In this paper, we present the yield and gross margin of cotton, soybean and wheat of the four different farming systems within the first four years after inception of the trial (considered as conversion period in this paper). Response ratio for coefficient of variation of sustainability (± 90% CI black; 95% CI gray) for (A) annual crop types, (B) perennial crop types, (C) on experimental stations, (D) on farms, (E) studies in the United States, and (F) studies in the European Union. 10.1098/rspb.2000.1325, Fuller RJ, Gregory RD, Gibbons DW, Marchant JH, Wilson JD, Baillie SR, Carter N: Population declines and range contractions among lowland farmland birds in Britain. volume 1, Article number: 4 (2012) The variable production costs of the two organic farming systems were similar for all crops. She holds a PhD in Geography, also from Berkeley, and she formerly served as an agriculture and natural resources policy staffer for United States Senator Jon Tester. and natural enemies (particularly arachnids and carabids) were the most frequently studied invertebrates, and abundance was the measure of outcome most frequently mentioned. Low variability allows producers to achieve consistent production and avoid unprofitable years, while also ensuring that consumers have reliable access to nutritious and sufficient food. Sci Total Environ. Environmental Evidence 2010. http://www.environmentalevidence.org/Authors.htm/Guidelines.pdf. Management options specified in articles where studies investigated farms under agri-environmental schemes. The increase in food production has been accompanied by a multitude of challenges and problems such as the exploitation and deterioration of natural resources, i.e. J Appl Ecol. Bioscience 55, 573–582. doi: 10.1038/nature09183, Crowder, D. W., and Reganold, J. P. (2015). On average, compost and FYM contained 0.8-0.6-1.5% and 0.8-0.6-1.6% of Ntotal-P2O5-K2O, respectively, whereas castor cake contained 3.3-0.9-0.9% of Ntotal-P2O5-K2O. These factors are reflected in the lower yield variability on conventional farms in our dataset. Comparisons focused on the mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation of each sustainability metric for each covariates. When yield gaps are poverty traps: the paradigm of ecological intensification in African smallholder agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081039.g001. No.25. Other farming systems, captured and included in the map included conservation tillage (Table doi: 10.1890/0012-9658(1999)080[1150:TMAORR]2.0.CO;2, Karp, D. S., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Meehan, T. D., Martin, E. A., DeClerk, F., Grab, H., et al. NPR designed the study, and carried out the 2008 searches and sorting. While organic farming systems have attracted considerable interest of the scientific community [16], [17], [21], [26], biodynamic farming systems are less common and little investigated. Performed the experiments: DF RV CZ. It uses established searching protocols and has rigorous criteria for inclusion or exclusion. The list of articles is provided in an additional file (Additional file Field margins on the other hand provide a habitat for a wide range of organisms but there has been a disproportionate amount of research on invertebrates. Beyond this there is no indication of the quality of the papers. Received: 31 May 2019; Accepted: 16 September 2019; Published: 27 September 2019. Cereals had the greatest increase in richness from organic methods and the greatest decrease in yield, for example. Database and repository searches were conducted in English language. Agron J. This is because organic farms are more reliant on ecosystem services for production of high crop yields, whereas conventional farms can rely more heavily on external inputs (Reganold and Wachter, 2016). The main objective of these trials is to collect solid agronomic and socio-economic data on major organic and conventional agricultural production systems in the selected project regions. There were two search phases, the first in 2008 and the second search in 2010, where the search was updated, and new databases were searched. He has held posts at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz. Nat Ecol Evol. These are essential components for enabling long-term cotton cropping and for securing livelihoods of smallholders, as they enable the distribution of risks. In our trial, there was less difference in weed control, as manual weeding is still the common practice of most smallholder cotton farmers in India [66]. 3 summarises the number of articles for organism and functional group in organic, conventional and integrated farming systems. Most biodynamic farms encompass ecological, social and economic sustainability and many of them work in cooperatives. Preparations made from manure, minerals and herbs are used in very small quantities to activate and harmonize soil processes, to strengthen plant health and to stimulate processes of organic matter decomposition. Many projects focused on enhancing yields of crops or animal products. As before, fallow studies were included within set-aside, riparian buffer strips in field margins and Ecological Compensation Area meadows in meadow management. (2018). (2012). 70, 129–133. Most studies were performed across a variety of spatial scales. OS, AC, CR, AD, RO, TN, and DC wrote sections of the manuscript. • Counting studies may imply either that there is an ‘evidence gap’, or that there is a large amount of research for a subtopic, but does not consider the quality and robustness of studies and so could be misleading (i.e. J Appl Ecol. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018: Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition. doi: 10.2136/sssaj2002.1930. For example butterflies were categorised as invertebrate, pollinator, and as butterfly.