Does intensification slow crop land expansion or encourage deforestation

By D. Byerlee, J. Stevenson, Nelson B. Villoria. 2014

300 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The role of intensification in minimizing cropland and slowing deforestation is often disputed. We make a broad distinction between technology-induced and market-induced intensification. We find evidence at the local level that technical progress in a few cases may induce land expansion although much depends on where the technical change occurs (near the forest frontier or away from it) and the type of market (local or global). At a global level, technology-driven intensification is strongly land saving although deforestation in specific regions is likely to continue to occur. Market-driven intensification, however, is often a major cause of land expansion and deforestation especially for export commodities in times of high prices. Beyond land saving, the type of intensification matters a lot for environmental outcomes. Finally, technology-driven intensification by itself is unlikely to arrest deforestation unless accompanied by stronger governance of natural resources.

Subfields: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Global and Planetary Change, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7d871d8e8203cae97c18f918cec11fa7df74a697

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In General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

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Citations in the corpus

Certification, good agricultural practice and smallholder heterogeneity: Differentiated pathways for resolving compliance gaps in the Indonesian oil palm sector (2019, background): “by contributing to productivity gains) and reduce environmental degradation; in turn helping ease pressure on (forested) land and decrease greenhouse gas emission intensities (Byerlee et al., 2014; Foley et al., 2011; Henderson et al., 2016).”
Assessment of rice self-sufficiency in 2025 in eight African countries (2015, background): “There exists large uncertainty about how much area is potentially available (Andriesse, 1986; Windmeijer and Andriesse, 1993; Young, 1999; Ramankutty et al., 2002; You et al., 2011; Byerlee et al., 2014).”
Food and Earth Systems: Priorities for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation for Agriculture and Food Systems (2019, background): “Hence, investment in Agriculture Research for Development (AR4D) targeting improved farmer innovation, improving productivity, and enforcing forest boundaries, remains one way to reduce the pressure of deforestation by nearby farmers [130], although efforts to apply this approach widely have to deal”
Trade-offs between environment and livelihoods: Bridging the global land use and food security discussions (2017, unknown): “…income- and price-elastic – e.g. such as for meat, leisure crops, feed or bioenergy crops such as soy or oil palm, especially with open markets –, and the initial yields in the intensifying region are low relative to trading partners (Hertel et al. 2014, Villoria et al. 2014, Byerlee et al. 2014).”
Global patterns of agricultural land‐use intensity and vertebrate diversity (2015, background): “However, a land sparing effect is not guaranteed and is only possible in combination with strong governance (Byerlee et al., 2014).”