Open AccessHow much can sustainable intensification increase yields across South Asia? a systematic review of the evidence
Author(s) -
Meha Jain,
Divya Solomon,
Hagan Capnerhurst,
A.J. Arnold,
Alice Elliott,
Andrew T. Kinzer,
Collin Knauss,
Maya Peters,
Brett Rolf,
Ari Weil,
Charlotte B. Weinstein
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab8b10
Subject(s) - food security , natural resource economics , yield (engineering) , agriculture , sustainable agriculture , cropping , subsidy , psychological intervention , south asia , sustainable development , sustainability , economics , agricultural economics , agroforestry , environmental science , geography , ecology , market economy , psychology , history , ethnology , materials science , archaeology , metallurgy , psychiatry , biology
Food security will become increasingly challenged over the coming decades, and sustainable intensification is often touted as an ideal way to increase yields while limiting negative environmental impacts. Yet, the extent to which sustainable intensification can increase yields remains unclear. We systematically reviewed the literature to assess the extent to which sustainable intensification can increase yields across South Asia, a region that is expected to face some of the greatest food security challenges over the coming decades. We found that yield gains from sustainable intensification interventions were heterogeneous, and that the average yield gain across all studies was 21%. Residue retention and the use of organic fertilizers were, in particular, associated with significant and positive yield gains, though the use of organic fertilizers was not always profitable, likely due to large subsidies provided for mineral fertilizers across South Asia. Our work also revealed biases in the current sustainable intensification literature, with research clustered in highly productive, irrigated, and commodity cropping systems, which do not represent large portions of agricultural systems across South Asia. Our results highlight that sustainable intensification interventions should play an important role in increasing food production across South Asia, but yield gains from these interventions are modest compared to estimated yield gaps across the region.