Study Reports That People and Environment Both Benefit From Diversified Farming

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-people-environment-benefit-diversified-farming.html

A massive new global study led by the University of Copenhagen and University of Hohenheim has examined the effects of diversified agriculture. The conclusion is abundantly clear-positive effects increase with every measure, while negative effects are hard to find.

Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen can finally wipe the sweat from her brow. For the last four years, she has served as the link among 58 researchers on five continents and as lead author of a major agricultural study which gathered data from 24 research projects, along with colleague Ingo Grass of the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

The hard work has finally paid off. Their research article, published in Science, delivers a clear and well-founded message to agriculture: "Drop monoculture and industrial thinking and diversify the way you farm-it pays off," says Rasmussen, from the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management.

"Our results from this comprehensive study are surprisingly clear. While we see very few negative effects from agricultural diversification, there are many significant benefits. This is particularly the case when two, three or more measures are combined. The more, the better, especially when it comes to biodiversity and food security," she explains.

The researchers see the greatest positive effects on food security, followed closely by biodiversity. Furthermore, social outcomes in the form of well-being also improved significantly.

Among the many strategies adopted, livestock diversification and soil conservation had the most positive outcomes.

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