Cargando…

Impact of urbanization trends on production of key staple crops

Urbanization has appropriated millions of hectares of cropland, and this trend will persist as cities continue to expand. We estimate the impact of this conversion as the amount of land needed elsewhere to give the same yield potential as determined by differences in climate and soil properties. Rob...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Andrade, José F., Cassman, Kenneth G., Rattalino Edreira, Juan I., Agus, Fahmuddin, Bala, Abdullahi, Deng, Nanyan, Grassini, Patricio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8931132/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34845625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01674-z
Descripción
Sumario:Urbanization has appropriated millions of hectares of cropland, and this trend will persist as cities continue to expand. We estimate the impact of this conversion as the amount of land needed elsewhere to give the same yield potential as determined by differences in climate and soil properties. Robust spatial upscaling techniques, well-validated crop simulation models, and soil, climate, and cropping system databases are employed with a focus on populous countries with high rates of land conversion. We find that converted cropland is 30–40% more productive than new cropland, which means that projection of food production potential must account for expected cropland loss to urbanization. Policies that protect existing farmland from urbanization would help relieve pressure on expansion of agriculture into natural ecosystems. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01674-z.