Farming on a changing planet: Developing the scientific basis for designing farming systems that are productive, have low environmental costs, and are resilient to climate change.

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Agricultural production increased rapidly over the last decades, rising faster than human populations. But agriculture has also been a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and freshwater degradation. This environmental impact is only expected to increase in coming decades due to rising food demand from population growth and increasing demand for grain-fed dairy and meat. To make matters worse, climate change is expected to cause widespread crop damages around the world. This represents a triple challenge: there is an urgent need to develop farming systems that are productive, have low environmental costs, and are resilient to climate change. The solutions to this triple challenge are unclear. Some scholars argue for continued investments in existing conventional farming systems and development of new technologies, while others argue for a transition to alternative farming systems, including agroecological production methods and food sovereignty. While there has much scientific research to understand the effectiveness of farming practises such as organic farming, conservation tillage, and other approaches, there has been little attempt to consolidate all the available evidence on each approach in an integrated manner to assess what makes a farming system more environmental friendly or resilient to climate change. The main long-term objective of my research program is to develop the science to understand how to manage global farming systems to be more productive, environmentally friendly, and climate resilient. With a focus on cropping systems in the next 5 years, I will analyze globally distributed field experimental data (compiled from publications), and observational data (from national farmer censuses/surveys) to examine how different types of farming approaches (e.g., organic farming, reduced tillage, diversified crops) influence the environmental costs of farming systems, and their ability to withstand climate change and extreme weather events. My research approach will be quantitative, global in scope, and include data compilation and development, geospatial analysis, quantitative reviews, meta-analysis, statistics, and modelling. The focus of agricultural development over the last century has been on improving yields. But agriculture has to contend with the fact that it is both a major contributor to, and a major casualty of, global environmental change. A smart agricultural development strategy should be based on a scientific understanding of the most effective approaches. My research program will address this challenge by providing the scientific basis for developing productive, environmentally friendly, and climate resilient farming systems.