Agroecology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Pollution across the entire plastic lifecycle is a system-wide risk to food. Aspirational indicators related to plastic polymers and chemicals, land use, trade, and waste, environmental and human health can help future monitoring of food system plastics.

Understanding and preparing for the impacts of climate change on tropical crops is key for global food security and sustainable development, especially in the Global South. This study maps banana production in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2019, and analyses the potential impact of climate change and other factors on banana producing regions.

Crop rotation has been shown to synergistically improve barley yields and soil quality on the Tibetan Plateau, where challenging climatic conditions, limited crop choices and low baseline soil fertility threaten agricultural sustainability.

Developing new varieties of deep-rooted crops may enhance silicon uptake and agroecosystem services. This enhancement is involved in three vital ecosystem processes: (i) increasing crop silicon uptake in deep horizons where it is more readily available as Si(OH₄), (ii) contributing to storing more stable organic carbon at depth via root decomposition and deep pedogenic pathways, and (iii) accelerating CO₂ transformation into stored or leached alkalinity via deep silicate weathering.

Land consolidation in China is seen as a key strategy to increase resource use efficiency while maintaining high yields, yet it often reduces crop diversity. Reconciling consolidation, diversity and agricultural technology is key for food and nutrition security.

Evidence from crop–soil systems shows that potassium limitation poses a critical challenge in Southeast Asia, impacting crop yields, quality and soil health. Addressing this is vital to closing cereal yield gaps and enhancing food security.