Global market integration increases likelihood that a future African Green Revolution could increase crop land use and CO2 emissions.

ABSTRACT: There has been a resurgence of interest in the impacts of agricultural productivity on land use and the environment. At the center of this debate is the assertion that agricultural innovation is land sparing. However, numerous case studies and global empirical studies have found little evidence of higher yields being accompanied by reduced area. We find that these studies overlook two crucial factors: estimation of a true counterfactual scenario and a tendency to adopt a regional, rather than a global, perspective. This paper introduces a general framework for analyzing the impacts of regional and global innovation on long run crop output, prices, land rents, land use, and associated CO2 emissions. In so doing, it facilitates a reconciliation of the apparently conflicting views of the impa

SUBMITTER: Hertel TW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4183291 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature