The ongoing search for sustainable agriculture

OPEN ACCESS Agricultural land use has left its traces on the planet since sedentary agriculture started. Most of the ancient cradles of mankind and agriculture, such as the area between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris or the middle east are degraded and deserts today. Yet, it was only after the devastating dust bowls in prairies of the USA and Canada that people started rethinking agricultural practices, in that case the soil tillage. Conservation tillage as erosion reducing practice was developed [1]. But environmental degradation continued. Particularly after World War II, but even more so with the success of the green revolution, agriculture became a major factor in environmental degradation as it tried to replace natural processes with technology [2]. Severe environmental problems from pesticide pollution, eutrophication of waters with nitrates and phosphates, declining biodiversity are only some problems which continue worldwide without real improvement. At the same time yields started to plateau despite increasing input use, in some cases yields even declined. Organic agriculture is seen in this context as a solution as it uses no synthetic inputs. Yet, it has not proven a practical solution for widespread adoption, and it has still a major problem with soil erosion and soil biodiversity as well as the adaptation to climate change.