TY - JOUR
T1 - The neglected role of abandoned cropland in supporting both food security and climate change mitigation
AU - Zheng, Qiming
AU - Ha, Tim
AU - Prishchepov, Alexander V.
AU - Zeng, Yiwen
AU - Yin, He
AU - Koh, Lian Pin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Despite the looming land scarcity for agriculture, cropland abandonment is widespread globally. Abandoned cropland can be reused to support food security and climate change mitigation. Here, we investigate the potentials and trade-offs of using global abandoned cropland for recultivation and restoring forests by natural regrowth, with spatially-explicit modelling and scenario analysis. We identify 101 Mha of abandoned cropland between 1992 and 2020, with a capability of concurrently delivering 29 to 363 Peta-calories yr-1 of food production potential and 290 to 1,066 MtCO2 yr-1 of net climate change mitigation potential, depending on land-use suitability and land allocation strategies. We also show that applying spatial prioritization is key to maximizing the achievable potentials of abandoned cropland and demonstrate other possible approaches to further increase these potentials. Our findings offer timely insights into the potentials of abandoned cropland and can inform sustainable land management to buttress food security and climate goals.
AB - Despite the looming land scarcity for agriculture, cropland abandonment is widespread globally. Abandoned cropland can be reused to support food security and climate change mitigation. Here, we investigate the potentials and trade-offs of using global abandoned cropland for recultivation and restoring forests by natural regrowth, with spatially-explicit modelling and scenario analysis. We identify 101 Mha of abandoned cropland between 1992 and 2020, with a capability of concurrently delivering 29 to 363 Peta-calories yr-1 of food production potential and 290 to 1,066 MtCO2 yr-1 of net climate change mitigation potential, depending on land-use suitability and land allocation strategies. We also show that applying spatial prioritization is key to maximizing the achievable potentials of abandoned cropland and demonstrate other possible approaches to further increase these potentials. Our findings offer timely insights into the potentials of abandoned cropland and can inform sustainable land management to buttress food security and climate goals.
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-41837-y
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-41837-y
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37770491
AN - SCOPUS:85173127931
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
M1 - 6083
ER -