By Silke Schmidt
Agricultural activities account for 20% of global air pollution, but crop farmers can reduce emissions—and often boost yields—with more sustainable soil cultivation practices. A new study in Mexico led by AAE faculty affiliate Joel Ferguson reported a third, surprisingly large benefit: The reduction in urban air pollution due to the widespread adoption of soil-regenerative practices averted more than 5,200 infant deaths from 2012 to 2022.
The economic value of these health benefits alone exceeded $1.1 billion, more than 14-times the cost of the government-supported program that helped Mexican farmers change their practices.
“Mexico’s conservation agriculture program was designed as a climate adaptation policy with anticipated environmental and productivity benefits,” says Ferguson, an assistant professor of sustainable land systems at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. “The greater infant survival rate caused by better air quality was not on the radar of policymakers but emerged as a substantial co-benefit of this extremely cost-effective program.”
Conservation agriculture is the world’s most common “sustainable intensification” technology. Its main features in Mexico’s MasAgro program are minimal soil disturbance and permanent soil cover: Farmers refrain from tilling and leave crop residues on the ground instead of burning them. Links between conservation agriculture and improved air quality are plausible. No-tilling means less dust from land preparation activities, no-burning avoids combustion pollutants and permanent coverage reduces dust from the wind erosion of bare soil.
Source : wisc.edu