Economics
Agricultural intensification and changes in cultivated areas, 1970-2005
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Does the intensification of agriculture reduce cultivated areas and, in so doing, spare some lands by concentrating production on other lands? Such sparing is important for many reasons, among them the enhanced abilities of released lands to sequester carbon and provide other environmental services. Difficulties measuring the extent of spared land make it impossible to investigate fully the hypothesized causal chain from agricultural intensification to declines in cultivated areas and then to increases in spared land. We analyze the historical circumstances in which rising yields have been accompanied by declines in cultivated areas, thereby leading to land-sparing. We use national-level United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization data on trends in cropland from 1970-2005, with particular emphasis on the 1990-2005 period, for 10 major crop types. Cropland has increased more slowly than population during this period, but paired increases in yields and declines in cropland occurred infrequently, both globally and nationally. Agricultural intensification was not generally accompanied by decline or stasis in cropland area at a national scale during this time period, except in countries with grain imports and conservation set-aside programs. Future projections of cropland abandonment and ensuing environmental services cannot be assumed without explicit policy intervention.
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publication Date
12-8-2009
Volume
106
Issue
49
First Page
20675
Last Page
20680
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.0812540106
Keywords
land sparing, land use
Repository Citation
Rudel, Thomas K.; Schneider, Laura; Uriarte, Maria; Turner, B. L.; DeFries, Ruth; Lawrence, Deborah; Geoghegan, Jacqueline; Hecht, Susanna; Ickowitz, Amy; Lambin, Eric F.; Birkenholtz, Trevor; Baptista, Sandra; and Grau, Ricardo, "Agricultural intensification and changes in cultivated areas, 1970-2005" (2009). Economics. 80.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_economics/80