Seeking a multi-dimensional approach to understand agricultural commodity expansion in Asian tropics

Abstract

Agricultural commodity expansion into natural and semi-natural ecosystems in Asia is a multi-dimensional sustainability challenge posing a threat to natural and human capital. At the symposium pertaining to agricultural commodity landscapes organized at the 59th meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, we aimed to identify key aspects that require further attention to address the negative impacts of commodity-driven agricultural expansion in the Asian tropics. Using a combination of insights obtained both from participants' research and those that developed organically in the symposium, we identified five key themes: (1) Robust land use suitability assessments to determine the viability of agricultural expansion or other competing demands on productive land in given landscapes; (2) the need for plot-level studies of soil biodiversity and ecological functions for commodity crops; (3) Irrigation for commodity crops with blue and green water and evaluating co-dependent drivers and outcomes; (4) an improved understanding of local producer motivations and supply chains and (5) the analysis of co-benefits, trade-offs and synergies in agro-commodity systems. These themes include the various steps involved in agricultural commodity expansion, right from land selection and crop patterns to aspects pertaining to the post-harvest value chain. These themes are inter-connected and span across multiple local and regional spatial scales in tropical Asia but hold relevance to agricultural landscapes elsewhere too. Immediate and sustained attention on these themes would secure multiple goals of sustainable land use, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and human well-being.