Abstract
Modern agriculture has increased food production, improved food security and reduced poverty, but farming has also caused a considerable decrease in biodiversity, primarily through land-use intensification and overexploitation, along with excessive pesticide and water use, nutrient loading and pollution. The major purpose of agriculture is to ensure sustainable food production, adequate nutrition and stable livelihoods for all. The new challenge for modern farming is to balance high productivity and high biodiversity and allow a sustainable exploitation of resources that preserves biodiversity. This review seeks to summarize how farmland flora can be managed to promote flora and fauna diversity in Europe. We outline how further loss of biodiversity can be avoided by expanding the area of organic farming and by increasing the landscape complexity, modifying pesticide use and cropping systems, increasing the support for grazing of grassland and through establishment of buffer zones and dispersal corridors in areas with arable crops.