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Agricultural Innovation to Protect the Environment Jeffrey Sayera,1 and Kenneth G

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Agricultural Innovation to Protect the Environment Jeffrey Sayera,1 and Kenneth G SPECIAL FEATURE: INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION SPECIAL FEATURE: Agricultural innovation to protect the environment Jeffrey Sayera,1 and Kenneth G. Cassmanb,1 systems that allow for agricultural inten- aCentre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science and School of Earth, and sification and development of agricultural Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4870, Australia; and b equipment industries, farm inputs, and food Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583 processing capacities. To this end, much agricultural research continues to focus on how to increase pro- In a world of 9.5 billion people, global de- mental challenges. Agricultural land is now ductivity on this existing farm land. Im- mand for food, fiber, and biofuels has to be required to deliver multiple environmental proved efficiency in the use of land and met with minimal possible increases in land, and production services (9, 14, 15). The “ ” agricultural inputs is already contributing water, fossil fuels, and the minerals used to issues are often beset by wicked problems to environmental goals. Quantifying food produce fertilizers (1–4). The problem is de- (16, 17) where different communities of sci- fi production capacity of currently farmed land bated at three levels: rst, that agriculture will entists and practitioners are unable to agree has focused on estimating “yield gaps” (i.e., notbeabletoproduceenoughbecauseitwill on the framing of questions and therefore the difference between current farm yields come up against both biophysical and envi- advocate divergent solutions (18, 19). The and the potential that can be achieved with ronmental limits that restrict yields (3, 5, 6); papers explore implications of different good crop and soil management). Yield gap second, that the need to expand and intensify combinations of technologies, institutional ar- analysis allows the identification of regions – agriculture will destroy the broader envi- rangements, and policies on the agriculture with the greatest potential for higher yields ronmental values of forests, wetlands, marine environment nexus (20, 21) and attempt to (27–29). Need for more precise and geospa- systems, and their associated biodiversity link the global resource management dis- tially explicit yield gap estimates are the – (7 9); and third, that there are institutional course with the realities faced by poor farm- target of the Global Yield Gap Atlas obstacles to the diffusion and adoption of the ers in developing countries (3). They endorse (www.yieldgap.org). However, increasing innovations that could solve these problems. four strategic objectives: ensuring produc- productivity is necessary but not sufficient Although there is debate on these issues, tion of adequate food, alleviating poverty, to ensure food security, reduce poverty, im- there is also strong consensus that we are achieving better health and nutrition for a prove nutrition, and maintain the natural witnessing unprecedented changes in our growing population, and conserving the resource base for sustainable development major agricultural systems (6). Major shifts naturalresourcebaseuponwhichallofthis (6). Innovations across a broader spectrum are occurring in the way food and other ag- depends (22–24). of policies and technologies are needed to ricultural commodities are produced, in the Agricultural innovation is essential to ad- confront the complex array of challenges scale at which this happens, in the geo- dress environmental problems in a world that at the agriculture–environment nexus (1, 21). graphical locations of agriculture, and per- must soon support more than 9 billion Many practicing agricultural scientists are haps most notable, the agencies and actors humans. Poverty and food insecurity go working to solve immediate problems of driving these processes (10–14). Growth in hand in hand (1). For the 2 billion malnour- poor farmers. A marked shift is occurring demand for agricultural products will mainly ished poor in developing countries, short- in the way agricultural research is conducted. occur in markets of emerging economies, term food security is inevitably a higher In particular, there has been a move from particularly in the most populous countries priority than long-term environmental sus- single-factor, mainly on-station research to- of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, tainability. A large proportion of rural poor ward active engagement with farmers and the ways in which China, India, Indonesia, in the tropics live in regions with marginal farm communities to encourage experimen- Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South land and climate for agriculture (25) or in tation and innovation. A recurring theme Africa respond to growing food demand will areas with more favorable climate that lie is the use of concepts such as Integrated be major determinants of environmental at the interface between agriculture and re- Agricultural Research for Development change at a global scale (3, 6, 11). maining carbon-rich and biodiverse natural (IAR4D) (30). This “systems science” ap- The papers in this special feature of PNAS ecosystems such as rainforests, wetlands, proach (31) and a number of similar concepts highlight innovations in agriculture that grasslands, and savannas (26). Feeding 9 bil- share much with the underlying principles could contribute to producing more food lion people and lifting rural poor out of of Sustainability Science. IAR4D attempts to without increasing environmental pressures. poverty is a prerequisite for maintaining the harness science to address complex multi- The papers are based on some of the more planet’s environment. Many people are leav- functional agricultural objectives and to en- exciting ideas that emerged from a forum in ing rural areas and seeking employment in gage farmers and their communities in the Beijing in October 2011 that brought together manufacturing and services in cities. How- agricultural and environmental scientists ever, this opportunity is not open to all. Large Author contributions: J.S. and K.G.C. designed research; J.S. from China with their peers from the rest numbers of poor farmers continue to prac- analyzed data; and J.S. and K.G.C. wrote the paper. of the world (12, 13). tice extensive agriculture. Inevitably they will The authors declare no conflict of interest. The papers collectively consider how agri- continue to encroach on hitherto unculti- 1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: jeffrey. cultural science is responding to environ- vated lands unless they can adopt innovative [email protected] or [email protected]. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1208054110 PNAS | May 21, 2013 | vol. 110 | no. 21 | 8345–8348 Downloaded by guest on September 28, 2021 process (30, 32). It seeks to influence multiple of institutions is illustrated in Western China biodiverse systems appeal on grounds of eco- drivers of change in agricultural landscapes where improved environmental outcomes in logical efficiency and aesthetics and possibly (17, 15). There is broad consensus among managing common-property pastureland re- confer resilience to external shocks to ag- agricultural researchers that such integrated quired changes in six nested tiers of institu- ricultural systems (18, 19). An empirical approaches are needed although the em- tional structures (41). Integrated biophysical study of biological diversity and pollination pirical evidence for their impact is still weak and policy research achieved positive out- in coffee growing regions of southwest India (13, 33). comes in this situation, but there are very shows that, whereas on farm biodiversity There are methodological challenges to as- many situations around the world where such values may have been exaggerated, they are sessing the impact of such complex, mul- an orchestrated cascade of change has been nonetheless significant and complement tidimensional research (34, 35). A range of difficult to achieve. The paper by Kemp et al. positive effects on productivity that can be approaches to measuring impact, such as (41) shows how an appropriate institu- achieved with improvements in crop man- Theories of Change and Impact Pathways, tional context can allow agricultural produc- agement (48). are now available (30). IAR4D and other in- tion to be expanded while also achieving Fish are vital sources of food for many of tegrated approaches are seen as best practice more favorable environmental outcomes. the world’s people, both rich and poor. Con- in achieving rural innovation rather than as Reliance on use of nitrogen fertilizer to ventional wisdom holds that the move to a magic bullet (12, 13, 30). This collection of support high yields is perhaps the Achilles intensive aquaculture to meet burgeoning papers exemplifies the evolution of under- heel of modern crop production (42, 43). demand is inevitable. Fish would therefore standing of agricultural innovation practices Nitrogenous fertilizer is essential for modern join trees and commodity agricultural crops and provides empirical evidence on policies agriculture, and the lack of access to it is a in being produced in intensive industrial and technologies that allow more crops to major obstacle to yield increases in Africa. systems, and harvesting from near natural be produced on less land, with more effi- However, its misuse has negative impacts on ecosystems would become less important. cient use of inputs and under conditions water quality and climate through emissions However,
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