Ecological intensification: harnessing ecosystem services for food security

Bommarco, Riccardo; Kleijn, David; Potts, Simon G.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2012.10.012

Cited by 1,501 publications

(1,152 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…As uncertainties will become part of the operational agroecology context, there is a strong need to better understand farmers' system securization strategies (I33). As agroecological APSs have different security options to conventional systems, it is vital to measure the extent and impact of a switch from external inputs to ecosystem services (Bommarco et al, 2013) in a large range of APS.…”

Section: Scaling-up Agroecological Apsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Dumont

García

Thomas

et al. 2014

Animal

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Agroecology offers a scientific and operational framework for redesigning animal production systems (APS) so that they better cope with the coming challenges. Grounded in the stimulation and valorization of natural processes to reduce inputs and pollutions in agroecosystems, it opens a challenging research agenda for the animal science community. In this paper, we identify key research issues that define this agenda. We first stress the need to assess animal robustness by measurable traits, to analyze trade-offs between production and adaptation traits at within-breed and between-breed level, and to better understand how group selection, epigenetics and animal learning shape performance. Second, we propose research on the nutritive value of alternative feed resources, including the environmental impacts of producing these resources and their associated non-provisioning services. Third, we look at how the design of APS based on agroecological principles valorizes interactions between system components and promotes biological diversity at multiple scales to increase system resilience. Addressing such challenges requires a collection of theories and models (concept-knowledge theory, viability theory, companion modeling, etc.). Acknowledging the ecology of contexts and analyzing the rationales behind traditional small-scale systems will increase our understanding of mechanisms contributing to the success or failure of agroecological practices and systems. Fourth, the large-scale development of agroecological products will require analysis of resistance to change among farmers and other actors in the food chain. Certifications and market-based incentives could be an important lever for the expansion of agroecological alternatives in APS. Finally, we question the suitability of current agriculture extension services and public funding mechanisms for scaling-up agroecological practices and systems.

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Section: Scaling-up Agroecological Apsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Dumont

García

Thomas

et al. 2014

Animal

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“…As a consequence, even if economies of scale (i.e. the economic gains due to an increase in production scale) still drive specialization of farming systems in developed countries, those systems are liable to struggle to maintain good profitability in front of the expected higher volatility of market prices (Bell and Moore, 2012;Bommarco et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct and indirect impacts of crop–livestock organization on mixed crop–livestock systems sustainability: a model-based study

Sneessens

Veysset

Benoît

et al. 2016

Animal

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Crop-livestock production is claimed more sustainable than specialized production systems. However, the presence of controversial studies suggests that there must be conditions of mixing crop and livestock productions to allow for higher sustainable performances. Whereas previous studies focused on the impact of crop-livestock interactions on performances, we posit here that crop-livestock organization is a key determinant of farming system sustainability. Crop-livestock organization refers to the percentage of the agricultural area that is dedicated to each production. Our objective is to investigate if crop-livestock organization has both a direct and an indirect impact on mixed crop-livestock (MC-L) sustainability. In that objective, we build a whole-farm model parametrized on representative French sheep and crop farming systems in plain areas (Vienne, France). This model permits simulating contrasted MC-L systems and their subsequent sustainability through the following indicators of performance: farm income, production, N balance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (/kg product) and MJ consumption (/kg product). Two MC-L systems were simulated with contrasted crop-livestock organizations (MC 20 -L 80 : 20% of crops; MC 80 -L 20 : 80% of crops). A first scenario -constraining no crop-livestock interactions in both MC-L systems -permits highlighting that crop-livestock organization has a significant direct impact on performances that implies trade-offs between objectives of sustainability. Indeed, the MC 80 -L 20 system is showing higher performances for farm income (+44%), livestock production (+18%) and crop GHG emissions (−14%) whereas the MC 20 -L 80 system has a better N balance (−53%) and a lower livestock MJ consumption (−9%). A second scenario -allowing for crop-livestock interactions in both MC 20 -L 80 and MC 80 -L 20 systemsstated that crop-livestock organization has a significant indirect impact on performances. Indeed, even if crop-livestock interactions permit improving performances, crop-livestock organization influences the capacity of MC-L systems to benefit from crop-livestock interactions. As a consequence, we observed a decreasing performance trade-off between MC-L systems for farm income (−4%) and crop GHG emissions (−10%) whereas the gap increases for nitrogen balance (+23%), livestock production (+6%) -MJ consumption (+16%) -GHG emissions (+5%) and crop MJ consumption (+5%). However, the indirect impact of crop-livestock organization doesn't reverse the trend of trade-offs between objectives of sustainability determined by the direct impact of crop-livestock organization. As a conclusion, crop-livestock organization is a key factor that has to be taken into account when studying the sustainability of mixed crop-livestock systems.Keywords: livestock, organization, integration, farm modeling, sheep ImplicationsBenefits that mixed crop-livestock systems take over specialized systems are controversial. Whereas previous studies mainly focused on the effect of crop-livestock interactions, we high...

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“…Some production systems and landscapes may have the opportunity to capture many of the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, such as pollination (Aizen et al 2009) and pest control (Crowder et al 2010), while other systems are more constrained to artificial inputs, such as fertiliser and lime. The issue is not whether we should spare or share land, but rather the need to identify opportunities to increase agricultural production while minimising the negative impacts on the environment and stemming further biodiversity loss -for example, managing ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes to maintain or enhance yield level rather than relying on external inputs (Bommarco et al 2013). …”

Section: Issues Causing Debate In the Lsls Framework Lsls Is A False mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from agri-environment schemes in Australia. Investing in biodiversity and other ecosystem services on farms

Ansell¹,

Gibson²,

Salt³

2016

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Ecological intensification: harnessing ecosystem services for food security

Cited by 1,501 publications

References 89 publications

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Forty research issues for the redesign of animal production systems in the 21st century

Direct and indirect impacts of crop–livestock organization on mixed crop–livestock systems sustainability: a model-based study

Learning from agri-environment schemes in Australia. Investing in biodiversity and other ecosystem services on farms

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