New technologies: costs and benets for food production in contrasting agro-ecological production systems

The challenge of meeting global food security is multi-faceted. Experts agree on the centrality of increasing production per hectare, in the face of declining availability of new land and degradation of current land under production (Bruinsma 2009, Fischer et al. 2014). There is, however, debate about whether increasing production per hectare will spare non-agricultural land from development, and hence protect nature (e.g. Balmford et al. 2005, Tscharntke et al. 2012).