification methods. However, identify and evaluate the potential and compatible legume species for intercropping with finger millet is necessary. Materials and Methods: A field experiment was conducted at two major finger millet producing areas of northwestern Ethiopia. Four legumes crops (Sweet lupine, Cowpea, Haricot bean, and Soybean) intercropped with finger millet. Results: Sole finger millet gave better yield than the intercrop systems in both districts. However, land equivalent ratio (LER) was more than unity for all treatments in both districts except for finger millet intercropped with soybean at South Achefer district. At Guangua finger millet intercropped with cowpea and soyabean gave 27% and 12% yield advantage, respectively and finger millet intercropped with cowpea preferred first by farmers for its high grain yield, soil fertility improvement (restoration) and its suitability for animal feed (cowpea green biomass and its grain is best animal feed for cattle and sheep/goat since livestock feed is a serious problem in those areas. At South Achefer finger millet intercropped with sweet lupine and cowpea gave 38% and 35% yield advantage respectively and finger millet intercropped with sweet lupine preferred first by farmers for its high grain yield to make stew as a protein source, soil fertility improvement and its suitability for human and animal feed. Conclusion: Therefore intercropping finger millet with cowpea and soybean at Guangua and intercropping finger millet with sweet lupine and cowpea at South Achefer preferred by farmers and also had yield advantage as compared to sole finger millet hence FM+CP and FM+SB recommended for Guangua and similar agro-ecologies and FM+SL and FM+CP for South Achefer and similar agro-ecologies as 1st, 2nd option respectively.

Nutrient saturation of crop monocultures and agroforestry indicated by nutrient response efficiency

Efficient use of nutrients is a key requisite for a sustainable intensification of agriculture in order to meet the increasing global crop demand while minimizing deleterious environmental impacts. Agroforestry systems exhibit tree–crop interactions, which potentially contribute to nutrient-efficient agro-ecosystems. Our goal was to determine whether the conversion from cropland monocultures to alley-cropping agroforestry increases nutrient response efficiency (NRE), the ability of plants to convert available nutrients into biomass. We found that crop yield, plant-available nutrients and NRE were comparable between agroforestry and monocultures, but the trees in agroforestry had high NRE, contributing to nutrient retention of the agroforestry systems as a whole. The unimodal relationship of the crops’ NRE with plant-available nutrients suggests that NRE values were beyond optimum in both agroforestry and monoculture indicating nutrient saturation. This indicates that fertilizer inputs can be reduced (or optimized) without sacrificing crop yield or profit. Based on the NRE curves, we assessed that a reduction of plant-available N by 50% would lead to a decrease in crop yield by 17% and a concomitant increase in N response efficiency by 67%, whereas a similar reduction of plant-available P would lead to a decrease in crop yield by 8% with an increase in P response efficiency by 83%. An optimized fertilization to achieve such lower levels of plant-available nutrients will have beneficial effects on nutrient retention and redistribution. Optimizing fertilizer input will make alley-cropping agroforestry a productive and profitable agro-ecosystem that contributes to an ecologically sustainable agriculture.

The Top 100 questions for the sustainable intensification of agriculture in India’s rainfed drylands

ABSTRACT India has the largest area of rainfed dryland agriculture globally, with a variety of distinct types of farming systems producing most of its coarse cereals, food legumes, minor millets, and large amounts of livestock. All these are vital for national and regional food and nutritional security. Yet, the rainfed drylands have been relatively neglected in mainstream agricultural and rural development policy. As a result, significant social-ecological challenges overlap in these landscapes: endemic poverty, malnutrition and land degradation. Sustainable intensification of dryland agriculture is essential for helping to address these challenges, particularly in the context of accelerating climate change. In this paper, we present 100 questions that point to the most important knowledge gaps and research priorities. If addressed, these would facilitate and inform sustainable intensification in Indian rainfed drylands, leading to improved agricultural production and enhanced ecosystem services. The horizon scanning method used to produce these questions brought together experts and practitioners involved in a broad range of disciplines and sectors. This exercise resulted in a consolidated set of questions covering the agricultural drylands, organized into 13 themes. Together, these represent a collective programme for new cross- and multi-disciplinary research on sustainable intensification in the Indian rainfed drylands.

Resilience of an Integrated Crop–Livestock System to Climate Change: A Simulation Analysis of Cover Crop Grazing in Southern Brazil

Integrated crop–livestock systems are a form of sustainable intensification of agriculture that rely on synergistic relationships between plant and animal system elements to bolster critical agroecosystem processes, with potential impacts on resilience to weather anomalies. We simulated productivity dynamics in an integrated cover crop grazing agroecosystem typical of southern Brazil to gain a better understanding of the impacts of livestock integration on system performance, including future productivity and resilience under climate change. Long-term historical simulations in APSIM showed that the integrated system resulted in greater system-wide productivity than a specialized control system in 77% of simulated years. Although soybean yields were typically lower in the integrated system, the additional forage and livestock production increased total system outputs. Under simulated future climate conditions [representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario from 2020 to 2060], integrated system productivity exceeded specialized system productivity in 95% of years despite declines in average soybean yield and aboveground cover crop biomass production. While the integrated system provided a productivity buffer against chronic climate stress, its resilience to annual weather anomalies depended on disturbance type and timing. This study demonstrates the utility of process-based models for exploring biophysical proxies for resilience, as well as the potential advantages of livestock integration into cropland as a sustainable intensification strategy.

Engineering rhizobacteria for sustainable agriculture.

Exploitation of plant growth promoting (PGP) rhizobacteria (PGPR) as crop inoculants could propel sustainable intensification of agriculture to feed our rapidly growing population. However, field performance of PGPR is typically inconsistent due to suboptimal rhizosphere colonisation and persistence in foreign soils, promiscuous host-specificity, and in some cases, the existence of undesirable genetic regulation that has evolved to repress PGP traits. While the genetics underlying these problems remain largely unresolved, molecular mechanisms of PGP have been elucidated in rigorous detail. Engineering and subsequent transfer of PGP traits into selected efficacious rhizobacterial isolates or entire bacterial rhizosphere communities now offers a powerful strategy to generate improved PGPR that are tailored for agricultural use. Through harnessing of synthetic plant-to-bacteria signalling, attempts are currently underway to establish exclusive coupling of plant-bacteria interactions in the field, which will be crucial to optimise efficacy and establish biocontainment of engineered PGPR. This review explores the many ecological and biotechnical facets of this research.

AgroTutor: A Mobile Phone Application Supporting Sustainable Agricultural Intensification

Traditional agricultural extension services rely on extension workers, especially in countries with large agricultural areas. In order to increase adoption of sustainable agriculture, the recommendations given by such services must be adapted to local conditions and be provided in a timely manner. The AgroTutor mobile application was built to provide highly specific and timely agricultural recommendations to farmers across Mexico and complement the work of extension agents. At the same time, AgroTutor provides direct contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, either by advancing their implementation or providing local data systems to measure and monitor specific indicators such as the proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture. The application is freely available and allows farmers to geo-locate and register plots and the crops grown there, using the phone’s built-in GPS, or alternatively, on top of very high-resolution imagery. Once a crop and some basic data such as planting date and cultivar type have been registered, the application provides targeted information such as weather, potential and historical yield, financial benchmarking information, data-driven recommendations, and commodity price forecasts. Farmers are also encouraged to contribute in-situ information, e.g., soils, management, and yield data. The information can then be used by crop models, which, in turn, send tailored results back to the farmers. Initial feedback from farmers and extension agents has already improved some of the application’s characteristics. More enhancements are planned for inclusion in the future to increase the application’s function as a decision support tool.

Potential for sustainable irrigation expansion in a 3 °C warmer climate.

Climate change is expected to affect crop production worldwide, particularly in rain-fed agricultural regions. It is still unknown how irrigation water needs will change in a warmer planet and where freshwater will be locally available to expand irrigation without depleting freshwater resources. Here, we identify the rain-fed cropping systems that hold the greatest potential for investment in irrigation expansion because water will likely be available to suffice irrigation water demand. Using projections of renewable water availability and irrigation water demand under warming scenarios, we identify target regions where irrigation expansion may sustain crop production under climate change. Our results also show that global rain-fed croplands hold significant potential for sustainable irrigation expansion and that different irrigation strategies have different irrigation expansion potentials. Under a 3 °C warming, we find that a soft-path irrigation expansion with small monthly water storage and deficit irrigation has the potential to expand irrigated land by 70 million hectares and feed 300 million more people globally. We also find that a hard-path irrigation expansion with large annual water storage can sustainably expand irrigation up to 350 million hectares, while producing food for 1.4 billion more people globally. By identifying where irrigation can be expanded under a warmer climate, this work may serve as a starting point for investigating socioeconomic factors of irrigation expansion and may guide future research and resources toward those agricultural communities and water management institutions that will most need to adapt to climate change.

Culture-based Methods for Studying the Bacterial Root Microbiome of Wheat.

Beneficial plant-microbe interactions are important and desirable for sustainable intensification of agriculture. Here, we describe methods to isolate microbes from the roots of field-grown wheat plants. This includes the rhizosphere and rhizoplane soil, as well as the root endosphere. We also describe a method to test for endosphere competence of putative endophytes.

The variable paths to sustainable intensification in agriculture

Continuing environmental degradation amidst economic growth and population increase has underscored the desirability of pursuing sustainable intensification in agriculture. In theory, it would increase the volume of agricultural production without further degrading the natural environment or compromising the food security of the world’s poorest people. In practice, difficult choices involving trade-offs between agricultural development and environmental protection have characterized most efforts at sustainable intensification. Against this backdrop, a series of studies have tried to identify an optimal strategy for sustainable intensification. This article argues that there is no one optimal strategy. Rather, optimal strategies vary across socio-ecological contexts. Distinct strategies of sustainable intensification have emerged (1) in peri-urban agriculture, (2) on large farms situated on prime agricultural lands, and (3) in smallholder-dominated agricultural districts. Government interventions to promote sustainable intensification should recognize and build on these distinct, place-based economic, and agro-ecological dynamics.

In silico assessment of the potential of basalt amendments to reduce N2O emissions from bioenergy crops

AbstractThe potential of large‐scale deployment of basalt to reduce N2O emissions from cultivated soils may contribute to climate stabilization beyond the CO2‐removal effect from enhanced weathering. We used 3 years of field observations from maize (Zea mays) and miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus) to improve the nitrogen (N) module of the DayCent model and evaluate the potential of basalt amendments to reduce N losses and increase yields from two bioenergy crops. We found 20%–60% improvement in our N2O flux estimates over previous model descriptions. Model results predict that the application of basalt would reduce N2O emissions by 16% in maize and 9% in miscanthus. Lower N2O emissions responded to increases in the N2:N2O ratio of denitrification with basalt‐induced increases in soil pH, with minor contributions from the impact of P additions (a minor component of some basalts) on N immobilization. The larger reduction of N2O emissions in maize than in miscanthus was likely explained by a synergistic effect between soil pH and N content, leading to a higher sensitivity of the N2:N2O ratio to changes in pH in heavily fertilized maize. Basalt amendments led to modest increases in modeled yields and the nitrogen use efficiency (i.e., fertilizer‐N recover in crop production) of maize but did not affect the productivity of miscanthus. However, enhanced soil P availability maintained the long‐term productivity of crops with high nutrient requirements. The alleviation of plant P limitation led to enhanced plant N uptake, thereby contributing to lower microbial N availability and N2O emissions from crops with high nutrient requirements. Our results from the improved model suggest that the large‐scale deployment of basalt, by reducing N2O fluxes of cropping systems, could contribute to the sustainable intensification of agriculture and enhance the climate mitigation potential of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage strategies.

Adoption of Road Water Harvesting Practices and Their Impacts: Evidence from a Semi-Arid Region of Ethiopia

In the drylands of Ethiopia, several road water harvesting practices (RWHP) have been used to supplement rain-fed agriculture. However, factors affecting adoption of RWHP and their impacts were not studied systematically. Understanding the factors influencing the adoption of RWHP for sustainable agricultural intensification and climate resilience is critical to promoting such technologies. This paper investigates the impacts of using rural roads to harvest rainwater runoff and the factors causing farmers to adopt the practice. Road water harvesting is considered a possible mechanism for transformative climate change adaptation. By systematically capturing rainfall with rural road infrastructure, rain-related road damage is reduced, erosion and landscape degradation due to road development is lessened, and farm incomes increase due to the beneficial use of harvested water, resulting in an increased climate change resilience. This paper uses a binary probit model and propensity score matching methods based on a household survey of 159 households and 603 plots. The results of the probit model show that the education level of the household, family labor, access to markets, and distance of the farming plot from the farmer’s dwelling are statistically significant in explaining farmers’ adoption of RWHP in the study area. The casual impact estimation from the propensity score matching suggests that RWHP has positive and significant impacts on input uses (farmyard manure and fertilizer), crop yield, and farm income among the sample households.

Harnessing the full potential of biomethane towards tomorrow's bioeconomy: A national case study coupling sustainable agricultural intensification, emerging biogas technologies and energy system analysis

Here, we demonstrate the applicability of national strategies towards massive biogas deployment, through a case study Denmark. First, a variety of sustainable agricultural intensification measures to produce additional biomass resources were investigated; as a result, it was found that the biomass currently used in Denmark's biorefineries (including biogas) could be tripled without compromising soil carbon and inducing little to no land use changes. The degree to which these resources could be mobilized for the biogas sector was analysed through examining the extremes, here labelled as LOW and HIGH biomass-to-biogas scenarios. The resulting biomethane production was calculated considering three combinations of biogas production and upgrading technologies: (i) conventional biogas production and upgrading technologies; (ii) plants with prolonged retention time and conventional upgrading technologies and (iii) as in (ii), but upgrading via biological methanation of carbon dioxide in the biogas, using renewable hydrogen. These scenarios revealed a biomethane potential of 24–111 PJ y−1. The key finding of our study is that only the extreme deployment measures, in terms of biomass and technology, allowed to fulfill the emerging gas demands, namely buffering the deficits from fluctuating power and transport (light- and heavy-duty vehicles, urban buses, coaches), quantified at 95 PJ y−1. Yet, just harnessing the full sustainable potential of animal manure, straw and perennial grass allows to supply half of this demand. In the LOW and HIGH biomass scenarios, doubling the retention time brought an increased methane production of 20% (energy-wise), while this increase was 87% when methanation was added.

Rural livelihood diversity and its influence on the ecological intensification potential of smallholder farms in Kenya

AbstractSmallholder farmers represent the majority of food producers around the world, yet they are often the most at risk of suffering yield gaps and not achieving their production potential. Ecological Intensification (EI) is a knowledge intensive approach to sustainable agricultural intensification which utilizes biodiversity‐based ecosystem services to support greater yield and reduce reliance on agrochemical inputs. Despite the potential benefit of EI based practices, uptake by smallholders is not as widespread as it could be. Here we test the hypothesis that application of EI on smallholder farms in Kenya is a viable approach that could be taken in order to enhance food security. Focusing on natural pest control and crop pollination, we used farmer surveys to explore the potential for EI in central Kenya. We identified to what extent farm typology and access to knowledge determine the incentives and barriers facing smallholder producers and how this influences optimal pathways for sharing knowledge and providing extension services. We found considerable potential for EI of smallholder farms in this region; most farmers grew insect pollinated crops and some farmers already employed EI practices, while others relied heavily on chemical pesticides. Based on physical, social, and economic factors, three farm typologies emerged including “semi‐commercial,” “market orientated,” and “subsistence.” These typologies influenced the appropriate EI practices available to farmers, as well as routes through which knowledge was shared, and the extent to which extension services were utilized. We propose that to support effective uptake of EI practices, smallholder farm heterogeneity should be acknowledged and characterized in order to target the needs and capabilities of farmers and identify appropriate knowledge sharing and support pathways. The approach we take here has the potential to be employed in other regions globally.

Integrated crop-livestock systems: A sustainable land-use alternative for food production in the Brazilian Cerrado and Amazon

Sustainable intensification of agriculture is central to deal with the challenges of feeding a growing population while promoting a rational use of environmental and economic resources. Nowhere is this challenge more prominent than in Brazil, where low productivity and environmentally degrading agricultural activities occupy vast areas. We used the emergy synthesis approach, including innovative indices - emergy footprint and carbon-emergy output intensity - to assess and compare the environmental performance of an integrated crop-livestock system to a continuous crop and a continuous livestock system. Our analysis uses survey and empirical case study data from the 2017/18 crop season in Mato Grosso state, Brazil - the largest grain and beef producer in the country. Economic indicators such as gross revenue, production costs and profitability were calculated to complement the sustainability assessments. The emergy indices indicate that integrated crop-livestock system shows a balanced performance between input use and economic and environmental outcomes. In contrast, due to its heavy dependence on external inputs, the cropping system has poor environmental results, but the highest profitability. By excluding these environmental costs, current accounting of soy-corn production in Brazil dramatically overstates its net benefits to society and overall sustainability. The Emergy Sustainability Index for the integrated system was 0.66 and its Net Profit was USD 235.69 ha-1, while for the continuous crop system the values were 0.47 and USD 295 ha−1, respectively. The livestock system performed poorly in both, economic and environmental outcomes, underscoring the need to transition away from existing extensive systems. Livestock shows the highest positive greenhouse gas emissions, 7.98 E−09 tonCO2eq for each joule produced, and Net Loss of USD 0.58 ha-1. These results provide further support for Brazil’s investment in integrated systems as part of its climate mitigation and sustainable agricultural development plans and warrant consideration in sustainable agriculture initiatives in other countries where cattle production is widespread.

Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Four Tanzanian Villages—A View from the Ground and the Sky

Agricultural intensification based on smallholders is among many economists viewed as a necessary developmental path to ensure food security and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. Increasingly, a one-sided focus on raising productivity in cereals has been questioned on environmental grounds, with the concept of sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) emerging from the natural sciences as a way of advancing environmental and social needs simultaneously. SAI approaches have, however, been criticized for being both conceptually and methodologically vague. This study combines socioeconomic survey data with remotely sensed land productivity data and qualitative data from four villages in Tanzania. By triangulating and comparing data collected through ground level surveys and ground-truthing with remote sensing data, we find that this combination of methods is capable of resolving some of the theoretical and methodological vagueness found in SAI approaches. The results show the problems of relying on only one type of data when studying sustainable agricultural intensification and indicate the poor environmental outcomes of cereal monocropping, even when social outcomes may be forthcoming. We identify land use practices that can be considered both socially and environmentally sustainable. Theoretically, we contribute to a further problematization of the SAI concept.