Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis
Producing more nutritious food with less resources, while preserving the natural ecosystems, is a key challenge of our society. In this paper we propose a macronutrient-based indicator of productivity, the nutrient land productivity ( NLP ), to measure the amount of calories, proteins, and fats prod...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abacf8 |
| _version_ | 1797747771921399808 |
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| author | Marta Tuninetti Luca Ridolfi Francesco Laio |
| author_facet | Marta Tuninetti Luca Ridolfi Francesco Laio |
| author_sort | Marta Tuninetti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Producing more nutritious food with less resources, while preserving the natural ecosystems, is a key challenge of our society. In this paper we propose a macronutrient-based indicator of productivity, the nutrient land productivity ( NLP ), to measure the amount of calories, proteins, and fats produced per hectare of cropland. Over the period 1961−2016, we find that the global NLP has increased by 2.7–2.9% per year for calories and proteins, and between 2.1 and 4.6% for fats. However, such rates exhibit significant spatial patterns throughout the world depending on whether farmers adopted intensification (e.g. Eastern and South Asia, North America) or extensification (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa) practices to boost nutrients production. Our outcomes, based on a production basket including 144 crops, show that cereals and pulses cultivations have been dominated by intensification practices coupled with a stable or decreasing harvested area. Conversely, for fruits and nuts cultivations extensification prevailed over intensification, while for oil crops most cultivations experienced a coupled action of the two practises. Finally, by coupling the NLP indicator with its nutrient water productivity ( NWP ) counterpart, we find that NWP has mainly changed following land patterns, with the exception of locations having undergone significant crop substitutions, namely from less toward more water demanding crops. Indeed, the transition toward perennial crops has increased the evapotranspiration demand over cultivated land by 14% on a global average. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-15b39ed952d14efba86cf9c6c35a90bb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:24Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-15b39ed952d14efba86cf9c6c35a90bb2023-08-09T14:54:33ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-011590940a210.1088/1748-9326/abacf8Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysisMarta Tuninetti0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2619-8783Luca Ridolfi1Francesco Laio2Department of Environmental, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino , Turin, Italy .Department of Environmental, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino , Turin, Italy .Department of Environmental, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino , Turin, Italy .Producing more nutritious food with less resources, while preserving the natural ecosystems, is a key challenge of our society. In this paper we propose a macronutrient-based indicator of productivity, the nutrient land productivity ( NLP ), to measure the amount of calories, proteins, and fats produced per hectare of cropland. Over the period 1961−2016, we find that the global NLP has increased by 2.7–2.9% per year for calories and proteins, and between 2.1 and 4.6% for fats. However, such rates exhibit significant spatial patterns throughout the world depending on whether farmers adopted intensification (e.g. Eastern and South Asia, North America) or extensification (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa) practices to boost nutrients production. Our outcomes, based on a production basket including 144 crops, show that cereals and pulses cultivations have been dominated by intensification practices coupled with a stable or decreasing harvested area. Conversely, for fruits and nuts cultivations extensification prevailed over intensification, while for oil crops most cultivations experienced a coupled action of the two practises. Finally, by coupling the NLP indicator with its nutrient water productivity ( NWP ) counterpart, we find that NWP has mainly changed following land patterns, with the exception of locations having undergone significant crop substitutions, namely from less toward more water demanding crops. Indeed, the transition toward perennial crops has increased the evapotranspiration demand over cultivated land by 14% on a global average.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abacf8land productivitynutrition securitywater productivitywater footprintagricultural production |
| spellingShingle | Marta Tuninetti Luca Ridolfi Francesco Laio Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis Environmental Research Letters land productivity nutrition security water productivity water footprint agricultural production |
| title | Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis |
| title_full | Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis |
| title_fullStr | Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis |
| title_short | Ever-increasing agricultural land and water productivity: a global multi-crop analysis |
| title_sort | ever increasing agricultural land and water productivity a global multi crop analysis |
| topic | land productivity nutrition security water productivity water footprint agricultural production |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abacf8 |
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