About this Research Topic

Background

The use of single uniform high-yield hybrid crops and large amounts of synthetic chemical, energy and mechanical inputs in conventional farming systems has delivered tremendous gains in agricultural production worldwide over the last century. Coupled with this growth, however, is the worsening of problems associated with food waste and environmental pollution. Some negative effects of conventional agricultural practices include (i) soil degradation due to erosion, salinization, contamination with heavy metals and other contaminants; (ii) water pollution by mobile nutrients, pesticides, and plastic residues; (iii) emission of greenhouse gases and harmful odors, and (iv) emergence of new strains of pests and pathogens due to reduced biodiversity and the appearance of resistance to one or more pesticides.

In an effort to accommodate the food need of the ever-increasing human population without compromising the integrity of the environment, science has stepped in to propose new agricultural practices/concepts for more sustainable production in agriculture. These practices include diversified farming, organic agriculture, agroecology, agroforestry, and nature-inclusive agriculture; including green growth, permanent agriculture, conservation agriculture, carbon farming, high nature value farming, low external input agriculture, landscape approach, community-supported agriculture, ecological intensification, Integrated Plant Protection (IPM). Studies point toward some of these practices as efficient solutions for reducing the reliance of agricultural systems on external inputs and reducing the footprint of agriculture on the environment, especially carbon footprint. Despite the benefits, there are several constraints to adopting these methods worldwide for achieving sufficient crop yields (e.g., complexity of operations, labor intensity, market pulls), including trade-offs between increased production and environmental impact. In other cases, these practices are just concepts formulated as strategies and technologies to foster a global shift towards more sustainable agriculture. Thus, extensive research on the environmental impact and production levels of each practice is required before approving or disproving the concepts.

This Research Topic aims to promote studies that compared currently used high-input agricultural
practices and practices centred around the above-mentioned concepts with the aim to find the most cost-effective ways to forgo the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, fossil plastics, and reduce soil tillage to minimize the negative environmental impact associated with those inputs. It is necessary to make comparisons between current and imposed practices, identify benefits, challenges, and risks/limits associated with each practice, to select the best practices that can sustainably and securely meet the needs of all value chain actors (end-users). Thus, submitted studies should analyze and compare conventional farming with one or several new types of farming, and assess the impact and performance of each practice with regard to several parameters and indicators i.e., yield, soil properties, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy use, and tolerance of plants to pests, pathogens, and weed control. In a comparative analysis of two or more farming systems, it could also be important to highlight optimization potentials and impacts on plant-food quality. Since the expected outcomes are readjusting agrochemicals recommendations, submissions are also encouraged from authors testing novel agricultural chemicals with enhanced efficiency.

Edaphoclimatic conditions vary with geography and location, and this could affect the efficiency of agricultural management practices. Thus contributions, including replication studies, are particularly sought for regions of the world where new agricultural practices are less widely studied or applied. Opinions, systematic reviews, metanalyses, original research papers, modeling studies, negative results, positive results, and contrary results are all welcomed.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: conventional agriculture, nutrient-use efficiency, intensive farming, sustainable agriculture, smart farming, environmental impact, Integrated Plant Protection, IPM, low and high-input agriculture

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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