Identifying win-win opportunities and trade-offs for sustainable agriculture to improve agricultural productivity and soil carbon sequestration: A global meta-analysis

Abstract

Faced with accelerating climate change and growing food insecurity, sustainable agriculture has the potential to address both issues by enhancing soil carbon sequestration and crop yields. However, it remains unclear whether and when sustainable agricultural practices create win-wins or trade-offs between soil carbon sequestration and food production, and how these outcomes vary across crop types, practice combinations, and environmental conditions. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 2,975 paired yield and topsoil carbon observations (and 498 subsoil carbon observations) from 487 articles to assess the simultaneous impacts of reduced tillage, cover cropping, complex crop rotations, and crop residue retention on soil organic carbon stocks and maize, wheat, rice, and soybean yields. Our analysis revealed that sustainable agricultural practices generally enhanced soil carbon and crop yields, although with considerable heterogeneity. Individual practices often resulted in management trade-offs, as different practices (and crop-practice combinations) optimized either yields or soil carbon sequestration. However, practice stacking often alleviated these trade-offs by combining complementary practices. Win-wins were most likely in marginal agricultural lands characterized by warmer temperatures, water limitation, and low nitrogen application rates - conditions that represent a substantial proportion of global agricultural land area. However, our analysis revealed that the subsoil carbon responses to sustainable agricultural practices were highly variable and may offset topsoil gains, which may limit effective policy design and large-scale implementation.