Dataset Information

Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture.

ABSTRACT: Urban agriculture is making an increasing contribution to food security in large cities around the world. The potential contribution of biodiversity to ecological intensification in urban agricultural systems has not been investigated. We present monitoring data collected from rice fields in 34 community farms in mega-urban Shanghai, China, from 2001 to 2015, and show that the presence of a border crop of soybeans and neighboring crops (maize, eggplant and Chinese cabbage), both without weed control, increased invertebrate predator abundance, decreased the abundance of pests and dependence on insecticides, and increased grain yield and economic profits. Two 2 year randomized experiments with the low and high diversity practices in the same locations confirmed these results. Our study shows that diversifying farming practices can make an important contribution to ecological intensification and the sustainable use of associated ecosystem services in an urban ecosystem.

SUBMITTER: Wan NF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5967864 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture.

Wan Nian-Feng NF Cai You-Ming YM Shen Yan-Jun YJ Ji Xiang-Yun XY Wu Xiang-Wen XW Zheng Xiang-Rong XR Cheng Wei W Li Jun J Jiang Yao-Pei YP Chen Xin X Weiner Jacob J Jiang Jie-Xian JX Nie Ming M Ju Rui-Ting RT Yuan Tao T Tang Jian-Jun JJ Tian Wei-Dong WD Zhang Hao H Li Bo B

eLife 20180524

Urban agriculture is making an increasing contribution to food security in large cities around the world. The potential contribution of biodiversity to ecological intensification in urban agricultural systems has not been investigated. We present monitoring data collected from rice fields in 34 community farms in mega-urban Shanghai, China, from 2001 to 2015, and show that the presence of a border crop of soybeans and neighboring crops (maize, eggplant and Chinese cabbage), both without weed con ...[more]

PMID: 29792597

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Project description:Cropping sequence diversification provides a systems approach to reduce yield variations and improve resilience to multiple environmental stresses. Yield advantages of more diverse crop rotations and their synergistic effects with reduced tillage are well documented, but few studies have quantified the impact of these management practices on yields and their stability when soil moisture is limiting or in excess. Using yield and weather data obtained from a 31-year long term rotation and tillage trial in Ontario, we tested whether crop rotation diversity is associated with greater yield stability when abnormal weather conditions occur. We used parametric and non-parametric approaches to quantify the impact of rotation diversity (monocrop, 2-crops, 3-crops without or with one or two legume cover crops) and tillage (conventional or reduced tillage) on yield probabilities and the benefits of crop diversity under different soil moisture and temperature scenarios. Although the magnitude of rotation benefits varied with crops, weather patterns and tillage, yield stability significantly increased when corn and soybean were integrated into more diverse rotations. Introducing small grains into short corn-soybean rotation was enough to provide substantial benefits on long-term soybean yields and their stability while the effects on corn were mostly associated with the temporal niche provided by small grains for underseeded red clover or alfalfa. Crop diversification strategies increased the probability of harnessing favorable growing conditions while decreasing the risk of crop failure. In hot and dry years, diversification of corn-soybean rotations and reduced tillage increased yield by 7% and 22% for corn and soybean respectively. Given the additional advantages associated with cropping system diversification, such a strategy provides a more comprehensive approach to lowering yield variability and improving the resilience of cropping systems to multiple environmental stresses. This could help to sustain future yield levels in challenging production environments.

Dataset Information

Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture.

Publications

Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture.

Similar Datasets

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