Sustainable intensification: The pathway to low carbon farming?

The James Hutton Institute is one of the joint organisers of this international conference by SRUC's Carbon Management Centre which will debate key issues surrounding sustainable intensification.

The food security agenda is now becoming clearly aligned with a need to tackle human induced climate change. Agriculture is critical to this debate, with a need for a 70% increase in food production that is achieved in ways that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and allow farming systems to adapt to the changing climate. Sustainable intensification has been advocated as an approach that can achieve these twin objectives.

The conference will bring together natural scientists, social scientists, farm advisers and policy makers to discuss and debate the vital issues and explore how we can feed the rapidly expanding world whilst saving the environment.

Key scientific themes will include development of new metrics for defining sustainable intensification, linking the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and how to support growth in developing countries without increasing their emissions.

The conference will be opened by Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment and three James Hutton Institute staff are keynote speakers.

• Professor Lorna Dawson
  Scottish Government's Strategic Research Programme
• Professor Colin Campbell
  Sustainable intensification platforms at the James Hutton Institute
• Dr Robin Matthews
  Sustainable intensification: latest buzzword or achievable goal?

Other keynote speakers at the conference include:

• Professor Tim Benton, University of Leeds - The biophysical constraints of increasing food production
• Dr Monika MacDevette, UNEP - Regional mitigation and adaptation strategies
• Professor Pete Smith, University of Aberdeen - Synergies and conflicts
• Professor Linda Prokopy, Purdue University - Socio-economic barriers and opportunities for change in agriculture
• Dr Bob Rees, SRUC - Agricultural greenhouse gas mitigation
• Professor Dominic Moran, SRUC - Sustainable intensification metrics: is focusing on carbon enough?
• Dr Andrew Barnes, SRUC - Approaches to defining sustainable intensification

Registration for the conference opens on 1 March and further details on the programme and booking can be found on the Sustainable intensification: The pathway to low carbon farming? conference page.