Organic farms yield less produce, require more land: study [View all]

[FarCenter]

Organic farming may yield up to a third less of some crop types, according to a study proposing a hybrid with conventional agriculture as the best way to feed the world without destroying it.

Organic farming seeks to limit the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, but critics suggest lower crop yields require bigger swaths of land for the same output as conventional farms.

This would mean parts of forests and other natural areas being turned into farmland, undoing some of the environmental gains of organic tilling methods, they say.

The new study by Canadian and American researchers, published in Nature Wednesday, found that organic yields are indeed as much as 34 percent lower for some crops -- 25 percent less overall.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120425-organic-farms-yield-less-produce-require-more-land-study