Integrated strategies for enhancing agrifood productivity, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and improving soil health

Global agrifood systems face three interconnected challenges: ensuring food security, promoting environmental sustainability, and restoring soil health in the face of climate change. Conventional practices have prioritized productivity over ecological resilience, leading to soil degradation, increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and inefficient resource utilization. Here, we introduce a “triple-goal” agrifood framework that enhances food production, soil health, and GHG mitigation simultaneously through integrated innovations. Using a second-order meta-analysis of 104 meta-analyses that cover 39,162 studies and 300,139 global field comparisons, we identified key interventions, including optimized fertigation, diversified cropping systems, organic amendments, and precision N management, that increased productivity by 14%–28% while reducing environmental impacts. Diversified systems boosted yields by 19.6% and reduced land use by 19%. Integrating legumes and cover crops lowered N₂O emissions by 18%–65%, while organic amendments increased soil organic carbon stocks by 7%–13%. Structural equation modeling identified nitrogen use efficiency and microbial activity as central to the food-soil-emissions nexus. However, tradeoffs remain; yield-focused strategies can elevate emissions if not tailored to local conditions. By integrating agronomic, biological, and technological interventions such as conservation tillage, biofertilization, and digital agriculture, this triple-goal framework supports a 15%–30% reduction in anthropogenic CO₂-equivalent emissions. These findings underscore the need for policy reform and multi-stakeholder collaboration to scale up the adaptation of integrated strategies in alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the “One Health” initiative. The triple-goal framework provides a transformative pathway to climate-smart, equitable, and resilient agrifood systems that strike a balance between productivity and planetary health.