Farms Use Sustainable Intensification Practices.

• Position: THE ENVIRONMENT

Nearly one-third of the world's farms have adopted more environmentally friendly practices while continuing to be productive, according to a global assessment by 17 scientists in five countries.

The researchers analyzed farms that use some form of "sustainable intensification," a term for various practices, including organic farming, that use land, water, biodiversity, labor, knowledge, and technology to grow crops and reduce environmental impacts like pesticide pollution, soil erosion, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Writing in the journal Nature Sustainability, the researchers estimate that almost one-tenth of the world's farmland is under some form of sustainable intensification, often with dramatic results. They have seen that the new practices can improve productivity, biodiversity, and ecosystem services while lowering farmer costs. For example, they document how West African farmers have increased yields of maize and cassava, while some 100,000 farmers in Cuba increased their productivity 150% while cutting their pesticide use by 85%.

Less-developed countries tend to see the largest improvements in productivity, while industrialized nations "have tended to see increases in efficiency (lower costs), minimizing harm to ecosystem services, and often some reductions in crop and livestock yields," the authors write.

Jules Pretty, the study's lead author and a professor of environment and society at the University...