What is sustainable intensification? Views from experts

Petersen, Brian; Snapp, Sieglinde S.

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.02.002

Cited by 235 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(49 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

123

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, the two words "sustainable" and "intensification" in the phrase "sustainable intensification" are often not assigned equal weight (Garnett and Godfray 2012). How complex or vague the concept of sustainable intensification is, has been clearly demonstrated by Petersen and Snapp (2015) who interviewed 30 agricultural experts on the topic. These authors observed that respondents interpreted the term differently, partly because they considered "sustainable" to be vague, and most respondents did not observe a significant departure from current practices.…”

Section: Sustainable Intensificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Struik¹,

Kuyper²

2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

300

200

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Sustainable Intensificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Struik¹,

Kuyper²

2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

300

200

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Then, giving more cultural weight to the "sustainability" element in a global context, some argue for inclusion of social and ethical considerations such as labour rights, animal welfare and social equality -hence claims that sustainable intensification "needs to be mindful of the social, economic and ethical context within which food production activities take place" 10 . This breadth of meaning calls into question the usefulness of SI as a concept: for example, interviews with 30 agricultural experts 11 suggested that the term is not uniformly understood nor generally seen as a significant departure from current agricultural practices. Although calls for definitional clarity are being issued, proposed definitions, in our view, remain vague and difficult to operationalise.…”

Section: The Need For a Sustainable Definitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How scalable is sustainable intensification?

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Liu et al [66] indicate that energy crops grown on marginal agricultural land are beneficial for the reduction of GHG emissions; and Shane et al [92] and Qin et al [39] believe that crops residues can be used effectively to provide more energy. Petersen and Snapp [93] define crop yield without adverse impacts on environment as "sustainable intensification", whereas López-Bellido et al [94] and Manevski et al [95] figure out that currently in most parts of the world, biomass cultivation still encounters issues such as ILUC, and thereby a recession of farmer's income and biodiversity decline exist.…”

Section: Types Of Bioenergy Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Assessment of Bioenergy from a Global Perspective: A Review

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bioenergy, as a renewable energy resource, is expected to see significant development in the future. However, a key issue that will affect this trend is sustainability of bioenergy. There have been many studies on this topic but mainly focusing on only one or two-dimensions of the issue and also with much of the literature directed at studies of European regions. To help understand the wider scope of bioenergy sustainability, this paper reviews a broad range of current research on the topic and places the literature into a multi-dimensional framework covering the economic, environmental and ecological, social and land-related aspects of bioenergy sustainability, as well as a geographical analysis of the areas for which the studies have been carried out. The review indicates that it is hard to draw an overall conclusion on the sustainability of bioenergy because of limited studies or contradictory results in some respects. In addition, this review shows that crop-based bioenergy and forest bioenergy are seen as the main sources of bioenergy and that most studies discuss the final utilization of bioenergy as being for electricity generation. Finally, research directions for future study are suggested, based on the literature reviewed here.

show abstract

What is sustainable intensification? Views from experts

Cited by 235 publications

References 42 publications

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

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

How scalable is sustainable intensification?

Sustainability Assessment of Bioenergy from a Global Perspective: A Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About