Division: ASA Section: Environmental Quality

Title: Symposium--Sustainable Intensification: Global Frameworks and Implications for the U.S.

Lead Community Sponsor: Sustainable Intensification Community
Cosponsor: ASA Section: Global Agronomy, ASA Section: Agronomic Production Systems
Community Cosponsor:
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords: Ecosystem Services, Policy, Resource-use Efficiency and Sustainable Intensification

Session Description: Sustainable Intensification (SI), which can be broadly defined as an approach to boost crop productivity while avoiding environmental externalities and addressing social equity, was recently announced as one of three key Science Frontiers for the ASA, reflecting an increasing need to quantify and understand the performance of agricultural systems across a number of sustainability indicators (e.g. yields, resource-use efficiencies, ecosystem services, and social and economic well-being). On a broader scale, there is a rapidly growing demand from policy-makers and non-agricultural specialists for science-based information related to SI, including targets to be set in terms of future agricultural productivity, and an understanding of SI challenges and tradeoffs. Recognizing that appropriate metrics for SI are still emerging and many core concepts require further exploration, this symposium will bring together high-level experts from different geographies to discuss and evaluate different theoretical and practical frameworks and approaches to SI. Research on SI has become popular in Africa, Asia, South America, and in Europe, but is less explored in the United States. For this reason, while this symposia will present global examples, emphasis will be placed on the implications for SI approaches in the United States. This symposium represents the launch of the Sustainable Intensification community in ASA, and will conclude with a panel discussion and questions from the audience to help define SI research and policy agendas to be addressed in future activities.