Deconstructing and unpacking scientific controversies in intensification and sustainability: why the tensions in concepts and values?

Struik, P.C.; Kuyper, Th.W.; Brussaard, L.; Leeuwis, C.

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2014.10.002

Cited by 104 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…Struik and co-authors summarizing wrote [64,65]: We agree with assumption that solutions for food security must be holistic and must address issues such as food accessibility that filling the lack of attention to justice [64]. Furthermore, the role of biological inputs in this debate also should be questioned, including the concept that this type of technology is primitive and backward.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Plant growth promoting bacteria and humic substances: crop promotion and mechanisms of action

Olivares

Busato

Paula

et al. 2017

Chem. Biol. Technol. Agric.

122

102

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High-external input agriculture is one of the most disruptive human activities, which have been justified by the current economic paradigm due to high productivity and the need to feed a growing population. However, we are dangerously close to the edge of the planet resources and both hunger and food insecurity has increased. Limiting the use of non-renewable chemical fertilizers and pesticides, changing water management, enhancing diversity and considering the often-neglected social dimension of agriculture are the bases to other chemical and biological technologies to agriculture. Biological inputs can stimulate the substitution of chemical inputs without questioning the current fundaments or can be adopted as a turning point to intensify the harsh processes of transition to more environmental friendly agriculture. The debate is open and our contribution is to develop the scientific basis for biological inputs that, unlike soluble fertilizers and pesticides, depend on a number of factors for its success in promoting crop yield. In this review, we showed the results obtained with the combined use of diazotrophic endophytic bacteria and humic substances in diverse crops (sugarcane, maize, tomato, common beans and pineapple), presenting the main morphological and physiological changes induced by biological technology. A snapshot of the state of the art of the use of plant growth promoting bacteria together with humic substances was provided, showing their potential especially when plants are subjected to moderate to severe abiotic stress. The number of studies reporting the combined use of plant growth promoting bacteria and humic substances is surprisingly low. There is an open avenue for research and encouraging debate is the goal. To overcome the conventional agriculture, maintaining productivity levels is more than scientific challenge, is a humanitarian duty. The biological inputs can help in this purpose.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Plant growth promoting bacteria and humic substances: crop promotion and mechanisms of action

Olivares

Busato

Paula

et al. 2017

Chem. Biol. Technol. Agric.

122

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…They also rely on potassium and phosphorus fertilisers and, in irrigated areas, on water withdrawals (Box 1). To avoid the risk of limited or reduced yields, farmers often apply more fertilisers and pesticides than needed due to their relatively low prices (Caron et al 2014;Cordell et al 2011;Struik et al 2014). To address current economic constraints and environmental regulations, these chemical input-based farming systems currently seek to optimise inputs according to spatiotemporal plant/animal requirements and to limit pollution (Fig.…”

Section: Chemical Input-based Farming Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new analytical framework of farming system and agriculture model diversities. A review

Thérond

Duru

Roger-Estrade

et al. 2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

214

155

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In most current farming system classifications (e.g. "conventional" versus "organic"), each type of farming system encompasses a wide variety of farming practices and performances. Classifying farming systems using concepts such as "ecological", "sustainable intensification" or "agro-ecology" is not satisfactory because the concepts "overlap in…def-initions, principles and practices, thus creating…confusion in their meanings, interpretations and implications". Existing classifications most often focus either on biotechnical functioning or on socio-economic contexts of farming systems. We reviewed the literature to develop an original analytical framework of the diversity of farming systems and agriculture models that deal with these limits. To describe this framework, we first present the main differences between three biotechnical types of farming systems differing in the role of ecosystem services and external inputs: chemical input-, biological inputand biodiversity-based farming systems. Second, we describe four key socio-economic contexts which determine development and functioning of these farming systems: globalised commodity-based food systems, circular economies, alternative food systems and integrated landscape approaches. Third, we present our original analytical framework of agriculture models, defined as biotechnical types of farming systems associated with one or a combination of socio-economic contexts differing in the role of relationships based on global market prices and "territorial embeddedness". We demonstrate the potential of this framework by describing six key agriculture models and reviewing key scientific issues in agronomy associated with each one. We then analyse the added value of our analytical framework and its generic character. Lastly, we discuss transversal research issues of the agriculture models, concerning the technologies required, their function in the bioeconomy, their multi-criteria and multilevel assessments, their co-existence and the transitions between them.

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“…Yet, industrial agriculture is likely to remain a main source of food supply, driven and maintained by the combination of high labor costs and relatively low costs of external inputs (IPES-Food 2016), unless the cost-benefit analysis of agricultural production is made in a different (and better) way, based on full accounting of all costs and proper pricing of scarce goods. Within the current economic paradigm and given that the world's population is increasing, dietary demands per capita are increasing, while at the same time the natural resource base (arable land of good quality, fresh water, nutrients, energy) (IPES-Food 2016;Valenzuela 2016) as well as the human resources (experienced, resourceful, and innovative farmers and agronomists) (Struik et al 2014) are eroding, it is likely that planetary boundaries will even be further exceeded. Governing bodies, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, citizens but also producers and other actors making use of natural resources worry about this process of decline, and therefore, "sustainability" is a frequently used noun and "sustainable" a frequently used attributive adjective, especially in relation to agriculture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable intensification in agriculture: the richer shade of green. A review

Struik¹,

Kuyper²

2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

301

200

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Agricultural intensification is required to feed the growing and increasingly demanding human population. Intensification is associated with increasing use of resources, applied as efficiently as possible, i.e. with a concurrent increase in both resource use and resource use efficiency. Resource use efficiency has agronomic, environmental, economic, social, trans-generational, and global dimensions. Current industrial agriculture privileges economic resource use efficiency over the other dimensions, claiming that that pathway is necessary to feed the world. Current agronomy and the concept of sustainable intensification are contested. Sustainable intensification needs to include clarity about principles and practices for priority setting, an all-inclusive and explicit cost-benefit analysis, and subsequent weighing of trade-offs, based on scientifically acceptable, shared norms, thus making agriculture "green" again. Here, we review different forms of intensification, different principles and concepts underlying them, as well as the norms and values that are needed to guide the search for effective forms of sustainable and ecological intensification. We also address innovations in research and education required to create the necessary knowledge base. We argue that sustainable intensification should be considered as a process of enquiry and analysis for navigating and sorting out the issues and concerns in agronomy. Sustainable intensification is about societal negotiation, institutional innovation, justice, and adaptive management. We also make a plea for at least two alternative framings of sustainable intensification: one referring to the need for "de-intensification" in high-input systems to become more sustainable and one referring to the need to increase inputs and thereby yields where there are currently large yield (and often also efficiency) gaps. Society needs an agriculture that demonstrates resilience under future change, an agronomy that can cope with the diversity of trade-offs across different stakeholders, and a sustainability that is perceived as a dynamic process based on agreed values and shared knowledge, insight, and wisdom.

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Deconstructing and unpacking scientific controversies in intensification and sustainability: why the tensions in concepts and values?

Cited by 104 publications

References 39 publications

Plant growth promoting bacteria and humic substances: crop promotion and mechanisms of action

Plant growth promoting bacteria and humic substances: crop promotion and mechanisms of action

A new analytical framework of farming system and agriculture model diversities. A review

Sustainable intensification in agriculture: the richer shade of green. A review

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