Rice is a staple food for half of the human population, but the benefits of diversified rice production on yields, economy, biodiversity, and ecosystem services have not been synthesized. In a new study led by our previous PostDoc Xueqing He and just published in NATURE FOOD, we show that diversification can maintain soil fertility, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and yield. Diversified rice production can further increase biodiversity and economy by 40% and 26%, and reduced crop damage by 31%.
This synthesis work provides critical information for governmental and farmer advisory alike. Finding from this study can help to advance the global food systems transformation by providing practical guidelines for implementation of urgently needed sustainability and resilience in global rice production based on four decades of scientific research on agricultural diversification.
The full text of the study is available here.
