A new study has outlined a ‘triple goal’ framework of farming practices that can simultaneously boost food production, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil health.
The study, co-authored by the University of Western Australia’s Institute of Agriculture and featuring input from research partners in China, Switzerland, the US, Canada, Morocco, Spain and the UK, drew on more than 39,000 field comparisons across 104 meta-analyses, to identify evidence-based farming practices that enhance yields and ecosystem health.
Sustainable practices
It found that practices such as legume and cereal intercropping, organic amendments and precision nutrient management were found to increase yields while reducing environmental footprint.
In the case of legume and cereal intercropping, when this was paired with carbon dioxide fertilisation and biofertilisation, an emissions reduction of up to 50% was possible.
Elsewhere, the research uncovered that by strengthening the interactions between plants, soils, and microbes, agroecosystem resilience can be improved by between 15% and 40 percent, making farming systems more adaptive to climate stress and supports long-term productivity.
The study also called for coordinated policy reform, farmer education, and strategic investment to support the adoption of integrated practices, in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the One Health initiative.
‘Deeply linked’
“We cannot continue to treat food production, climate change and soil degradation as separate problems — they are deeply linked and so are the solutions,” commented Hackett Professor Kadambot Siddique, director of The University of Western Australia’s Institute of Agriculture, and a co-author of the study.
“The broad adoption of the ‘triple-goal’ framework provides a strategic roadmap for transforming agrifood production globally, ensuring healthy soils, affordable and nutritious food and reduced environmental footprint.” Read more here.
