The relative performance of organic agriculture
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Organic agriculture & yields
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Often, when we have an opinion in favour or against organic agriculture, we have one or two pet issues in mind that lead us to support or criticise organic agriculture. But how does organic agriculture actually perform across a whole suite of sustainability issues? In a study published in 2017 in the journal Science Advances (see here) we examined what we actually know about the relative performance of organic.
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Many argue that the lower yields of organic agriculture are its biggest shortcoming. But how much do we actually know about organic yields? How exactly do they differ from conventional yields and what drives this difference? In 2012 we carried out one of the first meta-analyses comparing organic and conventional yields (see the paper published in the journal Nature here). In 2019 I took stock again of the organic yield debate in a book chapter (see here).
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We know that organic management typically increases biodiversity within fields and within farms. But how does this effect of organic management depend on landscape context? In this project - in collaboration with Navin Ramankutty (UBC), Andrea J. Reid (Carleton University ), Sylvia L. Wood (Bioversity International, Columbia University), Daniel Haberman (McGill University), Jeanine Rhemtulla (UBC), Andy Gonzalez (McGill University), Tim Benton (University of Leeds) and Doreen Gabriel (Julius-Kühn Institute) - we examine how landscape composition and landscape configuration influence the biodiversity benefit of organic management through a meta-analysis of the scientific literature. More results forthcoming.
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For organic agriculture to be a viable alternative to conventional farming it needs to provide livelihoods to farmers. So what are the benefits and problems of organic management for farmers? I wrote a policy brief based on a literature review on the livelihood outcomes of organic management for the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID, McGill, see here). I also conducted a case study on organic farmer livelihoods in the South Indian state of Kerala in 2013 in collaboration with my supervisor Navin Ramankutty (UBC), as well as Stephanie Austin, Sarah Turner and Madhav Badami (McGill University). More results forthcoming.
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Nitrogen and crop photosynthesis
During my diploma thesis at the University of Würzburg and under the supervision of Christoph Müller (Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, PIK), Wolfgang Cramer (PIK) and Werner Kaiser (Department of Botany I, University of Würzburg), I examined the influence of nitrogen limitation on crop photosynthesis in order to develop a modelling framework that allows including nitrogen controls on crop production in global models of the terrestrial land surface. For more details see my full diploma thesis here and a study published in PLOS One here. |
Seed dispersal and Sykes monkeys
In this project I examined the secondary seed dispersal of seeds spat and dropped by Sykes monkeys in the South African Soutpansberg range using camera trapping. This project was in collaboration with Birthe Heikamp and Frauke Fischer (Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg). This study was published in 2009 in the African Journal of Ecology (see here). |