Journal article
Time for a shift in crop production: embracing complexity through diversity at all levels : Perspective
Bioenergy and Biomass, Biosystems Division, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark1
Agroscope2
University of Copenhagen3
The Organic Research Centre4
Biosystems Division, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark5
Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark6
University of Kassel7
Institut Technique de l'Agriculture Biologique8
Université Paris-Sud9
Scotland's Rural College10
Aarhus University11
Wageningen University & Research12
...and 2 moreA radical shift in our approach to crop production is needed to ensure food security and to address the problems of soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, polluted and restricted water supplies, coupled with a future of fossil fuel limitations and increasingly variable climatic conditions. An interdisciplinary network of European scientists put forward visions for future crop production embracing the complexity of our socio-ecological system by applying the principle of diversity at all levels from soil micro-organisms to plant varieties and cropping systems.
This approach, integrated with careful deployment of our finite global resources and implementation of appropriate sustainable technology, appears to be the only way to ensure the scale of system resilience needed to cope with many of our concerns. We discuss some of the most important tools such as (i) building soil fertility by recycling of nutrients and sustainable use of other natural and physical resources, (ii) enhancing biological diversity by breeding of crops resilient to climate change and (iii) reconnecting all stakeholders in crop production.
Finally, we emphasise some of the changes in agricultural and environmental regulation and policy needed in order to implement the visions. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
Year: | 2009 |
Pages: | 1439-1445 |
ISSN: | 04493257 , 00225142 and 10970010 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1002/jsfa.3615 |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0002-6837-8689 and Østergård, Hanne |