New Research Looks at Land Use, Farming and Protecting Biodiversity

Image by David Cornwell via FlickrBy Ali Withers

New research has prompted debate on how best to use land for farming and to preserve biodiversity. A study by researchers at the UK's Cambridge University was carried out in Ghana and India to assess the diversity of birds and trees on land being farmed in a variety of ways as well as land that was left natural. The study also looked at the amount of food being produced.

The researchers do say that more work needs to be done in other locations to allow for factors like climate, land quality and different ecosystems, the area of land involved and whether, for example, several smaller but separated areas interfere with the hunting or migratory patterns of the animals within them.

The findings from this first piece of research showed that farmland with some retained natural vegetation had more species of birds and trees than high-yielding monocultures of oil palm, rice or wheat but produced far less food energy and profit per hectare. However, farms that were supposedly nature friendly did not provide enough good habitat for either trees or birds in the two regions studied.

The preliminary decuction is that the best option for ensuring diversity is to leave some land untouched and to farm on separate areas.

This suggests that farming will need to concentrate on improving yields on cultivated land while at the same time preserving its quality in order to continue to be able to use it sustainably and to meet the projected increasing amount of food that will be required for a growing global population.

Planting some ground cover in between a crop, crop rotation rather than monoculture and using more natural pest management and yield enhancement products could all be part of this effort.

One thing that is crucial to using farmland with maximum efficiency and sustainability is minimising the waste including the loss of crops due to pests and diseases. Farmers will need effective alternatives as the older generation of chemical-based pesticides and fertilisers are being taken off the market in response to consumer demand for healthier and more natural food.

This will include the new low-chem agricultural products increasingly being devised by the biopesticides developers from natural sources. They already include a range of biopesticides, biofungicides and yield enhancers.

However, it can be a costly and lengthy process to get each product from development through trial, testing and regulation and in many cases this can take up to eight years. This is something that needs greater harmonisation between governments, many of which have their own individual rules and regulations and the process needs to be accelerated to provide easily accessible alternatives for farmers all over the world.

Biodiversity may be best maintained by leaving some land entirely natural while farming on other land according to new research. Farmers may need to adopt sustainable techniques to protect their land and minimise waste to get maximum yield and low-chem agricultural products can help. By Ali Withers.

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