Doing this could allow 20 years worth of planet-killing carbon emissions to be captured

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

Relocating the world’s farmlands would allow 20 years' worth of carbon emissions to be captured, according to a new study.

Cambridge University researchers have made a map showing where the world’s food crops should be grown to maximize yield and minimize the impact on our environment.

Under the drastic plan, large new farming areas for many major crops would be created in the corn belt of the US Midwest and below the Sahara Desert.

Huge areas of farmland in Europe and India would return to their natural, forested state.

The redesign would capture huge amounts of carbon, boost biodiversity and completely eliminate the need for irrigation, according to the scientists.

The plan would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71 percent and capture the equivalent of 20 years worth of carbon if the croplands still used high-input mechanized farming methods.

The impact of crop production on biodiversity would fall by 87 percent, which would save many species currently at risk of extinction.

Many of the world’s croplands are in areas where they have a massive environmental footprint and place a huge strain on water resources.

The croplands replaced carbon-rich and biodiversity-rich ecosystems because they were close to human settlements.

However, the researchers say now is the time to grow food in a better way.

Croplands would revert back to their natural, forested state in just a few decades and quickly recover their original biodiversity and carbon stocks, the researchers say.

The redesign would entirely remove the need for irrigation by only growing crops in places where rain provides all the water they need to grow.

Irrigation is currently responsible for 70 percent of the world’s freshwater use and causes shortages of drinking water in many drier parts of the world.

For the study, the team used maps of where the 25 major crops- including wheat, barley and soybean are grown.

They then made a mathematical model to look at all the possible ways these croplands could be distributed across the globe while maintaining the same overall production levels for each crop.

This allowed them to uncover the option with the lowest environmental impact.

Earlier research has identified priority areas for ecological restoration, but this study is the first to plot how agricultural land can be moved around to maximize the environmental benefits without leaving us all hungry.

While the scientists admit a complete relocation of the world’s croplands is not practical or realistic, they say their research has uncovered places where croplands are currently very unproductive but could quickly store carbon and become hotspots for biodiversity.

Even just moving croplands around within a country’s borders would still reduce global carbon impact by 59 percent and biodiversity impact by 77 percent.

Just relocating the worst-offending 25 percent of croplands in each country would still yield half the benefits of the complete global redesign.

The researchers recognize moving cropland around must be done in a way that is acceptable to the people it affects.

They say farmers should be given incentives to set aside some of their land to help the environment or paid to farm in better-suited locations.

The optimal distribution of croplands will change very little over the next century irrespective of changes to the climate.

While many environmentalists have urged people to go vegetarian or vegan to save the planet, the researchers assume people’s diets will stay the same.

The study’s first author Dr. Robert Beyer said: “In many places, cropland has replaced natural habitat that contained a lot of carbon and biodiversity – and crops don’t even grow very well there.

“If we let these places regenerate, and moved production to better-suited areas, we would see environmental benefits very quickly.

“It’s currently not realistic to implement this whole redesign, but even if we only relocated a fraction of the world’s cropland, focusing on the places that are least efficient for growing crops, the environmental benefits would be tremendous.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment.