Beyond organic farming – harnessing biodiversity-friendly landscapes

• Published in: Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) Vol. 36; no. 10; pp. 919 - 930
• Main Authors: Tscharntke, Teja, Grass, Ingo, Wanger, Thomas C., Westphal, Catrin, Batáry, Péter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2021
• Subjects: agricultural paradigm shift; Agriculture; Biodiversity; biodiversity conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources; cropland diversification; Ecosystem; field size; landscape heterogeneity; Organic Agriculture; sustainable agriculture; cropland diversification; biodiversity conservation; agricultural paradigm shift; field size; sustainable agriculture; landscape heterogeneity
• ISSN: 0169-5347; 1872-8383
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.06.010

We challenge the widespread appraisal that organic farming is the fundamental alternative to conventional farming for harnessing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Certification of organic production is largely restricted to banning synthetic agrochemicals, resulting in limited benefits for biodiversity but high yield losses despite ongoing intensification and specialisation. In contrast, successful agricultural measures to enhance biodiversity include diversifying cropland and reducing field size, which can multiply biodiversity while sustaining high yields in both conventional and organic systems. Achieving a landscape-level mosaic of natural habitat patches and fine-grained cropland diversification in both conventional and organic agriculture is key for promoting large-scale biodiversity. This needs to be urgently acknowledged by policy makers for an agricultural paradigm shift. Biodiversity continues to decline rapidly, despite decades of repeated national and international policy efforts. Agricultural intensification is a major driver of biodiversity losses, while conversion to organic farming has been suggested as a key technique to halt or reverse this trend.In contrast to this widespread view, certified organic agriculture raises local richness of widespread species by just a third when compared to conventional farming. This is achieved through waiving synthetic agrochemicals, but leads to considerable yield losses, requiring the conversion of more land to agriculture to obtain similar yields.Diversifying cropland and reducing field size on a landscape level can multiply biodiversity in both organic and conventional agriculture without reducing cropland productivity.Complementing such increases in cropland heterogeneity with at least 20% seminatural habitat per landscape should be a key recommendation in current biodiversity frameworks.