Pursuing sustainable productivity with millions of smallholder farmers

Pursuing sustainable productivity with millions of smallholder farmers Nature 555, 7696 (2018). doi:10.1038/nature25785 Authors: Zhenling Cui, Hongyan Zhang, Xinping Chen, Chaochun Zhang, Wenqi Ma, Chengdong Huang, Weifeng Zhang, Guohua Mi, Yuxin Miao, Xiaolin Li, Qiang Gao, Jianchang Yang, Zhaohui Wang, Youliang Ye, Shiwei Guo, Jianwei Lu, Jianliang Huang, Shihua Lv, Yixiang Sun, Yuanying Liu, Xianlong Peng, Jun Ren, Shiqing Li, Xiping Deng, Xiaojun Shi, Qiang Zhang, Zhiping Yang, Li Tang, Changzhou Wei, Liangliang Jia, Jiwang Zhang, Mingrong He, Yanan Tong, Qiyuan Tang, Xuhua Zhong, Zhaohui Liu, Ning Cao, Changlin Kou, Hao Ying, Yulong Yin, Xiaoqiang Jiao, Qingsong Zhang, Mingsheng Fan, Rongfeng Jiang, Fusuo Zhang & Zhengxia Dou Sustainably feeding a growing population is a grand challenge, and one that is particularly difficult in regions that are dominated by smallholder farming. Despite local successes, mobilizing vast smallholder communities with science- and evidence-based management practices to simultaneously address production and pollution problems has been infeasible. Here we report the outcome of concerted efforts in engaging millions of Chinese smallholder farmers to adopt enhanced management practices for greater yield and environmental performance. First, we conducted field trials across China’s major agroecological zones to develop locally applicable recommendations using a comprehensive decision-support program. Engaging farm...
Source: Nature - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Letter Source Type: research