Agriculture is facing the critical challenge of feeding over 9 billion people sustainably. The 3.8 billion years of evolution in nature may hold the key. In this symposium we bring together top scientists to present, discuss and synthesize their perspectives on the potential for ecological intensification of agriculture.
How to feed 9 billion people without wrecking the planet?
It is increasingly acknowledged that agriculture should not only maximize crop production, but also maintain other ecosystems services, such as soil fertility and pest control, to secure sustainable food production in the future. To optimize ecosystem services in agriculture we may learn from nature and bring back heterogeneity, variation and diversity into agroecosystems. We have however limited ecological knowledge on the relationship between diversity and ecosystems services, as well as on yield, resource input and self-sustainability of diverse agroecosystems. In this conference we aim to bring together world-leading scientist to share our knowledge on ecological principles in agriculture and to learn about implementing diverse agricultural systems into our current society.
Organisation
This conference is organised by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Contact
Ciska Veen, c.veen@nioo.knaw.nl
Jasper Wubs, j.wubs@nioo.knaw.nl