Enabling ecological intensification of agriculture through policy

Abstract

Ecological intensification is an innovative, knowledge-based approach to agriculture. It combines emerging understanding of how agro-ecosystems function with agronomic knowledge, to manage agricultural ecosystems in a way that secures high yields with reduced environmental impacts.

Policy makers have an interest in ecological intensification, as it can help them respond to multiple international targets and strategies implemented this decade to improve sustainability. It can deliver elements of the second Sustainable Development Goal, ‘Zero Hunger’, which includes a target to ‘ensure sustainable food production systems … that increase productivity and production, help maintain ecosystems …… and progressively improve land and soil quality’. In contrast to more technological, production-focused views of sustainable agriculture sometimes called ‘sustainable intensification’ [1], it represents a set of ‘nature-based solutions’ for agriculture. Nature-based solutions are prominent in the European Union’s Research and Innovation policy agenda. Ecological intensification is also recommended as a policy option to mitigate declines in wild pollinators globally [2].

Several available routes to promote or enable ecological intensification in agriculture are much discussed. They include voluntary financial incentives for farmers (e.g. agri-environment schemes in Europe or conservation measures financed by the Farm Bill in the US); obligations for farmers, such as compulsory greening measures in the European Common Agricultural Policy; and market-based instruments such as certification schemes or ‘Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)’.

However, none of these options gets to the essence of ecological intensification. The underlying idea is that farmers themselves manage ecosystem services actively and knowingly, to support their own productive systems. Ecological intensification should not have a cost, which requires compensation or additional income from market prices. It should pay for itself, in reduced inputs and enhanced productivity, and indeed it has been shown to do so, albeit in only a small number of studies so far [3]. What is actually needed to enable ecological intensification are policies to support farmer education and training, provision of ecological advice and trans-disciplinary agricultural research to investigate what measures are feasible and provide reliable returns on farm.

References

[1] Dicks L.V., et al. (in review). What agricultural practices are most likely to deliver ‘sustainable intensification’ in the UK? Food and Energy Security. [2] Dicks, L. V., et al. (2016). Ten policies for pollinators. Science, 354(6315), 975-976. [3] Pywell, R. F., et al. (2015). Wildlife-friendly farming increases crop yield: evidence for ecological intensification. Proc. Roy. Soc. B, 282(1816).