Search

Recent studies based on remote sensing showed a gradual expansion of tree cover over savannah and agricultural land in the forest-savannah transition zone of Cameroon1, part of this expansion is actually due to shaded cocoa. Despite unfavourable conditions in herbaceous savannah (low soil fertility, weed competition and risk of bush fire), farmers have proven that afforestation is achievable using cocoa and specific technics to build up an associated tree canopy2. Full-grown cocoa agroforestry systems created on savannah (S-cAFS) and in forest (F-cAFS) seem to exhibit comparable multi-strata structure. Nevertheless, previous land uses and related canopy structures may have contrasted impacts on production and other ecosystem services over time. We selected 1 to 70 year-old S-cAFS and F-cAFS, and we used forest and savannah patches as controls3. By combining measurements of cocoa production, litter fall and cycling, soil quality, carbon storage and tree species diversity along this age gradient, we showed that those variables in S- and F-cAFS generally tended to comparable levels after several decades. Results also emphasized the ability of S-cAFS to increase most of the ecosystem services (ES) although the time needed to reach levels found in F-cAFS varied strongly amongst variables (Fig 1). Results also showed the positive contribution of associated plants to ES, particularly C storage and nutrient cycling contributing to REDD+ 4 and sustainability of the cropping system.

A large part of the world cocoa production is provided by multifunctional agroforestry systems (AFS). Despite their ability to provide a large range of ecosystem services (ES), eg. biodiversity, carbon sequestration, crop production, these systems were however long considered inefficient in terms of cocoa yield and, thus, neglected by agronomists. Our studies are carried out in Cameroon on farmers' cocoa plantations. They are based on 100-year chronosequences and/or a large array of situations, ranging from simple systems to very complex ones. We show that cocoa AFS can reach yields of over 1000 kg ha-1 of marketable cocoa which is in many cases comparable or even better than yields of conventional systems. We found that very long-term sustainability of cocoa AFS could be achieved if the basal area (BA) share of the cacao stand does not exceed 40% of the total BA of the cocoa AFS. Moreover, farmer's management of the different species associated with cocoa trees provides not only continuous cocoa production on the very long-term but also permits interesting combinations of valued products and/or ES. For instance, the combination of expert knowledge and Pareto front algorithms enabled us to shed light on some of the tradeoffs occurring in these systems and to identify clusters of increasing ES provision. Significant differences in associated tree communities and management strategies were identified across these clusters. Furthermore, by combining field observations and historical survey data, we reconstructed the impacts of changes over time on management practices, agroforestry structures and cocoa yields. The long-term trajectories we identified explain the current agroforests structures, with low or high cocoa tree densities, mean basal area per cocoa tree (from 29.4 cm2 to 92.7 cm2), and finally cocoa yields which varied from 542 to 1275kg ha-1. We show that farmer's management of cocoa AFS allows a system balance that can be temporarily broken or redesigned, su

Les légumineuses à graines présentent de nombreux avantages nutritionnels, agronomiques, et environnementaux et sont au coeur des enjeux de durabilité des systèmes de cultures. Pourtant, elles sont peu cultivées en Europe, notamment en raison de verrous agronomiques majeurs (bioagresseurs dont les adventices, verse) qui réduisent les rendements et les rendent instables. Deux thèses ont été réalisées pour 1) étudier l'intérêt d'ajouter des céréales (blé, triticale) dans les cultures de légumineuses (lentille et lupin blanc d'hiver) pour lever ces verrous agronomiques ; 2) mieux comprendre le fonctionnement de ces associations pour en améliorer les performances. L'ajout d'une faible densité de céréale dans les cultures de ces légumineuses a permis d'augmenter le rendement total par rapport aux cultures pures dans pratiquement toutes les situations testées. La meilleure performance des associations était principalement liée à une meilleure acquisition des ressources (lumière et azote) grâce à des complémentarités entre espèces. La présence de la céréale a également fortement diminué la biomasse des adventices et l'incidence de la verse. Ajouter une céréale dans une culture de légumineuse à graine est donc une stratégie pertinente pour développer la production de légumineuses.

Many studies have measured biodiversity loss across the coffee intensification gradient; some studies have shown, with contradictory results, the trade-offs between biodiversity loss and coffee production increments. Plot assessments of tree diversity, soil conservation, carbon sequestration and coffee production are lacking. We characterized the structure, productivity, diversity, soil conservation and carbon sequestration of 40 coffee agroforestry systems in two different areas in Northern Nicaragua. Coffee management, environmental conditions and soils properties were also characterized to better understand the trade-offs among services within the plots and their dependence on the local environment. These agroforestry systems were chosen to maximize contrasts in terms of biophysical context, botanical composition and management practices. Results (preliminary) showed significant differences in the vegetation structure that enabled us to identify main clusters: CAFS with dense and diverse overstorey canopy, CAFS with high Musa density and CAFS with low density of overstorey canopy. Changes in vegetation structure reflected differences in farmers' strategies but did not affect the overall coffee yield or the conservation of soils. Coffee yields had strong variations among the plots, and this was mainly related to the amount of fertilizer applied. Neither carbon sequestered, soil conserved nor tree diversity have a significant negative relationship with coffee productivity. However, coffee yields were low comparing with other coffee areas in the region. These results open new perspectives to improve coffee agroforestry systems' structural complexity and their relative ecosystem services without affecting their overall productivity. Further investigations and a more stratified sampling to get a good grasp of the whole range of variability (in highly productive areas with less shade canopy) are needed to fully understand the mechanisms involved in trade-offs.

Emerging challenges to farming drives farming systems to have three strategies; intensification options optimizing resources and technological innovations, firm diversification orchestrating interdependencies among sectoral boundaries, and transition to new system and trajectories. The intensification in the coffee system is the process to specialize in coffee using new varieties and practices while the second option is diversification to complementary enterprises to adapt challenges. The trajectory shift emphasis on how new sectoral systems (dairy sector) emerges, and its link with the previous system (coffee) in terms of impact pathway. In the multi-level perspective however, there is no simple cause effect relationship drives transitions rather systems change is enacted by various types of actors. This paper, therefore, presents (1) how the transition from coffee to dairy based farming system is taking place? (2) How the different actors in the innovation system of transition contribute to the learning and innovation process? (3) What contributes the transition from intensified coffee based to dairy based farming system on household food security? Our data collection consists of household survey (120) for household specific data, focus group discussions (9 FGDs) and stakeholders' interview. The results revealed, coffee production declined by 65% in the last 30 years, and the trend is straight. The dairy on contrary is in opposite visualizing sharp increase in volume of production and price. In line to this, innovation process and actors' interaction to adapt to climate change differs for the coffee and dairy. Actors in the coffee are limited, the system is highly centralized with limited options to farmers to process and market their product while the dairy sector is informally controlled by demand based business, comparatively numerous actors with limited government intervention, various options to marketing. The strong correlation between farm performance and s

Social and environmental issues including climatic changes, plant diseases and vulnerability of producers and smallholders, threaten worldwide coffee production and in particular Arabica coffee. Meanwhile, social and environmental requirements are increasingly at the heart of the consumers' demand. All actors of the value-chain have a clear interest in engaging in agro-ecological and social initiatives preserving ecosystems and offering decent remuneration to farmers through a sustainable production of a high quality coffee. Coffee/Cocoa agroforestry Business driven Clusters (CaFC) are part of such initiatives as a new organizational model to finance social and environmental innovations. Defined as local micro value-chains dedicated to sustainable production under agroforestry of high quality Arabica coffee, CaFC are based on an original organization orchestrated by a network of five types of stakeholders forming an Innovation platform: producers, roasters, brokers, investors and CIRAD for methodology and engineering. In some cases, certification agencies could be integrated to this platform. Based on a 1300 ha prototype project in Nicaragua (MATRICE) initiated in 2016 funded by the Moringa fund. We will describe the operational principles of CaFC, the respective roles of each stakeholder in such projects (Moringa, NicaFrance, CIRAD, producers, ECOM…), as well as the added-value for each of them, the consumers and the environment. In a context of both the falling real prices of coffee and the continuous contestation of certification systems to internalize social and environmental problems, we will discuss why CaFC could be a sustainable governance mechanism among stakeholders as well as an alternative traceability scheme in conventional but also in organic production of Arabica coffee or cocoa. Finally we discuss its possibility of extension to other contexts such as Vietnam or Cameroon through the Breedcafs H2020 European project.

Pour réduire les impacts négatifs des systèmes agricoles, la transition agroécologique appelle en premier lieu à l'utilisation d'une plus grande biodiversité cultivée. Une telle diversification peut être conduite à l'échelle de la parcelle, en associant différentes espèces, ou différentes variétés d'une même espèce. Nous abordons les avantages de cette diversification intra-parcellaire, en développant 5 exemples : (1) les mélanges variétaux de blé en France, (2) les populations de riz au YuanYang, (3) le colza associé à des plantes de services, (4) les mélanges d'espèces fourragères et (5) les associations céréales-légumineuses à graines. Nous discutons des avantages conférés par cette diversification sur : (i) l'optimisation et la stabilisation des productions, (ii) les interactions avec les pratiques culturales, (iii) la sélection variétale, et (iv) l'impact de ces peuplements et pratiques sur la biodiversité sauvage associée.

Agroforestry systems (AFS) are recognized as being a land use system that can improve the sustainability of agroecosystems (Wilson et al, 2016). However, low market opportunities for its products is one of the challenges for its adoption, especially the more diversified AFS (Coq-Huelva, 2016). With this perspective, the Brazillian National School Meal Program (Pro-grama Nacional de Alimentação Escolar, PNAE) and Food Procurement Program (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos, PAA) have emerged in the last decade as public policies aimed at stimulating purchasing of local products (Grisa & Porto, 2015). This research aims at assessing how the programs have encouraged biodiversification and in particular in AFS. We compare two municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon, Paragominas and Irituia. By realizing interviews with local stakeholders and review of documents, we identify the variety of products that have been acquired through programs representing different cropping systems (Table 1). The AFSs are the most significant cropping system purchased by the programs in Irituia, differently from Paragominas. This can be explained by the set of background initiatives improving AFSs car-ried out in Irituia. Programs, in this case, have emerged as one of the drivers of this expansion process. We conclude that the programs have a great potential to act on the expansion of diversified systems such as the AFSs, as long as they are associated to other actions present at the local level.

In Central America, smallholder coffee farmers rely on low input agroforestry systems (AFS) while experiencing increased pressure from climate change and social inequality. In order to increase the sustainability of these systems and to guide farmers along agroecological transition pathways, participatory approaches are needed. However, methods for the co-design process of such complex AFS are still scarce. Here, we present a practical approach based on game sessions and backcasting for the development of sustainable farming systems, together with the smallholder communities. We organized five game sessions and one backcasting workshop with farmer communities, technicians, researchers and municipality officials in La Dalia, Nicaragua. Through the game sessions we managed to highlight the key factors that allow or impede successful coordination among farmers to diversify their systems and develop organic and/or low input agriculture. Furthermore, using backcasting, we shared the outcomes from the game sessions among the communities and co-designed new farming systems highlighting major economic, social and environmental benefits and barriers. Through combining game and backcasting sessions, we were able to describe the current system and co-construct a desirable future vision towards agrological transition. We envision a wide range of relevant applications of this method in agriculture and beyond to facilitate stakeholders to collaboratively initiate processes of change.

This chapter identifies urbanization issues affecting food system sustainability. Since the nineteenth century and the onset of industrialization, cities have been both the product and motor of food systems, which are expanding worldwide despite the impression that they are nonsustainable. Since both the problems and resources are concentrated in cities, the latter are also a source of innovation, which can in turn help enhance the sustainability of food systems.

This Open Access book is for scientists and experts who work on urban food policies. It provides a conceptual framework for understanding the urban food system sustainability and how it can be tackled by local governments. Written by a collective of researchers, this book describes the existing conceptual frameworks for an analysis of urban food policies, at the crossroads of the concepts of food system and sustainable city. It provides a basis for identifying research questions related to urban local government initiatives in the North and South. It is the result of work carried out within Agropolis International within the framework of the Sustainable Urban Food Systems program and an action research carried out in support of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole for the construction of its agroecological and food policy.

Les luttes autour de la nécessité de transformer les paradigmes technologiques de l'agriculture pour faire face aux urgences écologiques et sociales mondiales (extinction de la biodiversité, changement climatique, accroissement des inégalités), semblent aujourd'hui converger (Faure et al., 2018). L'agroécologie s'impose progressivement dans les arènes internationales comme un des leviers d'activation de ces transformations (Anderson et al., 2019).

The diversification of cropping systems encompasses different strategies that may help maintain or enhance the sustainability of agriculture. Thousands of experiments have been carried out around the world since almost five decades to evaluate and compare the performances of various diversification strategies in a wide array of agroecosystems and climates. Although these analyses have been synthesized in a growing number of meta-analyses, the information remains somewhat fragmented. A multicriteria systematic synthesis of worldwide agricultural diversification is still lacking. Here, we review all meta-analyses conducted on crop diversification strategies and produce a detailed overview of their results and of their quality. We identified and analyzed 99 meta-analyses summarizing the results of more than 3700 agronomic experiments on seven crop diversification strategies. Among these strategies, rotation and associated plant species are dominant in the literature followed by intercropping, agroforestry and landscape heterogeneity. Our analysis reveals that rotation and intercropping are associated with yield increases. Agroforestry systematically induces an improvement of biodiversity and soil quality—in particular soil organic carbon. We show that, regardless of the context, a combination of several diversification strategies outperforms any individual strategy. Our review reveals that a significant knowledge gap remains, in particular regarding water use, farmers' profitability, product quality and production stability. Few meta-analyses investigate the performance of landscape heterogeneity and of systems with species other than cereals and pulses. Additionally, we show that most of the meta-analyses studied cannot be considered fully transparent and reproducible. Their conclusions should therefore be interpreted with caution. Our systematic mapping provides a benchmark to guide and improve the relevance and reliability of future meta-analyses in agronomy.

Studies of young people's willingness to farm usually analyse their plans based on the resources available to them, or their hopes if they had access to more resources, but rarely study the two jointly. However, in newly industrialized countries in Asia, such joint assessments are needed to disentangle the extent to which young people's limited involvement in farming is due to lack of interest or to the fact that they see no way to get round the obstacles to starting the kind of farming they want to practice. This study analysed the vision of 86 young rural people in Prachinburi Province, Thailand, concerning farming, their plan to farm under prevailing conditions and their willingness to become a farmer if more opportunities to start farming were available. More than two-thirds of the interviewees were not farming at the time of the interview, but half planned to start farming, either part or full time, in the coming decade. One-third of the interviewees said that if they had better opportunities to start farming, they would reconsider their current plans to work in non-agricultural sectors and instead become full-time farmers. Public policies aimed at increasing the number of young people who become farmers should consequently not take the prevailing lack of engagement in farming by many young rural people as a given. Such policies should not only support young people who already plan to farm, but also those who would be willing to farm if they had better opportunities to do so.

Food systems around the world are highly dependent on both renewable and nonrenewable resources. Drivers such as population growth, urbanisation and climate change put a lot of pressure on resources that have become core issues for the future of food systems. Cropland availability is limited in most parts of the world, adding pressure for cropping intensification. Fossil energy and phosphorus shortages are expected to occur within a few decades, with particular impact in Low-Income (LI) countries where farmers are more vulnerable to volatile prices. The availability of very unevenly distributed freshwater resources shows a similar picture, with an increasing number of regions reaching alarming levels of water scarcity. Some world fish stocks have been overexploited and are now depleted. But the situation is not without hope. While we need to intensify food systems to meet the challenge of a growing population, new ways to produce with less impact on the environment and more resilience to climate change need to be widely adopted.

Predicting the fertilizer requirements of an oil palm plantation has long been a difficult task. Two main methods have emerged. Leaf analyses (LA) were used for fertilization management as early as the 1950s. Leaf contents are compared to optimum references, making it possible to adjust the fertilizer rates applied in each block. Another approach, based on the nutrient balance (NB), is to evaluate and replace nutrients that are exported from the field, or immobilized by the plant. Plantations must adopt environmentally friendly practices; in particular, fertilizer inputs must be estimated with sufficient precision to achieve the highest possible yields, without applying excessive amounts of nutrients in relation to plant demand and the storage capacity of soils. We questioned the relevance of each method for achieving these objectives. We did so using some long-term fertilization trials to compare the optimum N and K rates recommended by each method in the adult phase. It appeared that LA led to moderate rates compared to NB. It also appeared that calculating a precise nutrient balance on a field scale was hampered by a lack of precise information (i) about the biomasses produced and their composition and (ii) about the highly variable outputs of the environmental losses. On the other hand, LA provided a simple indicator of the ability for each block to achieve its potential yield. We believe that this perfectible method is more protective of the environment, without the risk of a significant decrease in yields or a decrease in soil mineral reserves.

The rise of palm oil as the world's most consumed vegetable oil has coincided with exponential growth in palm oil research activity. Bibliometric analysis of research outputs reveals a distinct imbalance in the type of research being undertaken, notably a disproportionate focus on biofuel and engineering topics. Recognizing the expansion of oil palm agriculture across the tropics and the increasing awareness of environmental, social, and economic impacts, we seek to reorientate the existing research agenda toward one that addresses the most fundamental and urgent questions defined by the palm oil stakeholder community. Following consultation with 659 stakeholders from 38 countries, including palm oil growers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and researchers, the highest priority research questions were identified within 13 themes. The resulting 279 questions, including 26 ranked as top priority, reveal a diversity of environmental and social research challenges facing the industry, ranging from the ecological and ecosystem impacts of production, to the livelihoods of plantation workers and smallholder communities. Analysis of the knowledge type produced from these questions underscores a clear need for fundamental science programmes, and studies that involve the consultation of non-academic stakeholders to develop “transformative” solutions to the oil palm sector. Stakeholders were most aligned in their choice of priority questions across the themes of policy and certification related themes, and differed the most in environmental feedback, technology and smallholder related themes. Our recommendations include improved regional academic leadership and coordination, greater engagement with private and public stakeholders in Africa, and Central and South America, and enhanced collaborative efforts with researchers in the major consuming countries of India and China.

Les abords du lac Titicaca dans les Andes sont l'un des principaux centres de domestication des espèces agricoles au monde et le centre d'origine du quinoa Chenopodium quinoa Willd. Il s'y concentre la plus grande diversité génétique de quinoa cultivé et de ses parents sauvages. Ces ressources génétiques ont une grande valeur pour l'adaptation du quinoa au changement climatique. Au sein de la région de Puno, la culture du quinoa se distribue selon un gradient climatique nord-sud et une différenciation altitudinale. A travers l'étude des agroécosystèmes andins, notre recherche s'est focalisée sur la gestion des pratiques qui expliquent la distribution des parents sauvages en lien avec la culture du quinoa. Des cartographies participatives et des enquêtes ethnobotaniques ont été menées dans six villages choisis selon des critères biogéographiques. La modélisation chorématique a caractérisé les dynamiques sociospatiales associées à l'évolution de la culture du quinoa, avant et après 1970. La distribution des parents sauvages, dans les espaces naturels et cultivés, est liée à l'organisation socio-spatiale de l'agroécosystème. Cette gestion dynamique des espèces faite par les agriculteurs est toutefois en train d'évoluer sous la pression d'enjeux globaux. La perspective historique permise par les chorèmes questionne la durabilité des pratiques agricoles pour une conservation in situ de l'agrobiodiversité. Le développement de projets associant la présence des parents sauvages dans le champ cultivé est un atout pour favoriser l'introduction de gènes du sauvage vers le cultivé, ainsi que pour construire un pool de gènes à gérer conjointement.

Palm oil has become a leading vegetable oil over the past 30 years and smallholder farmers in Indonesia, with more than 12 million hectare the world's largest producer of palm oil, have massively engaged in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) cultivation. In Sumatra, where more than 60% of Indonesian palm oil is cultivated, smallholders currently cover roughly 50% of the oil palm area. The rapid expansion of palm oil however did not happen without controversy. In current efforts by the Indonesian government, NGO's and private sector to improve sector performance, smallholders are often characterized as the Achilles heel of the oil palm sector due to poor practices and low yields compared to companies. However, 'oil palm smallholders' is a container concept and there has been only limited research into smallholder diversity beyond the organised versus independent farmer dichotomy. This research delves into the implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) among seven types of independent smallholders in Rokan Hulu regency, Riau province. The research area consisted of a relative established agricultural area on mineral soils and a relative frontier, mostly on peat. Smallholder types ranged from small local farmers to large farmers who usually reside in urban areas far from their plantation and regard oil palm cultivation as an investment opportunity. The underlying hypothesis is that larger farmers have more capital and therefore implement better agricultural practices than small farmers, who are usually more cash constrained. A wide range of methods was applied, including farmer and farm surveys, remote sensing, tissue analysis and photo interpretation by experts. These methods provided data on fertilizer use, nutrient conditions in oil palms, planting material, planting patterns, and other management practices in the plantations. Results show that yields are poor, implementation of GAP are limited and there is much room for improvement among all farmer types. Poor p

0

Agricultural techniques and technologies that could foster sustainable intensification of farming (hereafter: SI practices) can originate from existing farm practices, from the adoption of externally suggested new practices, or from an adaptation of existing or new practices. The rate at which farmers use SI practices is often low and influenced by on-farm biophysical and socio-economic conditions. There is a narrow understanding of the role of motivations and the balance between external incentives and intrinsic motivations for use of SI practices. We analysed the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations among 246 sampled households alongside the perceived benefits and constraints from SI practices in five districts of Malawi and Tanzania. Our results showed that farmer decisions were not exclusively dependent on external incentives, but also on intrinsic values which farmers attach to their production resources and farming practices. Despite various benefits perceived, farmers highlighted the lack of financial resources as a major constraint to the use of externally proposed SI practices. While we hypothesized that intrinsic motivation would be much stronger than extrinsic in influencing decisions to use SI practices, our results demonstrated equal importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in influencing the number of SI practices which smallholder farmers used. We suggest explicitly addressing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in further research in combination with socio-economic and biophysical variables to give a better reflection of what drives farmers' decisions to use more sustainable farming practices. We argue that the design of SI research programs should support motivations of diversified farmers to participate in such programs. Emphasising farmers' autonomy, a key to intrinsic motivation, can stimulate ownership of SI projects and smoothen the process of adoption, adaptation and use of SI practices by farmers, and is expected to reduc

Colombia desarrolló una política de crecimiento verde, como un nuevo motor para el desarrollo agrícola y de los territorios en el marco de un contexto internacional favorable (Acuerdos de Paris, OCDE). El enfoque de crecimiento verde permite integrar objetivos múltiples en relación a lo productivo, lo ambiental, y lo social en una visión renovada del sector agropecuario y del mundo rural. Las políticas de crecimiento verde integran los retos del cambio climático, en una visión proactiva que busca transcender las tensiones entre desarrollo agrícola y objetivos ambientales. El crecimiento verde integra 5 pilares que son la productividad, la eficiencia en el uso de los recursos naturales, el balance y flujo de nutrientes, la incidencia en el capital natural y las oportunidades sectoriales. La implementación de una metodología que alterna recopilación y análisis de datos con retroalimentación y validación de los resultados permitió producir información relevante y de interés para la toma de decisiones de los actores. El contexto político institucional y acuerdos internacionales facilitaron la formulación y la adopción de una política de crecimiento verde en Colombia.