The intensification of agriculture contributes "rarely" to well-being, to the environment | News | Eco-Trade

In a study published in Nature Sustainability which included the badysis of 60 case studies from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the researchers found that less than 20% of cases of agricultural intensification had advantages. through ecosystem services and human well-being.

Agricultural intensification – activities that aim to increase the productivity or profitability of farmland – is becoming a priority for sustainable food production. According to the authors, the positive results are unclear according to the authors.

This lack of knowledge was their motivation to badyze the twin impacts of agricultural intensification in low- and middle-income countries.

"[19659005] Change is often induced or imposed for more vulnerable population groups that often lack money or secure tenure.

Laura Vang Rasmussen, University of British Columbia

The results, published last month (June 14), are based on 53 peer-reviewed articles published from 1997 to 2017, with 15 out of 60 case studies focusing on African countries: Ethiopia, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia

The team of researchers badyzed the well-being of indicators such as income, education, health and food security, and ecosystem services were evaluated at Indicators including biodiversity, cultural heritage and water purification
"Only 17% of our cases were categorized as having overall winning results [for ecosystems and wellbeing]", write the authors in the In the case of biodiversity, while only 12% of cases had positive results, 45% had negative results.

Image: Laura Vang Rasmussen and others

According to Laura Vang Rasmussen, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Forest Science and Conservation of the University of British Columbia at Canada, although agricultural intensification is often considered the backbone of food security, often compromises sustainability conditions such as biodiversity, soil formation, and water. regulation that can be critical to support stable long-term food production.

In Ethiopia, for example, the intensification of coffee production Investors and state-owned enterprises are helping to reduce the access and availability of ecosystem services, which has negative repercussions the well-being of local minority groups who rely on these services for their livelihood.

African countries must consider According to Rasmussen, intensification is introduced, whether or not it is initiated by the farmers themselves. "Change is often induced or imposed on more vulnerable population groups that often lack money or tenure security to make these changes work," she says. Rasmussen explains that smallholders in the cases studied often struggle to move from subsistence farming to commercial farming, and the challenges involved are not reflected in many intensification strategies.

Phil Dobie, a senior researcher at the World Agroforestry Center's study is important in his goal of studying how to achieve sustainable intensification, which he says is an ill-defined term.

"It is possible that the aspiration to agricultural intensification with simultaneous environmental protection and improved human well-being is achieved … in the economies that provide the means to improve human well-being ", adds Dobie. He believes that relying solely on the agricultural sector will make agricultural intensification impossible.

This piece was produced by the English SciDev.Net office in sub-Saharan Africa