‘More food grown on less land with less water’: Why agricultural intensification is the key to sustainable farming

Rising food prices, gaps on shelves and requests from supermarket chains to be kind and try something else if a favourite brand or item isn’t available… supply chain disruptions are real and food shortages are global.

In a paper released this year, [researchers] suggested that improved efficiencies in crop production could increase production by almost 3 per cent while reducing the area required for growing crops by between 37 per cent and 48 per cent.

This would allow land to stay “natural” and host biodiversity. In addition, the researchers estimated that crop prices would decrease.

Achieving the scenario requires overcoming the yield gap, which is the difference between average global yields and possible yields. Agricultural intensification – fertiliser, irrigation and crop protection chemicals – is the key.

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Another publication this year suggested that relocating crop land to areas where water is available would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71 per cent, by allowing the drier land to revert to forestry.

Like the German study, the inter-country team led by the University of Cambridge UK concluded that high-input, mechanised farming was required to be successful.

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here.