Economically, there is no doubt: larger agricultural and livestock farms are capable of producing more and at lower costs thanks to the optimization of resources (water, machinery, labor, treatments, fertilizers...). The debate revolves around whether they are also more sustainable from an environmental point of view, as stated by the concept of sustainable intensification of agriculture. One of the latest major players to position itself has been the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the synthesis report of its Sixth Assessment Report, published in March. The text states that “demand-side measures (see supplementary text) and sustainable intensification can reduce ecosystem conversion and methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and would free up land for reforestation and ecosystem restoration ”.
"The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) has been warning for years that to feed an increasingly large world population there is no other option than to intensify agricultural production," says Francesc Reguant, president of the Commission for Agrifood Economics of the Col·legi d'Economistes de Catalunya. Specifically, the FAO indicates that “if world population and food consumption trends continue, by 2050 the world will need 60% more food than is currently available. Since arable land is limited, most of this additional production will need to come from sustainable agricultural intensification.”
In order to produce more with the same area of land and using fewer inputs, experts propose larger farms due to the economies of scale that are generated. Another great ally is technology in the form of precision agriculture and livestock, by allowing reductions in production costs of up to 30% in the case of agriculture, due to the lower use of inputs such as fertilizers. On the other hand, sustainable intensification also implies managing biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as the role played by bees in the pollination of fruit trees or the microorganisms that favor a more fertile and healthy soil. Finally, it is worth mentioning the genetic improvement of plants, due to greater productivity and/or resistance to pests or droughts, or the expansion of efficient irrigation systems, as these crops are much more productive than rainfed crops. “A modern greenhouse is infinitely more sustainable than a field of cabbages cultivated in any way”, Reguant exemplifies. In addition, "it is cheaper for the consumer and more profitable for the farmer," adds the economist.
But not everything are advantages. "There is a rebound effect: by intensifying, economic profitability increases and since agribusinesses respond to financial interests, they end up reinvesting the benefits to expand agricultural areas, going even deeper into the forests," warns Álvaro Fernández Llamazares, from the Institut de Ciència i Environmental Technology (ICTA-UAB). The scientist has reached this conclusion after participating in a study on deforestation in the world's tropical dry forests, the results of which were published in February in the journal Nature Sustainability. On the other hand, Fernández denounces that some large agri-food corporations use the concept of sustainable agricultural intensification as a marketing strategy. For all these reasons, the ICTA-UAB researcher points out that the IPCC –an organization with which he has collaborated– is very cautious in his statements about sustainable intensification.
