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Study of farms transitioning to sustainable ag found 79% yield increase among 360 comparisons


A 2006 report by Dr. Jules Pretty, entitled Agro-ecological Approaches to Agricultural Development, described the results of a large study, which analyzed 286 projects in 57 countries involving 12.6 million farmers on 37 million hectares who were “engaged in transitions towards agricultural sustainability.” Three hundred and sixty reliable yield comparisons were made in 198 of the projects and showed a mean relative yield increase of 79 percent “across the very wide variety of systems and crop types.”

Source: Jules Pretty, “Agroecological Approaches to Agricultural Development: Version 1,” RIMISP Background Paper for the World Development Report 2007, November 2006, 2-3, http://www.rimisp.org/getdoc.php?docid=6440.

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