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Scatter plot of log yield ratio versus log biodiversity ratio in organic versus conventional farming. Effect sizes were calculated from treatment pairs within studies. The red line shows the overall linear regression (n = 205); the pink line refers to the linear regression for microbes (n = 100) and the green one for plants (n = 43)
Source publication
Organic farming supports higher biodiversity than conventional farming, but at the cost of lower yields. We conducted a meta‐analysis quantifying the trade‐off between biodiversity and yield, comparing conventional and organic farming. We developed a compatibility index to assess whether biodiversity gains from organic farming exceed yield losses,...
Citations
... Organic yields are generally lower than conventional yields, but the main goal is sustainability (Seufert et al. 2012;Muller et al. 2017). Although yields may be lower, organic farming compensates for this by promoting higher biodiversity (Gong et al. 2022). Organic farming increases species diversity by approximately 30%, especially in areas with intensive land use (Tuck et al. 2014). ...
Yudistira DH, Sandi YU, Wirabumi BA, Damayanti A, Wikandari P, Sato S. 2025. Effects of different application doses of black soldier fly frass Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomydae) on soybean plant performances and arthropod abundance. Asian J Agric 9: 40-51. Food waste poses a global challenge, contributing approximately 3.49 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere annually. Recycling this waste into valuable soil nutrients is a viable solution. This study focuses on black soldier fly Hermetia illucens L. (Diptera: Stratiomydae) larvae, which convert organic waste into protein-rich biomass and frass, a potential soil amendment. However, the effects of black soldier fly frass on crop performance and biodiversity remain underexplored. We investigated the impact of three different frass doses (0, 2.5, and 5 tons/ha) on the growth of the Tsuruoka soybean variety (Glycine max L.), dadachamame. Results showed no significant differences in plant height (p=0.07), but higher doses increased leaf count (p<0.01) and SPAD values significantly (p<0.001), with 2.5 tons/ha improving leaf count by 26% and SPAD values by 16%. Yield analysis revealed that 2.5 tons/ha increased the number of filled pods by 29% (p<0.05) and reduced empty pods by 52% (p<0.001), thereby enhancing pod quality. Arthropod analysis indicated that 5 tons/ha significantly increased overall arthropod abundance (p<0.001), particularly predators (p<0.001) and herbivores (p<0.001), while 2.5 tons/ha balanced predator abundance, thereby controlling herbivores and supporting biodiversity. These findings suggest that an application dose of 2.5 tons/ha is optimal for improving edamame yield and quality while maintaining a balanced arthropod ecosystem, demonstrating black soldier fly frass as a nutrient-rich, eco-friendly input that supports sustainable agriculture.
... However, addressing both objectives can result in limitations and trade-offs that need to be considered. First, even though orchard systems offer ample room for yield-biodiversity win-win outcomes (Gong et al. 2022), biodiversity-friendly systems often carry lower yields than industrial ones (Seufert et al. 2012 ). Some farmers will therefore need to accept lower yields or higher costs in return for improved social-environmental outcomes. ...
As core constituents of healthy diets, fruits are often cultivated in temporally stable and structurally complex ecosystems that harbor high levels of biodiversity. However, high-intensity orchard management can lessen the human and environmental health benefits of fruticulture. In the present article, we argue that increased emphasis on biological control could contribute to preventative management of fruit pests, weeds, and diseases, resulting in pesticide phasedown. Carefully calibrated orchard management can increase the provision of ecosystem services by above-and belowground biota, improve soil health, and store atmospheric carbon. When tactically integrated with agroecological measures, behavior-modifying chemicals, or digital tools, biological control helps to conserve pollinator or soil fauna, protect vertebrate communities, and improve vegetation restoration outcomes. Its implementation can, however, give rise to scientific and social challenges that will need to be explored. By resolving the adoption hurdles for biological control at scale, human society could enjoy the myriad benefits of nature-friendly fruit production.
... Interestingly, downweighing ecological aspects led to significant higher multifunctionality in conventional than in organic systems. This result provides supplementary evidence that organic farming is particularly benefitting biodiversity-based functions (Tuck et al., 2014;Gong et al., 2022). ...
... Our analysis further showed that the increase in biodiversity-based functions under organic management was coupled with a decrease in food and feed production (Reganold and Wachter, 2016;Wittwer et al., 2021;Gong et al., 2022). This trade-off can partly be explained by the accumulation of pathogens and troublesome weeds in the absence of pesticide application (Shennan et al., 2017), as observed here with the infestation function. ...
CONTEXT
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing cropping systems in a given context is a key first step before designing new, more sustainable cropping systems. The concept of multifunctionality can be a useful tool for cropping system assessment. Whether and how cropping systems and specific management practices might modulate agroecosystem multifunctionality remains unknown, as do the potential trade-offs and synergies among functions.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to (i) assess the multifunctionality of annual cropping systems by estimating their agronomic, ecological and socio-economic performances; (ii) identify trade-offs and synergies among functions; (iii) highlight management practices that can be mobilized to foster synergies between agricultural production and other functions.
METHODS
We measured 14 primary variables, used as proxies for seven functions, in 20 conventional and 20 organic winter cereal fields, in northwestern France. We considered three management practice description levels: (i) farming system (i.e. organic vs. conventional), (ii) combination of management practices that defines a cropping system, and (iii) individual management practices.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
We found a strong trade-off between functions related to ecological performance and agronomic, socio-economic performances, especially between biodiversity conservation and food and feed production. Organic systems tended to minimize this trade-off. Our study also revealed contrasts in levels of functions despite similar multifunctionality value across cropping systems. The number of field interventions and nitrogen inputs were the main drivers of cropping system multifunctionality and its underlying functions. The results indicate that specific management practices, such as reducing within-field interventions and nitrogen fertilization amount, could be integrated even in conventional cropping systems to improve multifunctionality. More generally, our work opens the door to further studies on how agricultural management fosters the simultaneous provision of multiple functions including socio-economic ones.
SIGNIFICANCE
Besides multifunctionality assessment of cropping systems, our study emphasizes the need to further explore how management practices shape the provision of multiple functions and their potential trade-offs. This knowledge is crucial to develop effective strategies for the design of sustainable cropping systems.
... For example, vegetation cover can be increased by cover cropping and reduced weed management, however, as a trade-off covercrop management adds extra labour and enhanced weed cover might reduce yield due to crop plant competition with weeds 75 (but see ref. 76). Similar increases in extra labour occur when lighter machinery is used or cropping cycles are reduced to limit soil disturbance 77 . The goal of improved soil quality would, however, benefit from all three aforementioned practices and could have potential indirect positive effects on the agricultural goals of productivity and resource efficiency. ...
... It is also a resource-conserving practice and hence minimizes the effects of external inputs promoting biodiversity 52,100 . Therefore, organic farming benefits several restoration goals and protects against various threats including i) reducing chemical and fertilizer inputs and thus soil contamination, and ii) reducing soil disturbance and increase diversity of vegetation cover, thus increasing soil biodiversity and reducing carbon loss, and ultimately ensuring soil fertility and pathogen protection 77,101 (Fig. 2). 2) Regenerative agriculture follows a similar approach than organic farming to conserve the soil but puts soil conservation more comprehensively into focus beyond reduction of artificial external inputs. ...
... One solution is the targeted application of sustainable agricultural practices. Yield loss with biodiversity gain under notillage in organic farming systems seems to be taxon-and crop-typedependent with non-cereal crops showing much more positive yield responses 77 . Increased application of organic fertilizer under no-tillage can partly compensate for the lower yield stability induced in organic farming no-tillage systems 79 . ...
Soils are the backbone of terrestrial ecosystems, underpinning their biodiversity and functioning. They are also key to agricultural production and ecosystem development. Although focus on effective and profitable food production has led to severely degraded soils, the tools and standards for restoration strategies in agricultural soils are still largely underdeveloped. In this review, we summarize recent developments in ecological restoration practice for soils, evaluate whether these are in line with ecological theory, identify where they could be improved, and contextualize these to agricultural soil restoration. We identify restoration actions and success indicators that may best foster sustainable use of agricultural soils while also increasing their multifunctionality, that is their ability to simultaneously supply multiple ecosystem services including provisioning food and feed. Lastly, we explore actions available to improve soil health and focus on tool and indicator implementation. Calls for reductions in provisioning services, such as yield production, commonly used in ecological restoration practices conflict most directly with wider soil-ecosystem-service-focused restoration actions, including supporting and regulating services. Comprehensive restoration actions harnessing the interdependence of multiple soil properties, including contribution to vegetative yield, appear to be most efficient in agricultural settings with a central role of soil biodiversity in ecosystem service provisioning.
... This holds for high-input agriculture, which aims to maximise yields (Yang et al., 2023); low-input/organic agriculture, which aims to maximise ecosystem services while minimising anthropogenic inputs (Bedoussac et al., 2015); and intermediate-input agriculture, which aims to balance production and environmental performance by tailoring inputs to species needs . Because of the potential for achieving high yields with reduced anthropogenic inputs, intercropping is viewed as an option for ecological intensification in both organic and conventional farming (Bedoussac et al., 2015;Gong et al., 2022;Li et al., 2020aLi et al., , 2023Martin-Guay et al., 2018;Stomph et al., 2020;Yu et al., 2015). ...
Context: The partitioning of light between species in intercrops changes over time in relation to the earliness of canopy development of each species, the final plant height, and the growth duration. Seasonal patterns of light capture in crop species mixtures may be reflected in the yield components of the species. Objective: We test the hypothesis that seasonal patterns of light capture in intercrops can explain intercropping effects on seed number, seed weight, and seed yield in different species mixture compositions, including relay and simultaneous intercrops. Methods: We determined the seed number per unit land area, thousand-seed weight, and seed yield of maize (Zea mays L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), and pea (Pisum sativum L.), grown as four monocrops or as six bi-specific strip intercrops-maize/wheat, maize/faba bean, maize/pea, faba bean/wheat, faba bean/pea, and wheat/pea-in the Netherlands. Species were spring-sown and managed conventionally (i.e., non-organic). Maize was sown and harvested later than the three other species, which had approximately simultaneous growing periods. Light capture by each species before and during seed filling was estimated using a model based on strip width, plant height, and leaf area index. We then assessed the relationships between accumulated light captured per species, seed yield, and its components. Results: Seed yields in intercrops and monocrops were strongly related to seed number for each species. In relay intercrops, both species had increased seed yield due to an increased number of seeds. Species grown in simultaneous intercrops did not have higher seed yield or seed number than the monocrop, except for faba bean intercropped with wheat or pea. Increased seed number of early-sown species in relay intercrops was related to greater light capture before seed filling compared to monocrops. Increased seed number in maize was associated with better light availability after maize overtopped the companion species. The early-sown species showed trade-offs between seed number and weight, whereas the improved light availability resulting from the early harvesting of companions allowed intercropped maize to fill all seeds to the same extent as monocropped maize did. Conclusions: Seed yield was more strongly related to seed number than seed weight in all species in both mon-ocrops and intercrops. In relay intercrops, seed yield increases were realised by species filling seeds to take advantage of the larger seed number. Implications: The findings show the importance of achieving high seed number and effective seed filling for increasing seed yield in conventionally managed strip intercrops under Dutch growing conditions.
... However, we observed much lower food production (−42 q ha −1 on average) in line with many studies (e.g. Couthouis et al., 2023;Gong et al., 2022;Ostandie et al., 2022;Wittwer et al., 2021). On the one hand, the absence or reduction of agrochemical disturbances in organic fields favours biodiversity, allowing the development of more abundant and diverse weed communities and associated taxa such as predators of crop pests (Diehl et al., 2012). ...
Finding more sustainable ways to produce food is a major challenge for humanity in the face of biodiversity extinction and climate change. Consequently, research on the ability of agroecosystems to provide multiple functions is growing. In this regard, the relative importance of organic farming and landscape‐scale measures for improving multifunctionality has recently been debated.
We investigated the effects of farming system (conventional vs. organic) at field scale, total length of hedgerows in the landscape and their interaction on the multifunctionality of 40 winter cereal fields in Brittany (France). Our multifunctionality assessment integrated 21 indicators of five agroecosystem goods: biodiversity conservation, nutrient cycling and soil structure, pest and disease regulation, food production and socio‐economic performance.
Many indicators of biodiversity conservation, pest and disease regulation, and socio‐economic performance were higher in organic than in conventional systems. However, indicators of nutrient cycling and soil structure did not improve and food production was much lower in organic systems. Total hedgerow length in the landscape had less influence than organic farming on indicators, although we observed positive interactions. Granivorous carabid abundance and semi‐net margin were highest in organic fields located in well‐preserved hedgerow landscapes.
Synthesis and applications. Our study suggests that field‐scale organic farming is necessary to promote biodiversity conservation and associated ecological functioning in crop fields, whereas landscape‐scale preservation of semi‐natural habitats alone is likely insufficient. Preservation of hedgerows in the landscape brings additional ecological and socio‐economic benefits for organic systems without compromising agricultural production. More broadly, our results call for more ambitious research into the myriad possible combinations of farming practices and agri‐environmental measures at both field and landscape scales, to improve both below‐ground and above‐ground functioning.
... To ensure food security, activities to optimize the cultivation of cultivated plants against the background of differences in the ecological and resource qualities of the soils used are of paramount importance. Significance in organic farming (Doolotkelvieva et al., 2015;Gong et al., 2022;Kujala et al., 2022;Sangeetha et al., 2022) and in the implementation of the ecosystem approach (Byomkesh et al., 2015;Cornejo et al., 2017) for effective farming is currently dictated by the growing demand for crop products with a prerequisite for its environmental safety. In addition, it is important to determine the importance of storage and processing of crop products (Gupta et al., 2019;Cao et al., 2020;Chanbisana et al., 2021;Yu et al., 2021). ...
The article presents the results of studies of the influence of organic and mineral fertilizers, as well as storage and processing technologies on the level of nitrates in potatoes, carrots and cabbage. The study demonstrated that in order to obtain the high yield of environmentally friendly vegetable crops, it is necessary to use biohumus at a norm of 8 t/ha or the combination of 6 t/ha biohumus and N35P35K40. This treatment can provide the potato yield of 420-440 c/ha, carrots 223-240 c/ha, cabbage 500-520 c/ha, while not exceeding the maximum allowable concentration (MAC) of nitrates. At a same time, studies have revealed that storage and processing of these vegetables under the required standard conditions can significantly reduce the amount of nitrates contained in the products. The work we have done shows an example of organic farming as the ecological and climatic project for carbon sequestration in soils, bioimprovement and bioprotection of soils, for increasing the yield and hygienic quality of the harvest. When processing the resulting vegetable products, toxic hazards to public health are eliminated and the ecological safety of the environment is ensured. Additional measures are needed to control the application of fertilizers to soils, the quality of agricultural products during collection, storage and processing.
... The agricultural method known as organic farming emphasizes the well-being of the land, plants, food, and environment over crop productivity. It is believed that organic farming is a more environmentally beneficial alternative because it utilizes only organic fertilizers and natural insecticides, if any (Awad et al. 2002, Gong et al., 2022. Then Higher prices in fresh markets for organically grown vegetables than for conventionally grown vegetables encourage farmers to grow vegetables organically (AL-Kahtani et al., 2018). ...
An experiment was conducted on response of Liquid Manures as alternate nutrient on growth and yield of tomato at the Horticulture Farm,. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments were used in the study were T1; Control, T2; Vermi Tea, T3; SAU-MLM, T4; SAU-NLM, T5; SAU-PLM and T6; RFD (Recommended Fertilizer Dose). In this study, the treatments showed significant variation on growth and yield of tomato production. The tallest plant (109.63cm), highest number of leaves per plant (25.0), maximum fruit weight (127.2g), maximum fruit weight per plant (3.48kg), maximum yield per plot (20.8kg) and maximum yield per hector (56.5t/h) were recorded with treatment T6 (RFD) and it was statistically identical with treatment T5 (SAU-PLM). Whereas the minimum plant height (92.03 cm) and number of leaves per plant (17.0), lowest fruit weight (62.8g), lowest fruit weight per plant (1.53kg), lowest yield per plot (9.1kg) and lowest yield (22.9t/h) were recorded in T1 (Control). Furthermore, treatment 5 (SAU-PLM) produced highest brix (5.7), that is highest sweetness tomato were produced with T5 treatment. That's why it can be said that different liquid manure has good impact on growth and yield of tomato with environment friendly impact.
... By adopting on-farm practices aimed at reducing or eliminating agrochemical applications, these systems can greatly contribute to ameliorating, stopping and reversing the problems caused by conventional farming (Bengtsson et al. 2005;Kremen et al. 2012;Choudhary et al. 2018;Muneret et al. 2018). Importantly, research has shown that ecological and sustainability intensification can be achieved while maintaining or increasing yields (Macfadyen et al. 2014;Pywell et al. 2015;Pecenka et al. 2021;MacLaren et al. 2022) and ensuring profitability for farmers (Lechenet et al. 2017;Jat et al. 2021; Gong et al. 2022). ...
Sustainable agricultural practices are essential for mitigating the negative environmental impacts of conventional agriculture while ensuring food security. However, widespread adoption of these practices requires robust evidence of their efficacy and economic viability.
We co-designed a two-year field trial with farmers and agronomy advisors in Australia, to evaluate the ecological and economic benefits of sustainable agricultural practices for managing the redlegged earth mite, a major pest of Australian grain crops. We compared ‘Novel’ treatments representing long-term farmer-implemented sustainable agricultural practices based on biological control with ‘Conventional’ treatments and ‘Plus’ treatments designed as counterfactuals to disentangle the effects of specific pest control and plant nutrient components.
Redlegged earth mite densities remained below economic thresholds across all treatments and years, demonstrating effective pest control in both conventional and sustainable systems. Notably, the Novel treatment supported higher densities of beneficial arthropods, indicating increased biological control potential.
Yield and gross profit margins were generally similar between the treatments, indicating that sustainable agriculture practices can maintain profitability while fostering biodiversity.
Practical implication. Our study provides evidence that biological control and biofertiliser supplementation can be effectively used to manage agricultural pests and demonstrates the value of close collaboration with farmers and agronomy advisors to conduct ecological field research that has practical applications.
... Whilst we found no relationship between biodiversity, in the form of in-field trees and their biotic interactions, and crop yield stability, a positive biodiversity-productivity relationship was demonstrated. This is contrary to some other studies in which biodiversity (of select taxonomic groups such as plants and microbes) is commonly associated with loss of crop productivity in agriculture, a finding that has been central to academic debates of the global value of organic agriculture, which typically promotes biodiversity at the expense of yield (Gabriel et al. 2013;Gong et al. 2022). The positive biodiversity-productivity relationship in our model presumably relates to the generally reductive impacts of trees on crop pests and disease predicted by experts ( Fig. 6; however, note that experts also consider that agroforestry may harbour crop disease), with the model being reasonably sensitive to both ecosystem components (Fig. 7). ...
In-field trees are thought to buffer arable crops from climate extremes through the creation of microclimates that may reduce the impacts of heat, wind, and cold. Much less is known about how trees and their biotic interactions (e.g. with natural enemies of pests and wild understory plants) impact crop yield stability to biotic stresses such as crop pests and disease. Modelling these interactions using conventional approaches is complex and time consuming, and we take a simplified approach, representing the agroecosystem as a Boolean regulatory network and parameterising Boolean functions using expert opinion. This allies our approach with decision analysis, which is increasingly finding applications in agriculture. Despite the naivety of our model, we demonstrate that it outputs complex and realistic agroecosystem dynamics. It predicts that, in English silvoarable, the biotic interactions of in-field trees boost arable crop yield overall, but they do not increase yield stability to biotic stress. Sensitivity analysis shows that arable crop yield is very sensitive to disease and weeds. We suggest that the focus of studies and debate on ecosystem service provision by English agroforestry needs to shift from natural enemies and pests to these ecosystem components. We discuss how our model can be improved through validation and parameterisation using real field data. Finally, we discuss how our approach can be used to rapidly model systems (agricultural or otherwise) than can be represented as dynamic interaction networks.
