Potential and limits of land and soil for sustainable intensification of European agriculture

Schiefer, Jasmin; Lair, Georg J.; Blum, Winfried E. H.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.06.021

Cited by 59 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…Today, sustainable intensification has become a generally accepted framework for researchers, and the generally accepted interpretation is to increase unit production input while reducing environmental impact [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. Its main purpose is to increase the utilization efficiency of agricultural resources, thereby further achieving agricultural intensification by increasing yield per hectare [63].…”

Section: The Connotation Of Agricultural Sustainable Intensificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of natural factors, most studies have shown that climate change, elevation, slope, soil organic matter, precipitation and land quality also affect the adoption of agricultural sustainable intensification [58][59][60]. Among them, the slope, soil organic matter and land quality influence the soil resilience and influence the sustainable intensification practice on the land [59]. Climate change has a great impact on temperature changes, rainfall changes and extreme events in low-altitude areas, leading to greater risks in agricultural production environments and affecting farmers' adoption of sustainable intensification practices.…”

Section: Changes In Socio-economic Factors Are the Main Factors Restrmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Prospects for Agricultural Sustainable Intensification: A Review of Research

Xie

Huang

Chen

et al. 2019

Land

102

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In recent years, as a way to achieve higher agricultural output while reducing the negative impact of agricultural production on the environment, agricultural sustainable intensification has attracted worldwide attention. Under the framework of "connotation definition-measuring method-influencing factor-implementation path", this paper systematically sorts out the main research results in the field of agricultural sustainable intensification. The results show that: (1) The connotation of agricultural sustainable intensification has not been clearly defined. It is widely believed that sustainable intensification has the characteristics of increasing production and reducing environmental damage, and is widely used in agricultural, biological and environmental sciences;(2) The measurement methods and indicators of agricultural sustainable intensification are diverse, and the measurement cases are mainly distributed in Europe, Asia, Africa and America; (3) The influencing factors of agricultural sustainable intensification can be roughly divided into four aspects: socio-economic factors, farmers' own characteristics and natural factors, among which population pressure is the potential driving force for agricultural sustainable intensification; (4) The most obvious feature of agricultural sustainable intensification is the reduction of the yield gap. The strategy of implementing agricultural sustainable intensification can be attributed to the effective use of inputs and the adoption of sustainable practices and technologies. Therefore, the implementation path can be summarized as enhancing the effectiveness of external inputs to the agricultural system and optimizing the practice and technology mix within the crop production system. Finally, this paper concludes that research on connotation definition, influencing mechanism, different regional models, incentive mechanism for farmers, impact evaluation and system design of agricultural sustainable intensification should be strengthened in future.

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Section: The Connotation Of Agricultural Sustainable Intensificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Changes In Socio-economic Factors Are the Main Factors Restrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Agricultural Sustainable Intensification: A Review of Research

Xie

Huang

Chen

et al. 2019

Land

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The continuous increase of food demand for a growing population requires constant expansion of areas under cultivation, the consequence of which is the reduction of the size of natural areas as well as the increasing amount of degraded soils [4]. Soils are regarded as renewable resources, but soil-forming processes last so long that, in the context of managing them, they seem to be non-renewable resources, which has received growing attention from many researchers [3][4][5][6][7]. A response to the intensification of farming was the creation of quality systems for the primary production (which guarantees the production of high quality products while having a minimum effect on the environment, primarily on soil) [8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selected Properties of Soils for Long-Term Use in Organic Farming

et al. 2020

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The goal of organic farming with respect to plant production is to create high-quality products while minimizing human impacts. The aim of this paper was to assess soil properties in selected organic farms in terms of the achievement of general and specific objectives of organic farming. Fifty five (55) organic farms were selected for the research; twenty five (25) of those farms additionally had conventional animal production with cattle breeding. Soil samples were collected from each farm and, the following parameters, deciding about the suitability for agriculture were determined: pH, content of organic carbon, available phosphorus and potassium, mineral nitrogen, and Total nitrogen content. The content of available phosphorus and mineral nitrogen was very low or low in most of the studied soils, which can lead to disturbance of homeostasis of agroecosystems. Potassium content in these soils was high. The properties of the studied soils indicate a high risk of chemical and biological degradation. Without implementing actions that control the pH and increase the content of nitrogen and phosphorus elements, the degradation will increase. Soil properties in the group of farms with animal production were more beneficial from the point of view of crop production, compared with farms that do not breed animals.

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“…Therefore, we will have to sustainably intensify production on land that is already under cultivation ( Figure 1). In the context of agriculture, other aspects of sustainable intensification are protecting or regenerating natural resources (Pretty, 1997) and increasing the provision of environmental services while reducing adverse effects (Garnett and Godfray, 2012;Schiefer et al, 2016). The way in which the authors use "sustainable intensification" is broader than "ecological intensification".…”

Section: Dwindling Natural Resources a Growing Population And Climatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable intensification of agricultural production: a review of four soil amendments

Keiblinger

Kral

2018

Die Bodenkultur: Journal of Land Management, Food and Environment

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Summary Dwindling natural resources, growing population pressure, climate change, and degraded soils threaten agricultural production. In order to feed the growing world population, we have to develop strategies to sustainably intensify current agricultural production while reducing the adverse effects of agriculture. Currently, a number of amendments have come into focus for improving structure and fertility of soils. Zeolites, biochar (BC), lime, and nitrification inhibitors (NIs) are reviewed for their properties. Zeolites and BC share many characteristics, such as a high cation exchange capacity (CEC), high specific surface area, and high porosity. Lime, on the other hand, works above all through its buffering capacity and can improve aggregate stability. Although the latter amendments change soil physicochemical characteristics, NIs do not act on soil properties but constrain a chemical/enzymatic reaction directly. These amendments are potential strategies to mitigate ongoing soil degradation and to secure soil fertility, under the global challenges. While the ecological effects of these soil amendments are studied intensively, the extent to which they can contribute to sustainable intensification is not fully explored. We want to contribute to the debate by providing an overview that seeks to integrate ecological evidence with the agronomic perspective.

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Potential and limits of land and soil for sustainable intensification of European agriculture

Cited by 59 publications

References 49 publications

Prospects for Agricultural Sustainable Intensification: A Review of Research

Prospects for Agricultural Sustainable Intensification: A Review of Research

Selected Properties of Soils for Long-Term Use in Organic Farming

Sustainable intensification of agricultural production: a review of four soil amendments

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