Agricultural intensification refers to interventions to increase the outputs per hectare of crops or livestock. Whilst intensification can occur through local demand for innovation, it is increasingly imposed through policy interventions in forest-agriculture frontiers. 'Sustainable intensification' and 'land sparing' are examples of popular policy narratives that respond to concerns over future food security and planetary boundaries. Agricultural intensification also features in global development goals and strategies, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and efforts to accelerate a Green Revolution for Africa.
In this one-year project funded by the Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation Programme of the UK, and led by the University of East Anglia, we synthesized existing knowledge about sustainable agriculture and landscapes and asked how agricultural intensification shaped the changing trade-offs between land use, ecosystem services and poverty alleviation. The main results of the project were:
These key findings are more elaborated in the publications below.
December 2016 - December 2017