Agricultural diversification promotes sustainable and resilient global rice production.

Zengrong Zhu, Thomas Cherico Wanger, Haiyan Cen, Jin Lv, Mingyong Ma, Zhaopu Peng, Zhijuan Qi, Zhongxue Zhang, Josef Settele, Xueqing He, Shanxing Gong, Yaoyu Bai, Zhanyu Liu, Guanghua Wang, Wenwu Zhou, Yi Zou, Péter Batáry

Journal: Nature food 2023;4(9):788-796

PMID: 37696964

Full Text on Nature Publishing Group View on PubMed

Abstract

Rice is a staple food for half of the human population, but the effects of diversification on yields, economy, biodiversity and ecosystem services have not been synthesized. Here we quantify diversification effects on environmental and socio-economic aspects of global rice production. We performed a second-order meta-analysis based on 25 first-order meta-analyses covering four decades of research, showing that diversification can maintain soil fertility, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and yield. We used three individual first-order meta-analyses based on 39 articles to close major research gaps on the effects of diversification on economy, biodiversity and pest control, showing that agricultural diversification can increase biodiversity by 40%, improve economy by 26% and reduce crop damage by 31%. Trade-off analysis showed that agricultural diversification in rice production promotes win-win scenarios between yield and other ecosystem services in 81% of all cases. Knowledge gaps remain in understanding the spatial and temporal effects of specific diversification practices and trade-offs.

Address: Sustainable Agricultural Systems & Engineering Laboratory, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China. [email protected].; ChinaRiceNetwork.org, Hangzhou, China. [email protected].; Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China. [email protected].; 'Lendület' Landscape and Conservation Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary.; ChinaRiceNetwork.org, Hangzhou, China.; Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China.; State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology & Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogen and Insect Pests, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.; Institute of Plant Protection, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, China.; Asia Hub, Sanya Institute of Nanjing Agricultural University, Sanya, China.; College of Plant Protection, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.; Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Halle, Germany.; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.; Institute of Biological Sciences, University of the Philippines Los Banos, College, Laguna, Philippines.; School of Water and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China.; Key Laboratory of Effective Utilization of Agricultural Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China.; Plant Protection Institute, Hunan Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Changsha, China.; Huzhou Plant Protection Quarantine Soil and Fertilizer Management Station, Huzhou, China.; College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, and State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.; Key Laboratory of Spectroscopy Sensing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Hangzhou, China.; Sustainable Agricultural Systems & Engineering Laboratory, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China. [email protected].; ChinaRiceNetwork.org, Hangzhou, China. [email protected].; Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources of Zhejiang Province, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China. [email protected].; Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany. [email protected].

DOI: 10.1038/s43016-023-00836-4

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00836-4

MeSH Terms: Humans, Oryza, Ecosystem, Agriculture, Soil, Bicycling