Sustainable agriculture creates management trade-offs, not conflicts, between crop productivity and soil carbon storage goals

Accelerating climate change and increasing food insecurity necessitates agricultural management that simultaneously mitigates climate change and increases food production. We evaluated when and where sustainable agriculture creates win-wins or trade-offs between food production and soil carbon sequestration across four crop types and four broad management changes. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 2975 paired yield and topsoil carbon (and 498 subsoil) observations from 510 publications to assess the simultaneous impacts of reduced tillage, cover cropping, complex crop rotations, and crop residue retention on maize, wheat, rice, and soybean yields and soil organic carbon stocks. Strong coupling between crop yield and soil carbon gains occurred in only 18.1% of observations, but significant gains in either outcome occurred in 55.6%. Environmental conditions mattered across all practices and crop types: win-wins were most likely in marginal agricultural lands characterized by warmer temperatures, water limitation, and low nitrogen application rates – conditions that represent a substantial proportion of global agricultural land area. By considering the interactions between crop types and multiple practices thought to bolster soil carbon stocks and crop yields, we conclude that the optimal practice for maximizing the yield response is not always the same as the optimal practice for maximizing the soil carbon response. This generates management trade-offs not via declines in either yields or soil carbon, but rather in determining the optimal practice selection for a given crop in a given area. • Sustainable agricultural practices can increase soil carbon stocks and crop yields. • Trade-offs arise because different practices maximize outcomes in different crops. • Yield and soil carbon gains are more likely in water- and nitrogen-limited areas. • Uncertainties in subsoil carbon responses may offset topsoil carbon gains. • Sustainable agricultural practices could be successful across much of the world.