Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture

Abstract

Agricultural simplification continues to expand at the expense of diversified agriculture and risk to planetary boundaries. Here, we estimate how agricultural diversification simultaneously affects social and environmental outcomes. Drawing from 24 studies in 11 countries across 2,655 farms, we show how five diversification strategies focusing on livestock, crops, soils, non-crop plantings, and water conservation benefit social (human well-being, yields, food security) and environmental (non-agricultural biodiversity, ecosystem services, reduced environmental externalities) outcomes. Our simple but far-reaching finding isWe found that applying multiple diversification strategies through ‘diversified farming systems’ can create more positive impacts than individual management strategies. Although agricultural diversification can bring positive outcomes, policy is needed to support multiple diversification strategies in unison.