Examining multi-functionality for crop yield and ecosystem services in five systems of agroecological intensification

Agroecological intensification (AEI) integrates ecological principles and biodiversity management into farming systems with the aims of increasing farm productivity, reducing dependency on external inputs, and sustaining or enhancing ecosystem services. This review develops an analytic framework to characterize the fulfilment of these objectives by documenting the co-occurrence of positive, neutral, and negative outcomes for crop yield and nine regulating ecosystem services. We provide an illustrative examination of the framework, evaluating evidence for yield and ecosystem service outcomes across five AEI systems: conservation agriculture, holistic grazing management, organic agriculture, precision agriculture, and system of rice intensification (SRI). We reviewed 104 studies containing 245 individual comparisons between AEI and contrasting farming systems. In three of the five AEI systems, conservation agriculture, precision agriculture, and SRI, more than half of reviewed comparisons reported ‘win-win’ outcomes, enhancement of both yield and ecosystem services, or ‘win-neutral’ outcomes relative to contrasting farming systems. The review presents substantial evidence that the five AEI systems can contribute to multi-functional agriculture by increasing ecosystem service provision, or reducing negative externalities associated with agriculture, while maintaining or increasing yields. A framework such as the one presented here can help guide decision-makers considering how best to implement multi-functional agriculture so that both crop yield and ecosystem service delivery can be maintained or increased.     

Assessing the potential of SRI management principles and the FFS approach in Northeast Thailand for sustainable rice intensification in the context of climate change

The paper describes the facilitated learning process of farmers, its results and implications in addressing the low productivity of Jasmine rice in northeast Thailand using the SRI-FFS approach in a collaborative action research. Other involved included rice traders, millers, researchers, government and non-governmental organizations. Working through an inclusive process of dialogue, observation, diagnosis, experimentation and exposure to different types of innovative agronomic crop management (IACM) practices resulting from the SRI–FFS approach, participants made a thorough analysis of the current management practices and evaluated various IACM practices for their productivity and profitability. The results confirmed the potential of IACM in enhancing crop and water productivity along with soil fertility with relatively low input-use (seed, water and fertilizers) and higher net farm-income compared to existing crop management practices. However, factors such as (i) the age of the farmers and (ii) off-farm employment opportunity are key drivers that affect the crop management decision-making process. Therefore, exploration of value-added production alternatives and favourable policies is required to sustain IACM that can benefit farmers, consumers and the environment. The participation of policy-makers at the action research continuum is essential for effective follow up, scaling up and sustainability of such environmentally sound practices.     

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI): a challenge for science,and an opportunity for farmer empowerment towards sustainable agriculture

Increasing demand for cereals produced from limited natural resources stimulated the Green Revolution in grain crops like wheat and rice. But the gap between potential and actual production continues. Concerns about sustainability, and the social and technical shortcomings of the Green Revolution, have triggered a number of alternative crop production strategies. One, in particular, the so-called System of Rice Intensification (SRI), is attracting attention by governments, civil society organizations and farmers in Asia and elsewhere.     

The political ecology of rice intensification in south India: Putting SRI in its places

The system of rice intensification (SRI) has been promoted across Asia as a means to improve rice yields while decreasing water use and external inputs. It is argued to be a generalisable means by which to revalidate smallholder livelihoods and improve food security across the region. Current debates about SRI, however, remain predominantly technical in scope, focusing on field‐level outcomes. To more adequately understand the potential of SRI for smallholder farmers, we argue that it is necessary to situate SRI within a political ecology framework that addresses how the adoption and practice of SRI is shaped by uneven access to key assets including labour, water, and extension networks. Fieldwork conducted in Mahabubnagar district in Telangana, south India—where SRI had been widely disadopted despite the achievement of higher yields—is used to illustrate why agronomic analysis must engage directly with the complex social contexts in which farmers operate.     

Harnessing sustainability,resilience and productivity through conservation agriculture: the case of likoti in Lesotho

Subsistence farmers in Lesotho have been able to boost agricultural yields and increase food production by adopting conservation agriculture. The practice, locally known as likoti, also contributes to combating soil erosion and to enhancing fertility. The socio-economic and environmental benefits help poor households to rehabilitate and strengthen their livelihood capital base and ultimately help rural communities to build system resilience in the face of widespread poverty and increasing vulnerability that affect the country. This paper discusses the major advantages associated with the spread of likoti. By drawing on primary data collected by FAO-Lesotho, it enquires into the determinants of adoption, thereby highlighting constraints and options for future up-scaling. The results show that attending appropriate training is a crucial prerequisite for the correct adoption of likoti. However, training is more effective when trainers pursue true participation and when social capital among farmers is stronger. Further important determinants of adoption are the level of education and the economic incentives provided to vulnerable households. Stronger policy and institutional support in all these areas would thus help address the cultural and resource constraints that limit the full potential of likoti to be harnessed and ultimately hinder its further spread throughout the country.     

Agriculture and the city: A method for sustainable planning of new forms of agriculture in urban contexts

Contemporary cities are threatened by urban development decreasing the overall environmental quality and fragmenting natural and agricultural landscapes. As a result of this fragmentation the number of Non Urbanized Areas (NUAs) present in urban contexts is dramatically decreasing. These areas include cultivated land, Abandoned Farmlands, Grassland, Woods and Shrubs that are often located at the peri-urban cities’ fringes. Among NUAs, farmlands and other forms of urban and peri-urban agriculture provide all three major categories of ecosystem services, provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Recently, New Forms of Urban Agriculture (NFUA) have gained increasing attention from researchers for their promising multifunctionality. Incorporating NFUA into the urban environment will thus improve the sustainability of cities, taking advantage of the multiple benefits and services they can provide.This paper presents a method for the characterisation of NUAs in terms of their physical, ecological and social features. These areas are analysed with different criteria and related indicators structured according to a GIS-based Multi Criteria Suitability Model. The proposed model checks the suitability of transformation of the NUAs toward NFUA, thereby enhancing their ecological and social function as well as accessibility and overall connectivity. Different scenarios of spatial configurations for NFUA have been explored with a sensitivity analysis on the values of used indicators. The method was tested for the municipality of Catania, south Italy, an urban context characterised by a relevant shortage of public green spaces and services.     

Flexible adoption of conservation agriculture principles: practices of care and the management of crop residue in Australian mixed farming systems

This paper applies concepts from the sociological literature on ‘practices of care’ to investigate why flexibility is important for farmers in the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) principles, and, crucially, how farmers integrate CA principles into their existing practices. Drawing on qualitative data from six mixed farming regions in South Eastern Australia, the paper discusses how a specific dimension of CA – crop residue retention – is integrated in the context of biophysical and material challenges, and practices of stubble burning. Farmers viewed burning as increasingly incompatible with their desire to be recognised as good land managers. Yet, shifting to full crop residue retention was perceived as posing challenges for their farming system and compromising farmers’ capacity to manage seasonal variations in pests, weeds and crop residue loads. As a consequence, farmers used burning as a key practice of care to deal in a flexible way with an uncertain and variable farming environment, and to make crop residue retention workable in the context of their farming system. In concluding, the paper argues that the significance of flexibility in farm-level integration of CA principles requires a shift in analytical focus from adoption barriers to practices of care.     

Urban crops and livestock: The experiences,challenges, and opportunities of planning for urban agriculture in two Canadian provinces

While many municipalities globally are currently undertaking initiatives to support urban agriculture, policies and zoning regulations can act as barriers, with the former usually not integrated with planning. Extensive research has been conducted on urban agriculture policies in the global South, but much less is known about associated practices and policies in the global North. This is especially true for the Canadian context and therefore the present study aims at improving our overall understanding of the urban agriculture situation in two Canadian provinces. Relevant policies, such as official plans or official community plans, alternate policy documents and guidelines, zoning by-laws, and animal-related by-laws were reviewed for 10 municipalities in Ontario and in British Columbia, all varying in socio-economic and climatological characteristics. Additional key informant interviews were conducted with municipal planners, community garden coordinators, and other municipal staff familiar with urban agriculture policies from six of the selected municipalities.In line with global trends, our results suggest that urban agriculture is becoming more widespread in the two provinces. However, even though all studied municipalities consistently support urban agriculture, they vary significantly in their approach, with some municipalities focusing much more narrowly on certain types of activities than others. Overall, community advocacy and municipal council support are the most important drivers in the policy process. Key informants expressed a need to bridge existing gaps between policy adoption and implementation of tools, emphasize public education and public awareness, create inventories of land available for urban agriculture, incorporate urban agriculture in the development review process, and focus on the commercial potential of the practice. Encouragingly, despite the many challenges that need to be addressed, we found that many opportunities exist that municipalities could consider when creating improved local urban agriculture policies and tools to enhance the urban food system.     

Joint problem framing in sustainable land use research: Experience with Constellation Analysis as a method for inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge integration

Land use is an important field of interest regarding sustainability transformations. Research projects which deal with the multiple dimensions of sustainable land use usually apply an inter- and transdisciplinary design and are confronted with challenges of integrating heterogeneous knowledge.In this paper we refer to experience we had during the ELaN project, which followed a systemic approach by linking research on water and land management. Due to this relatively uncommon approach it was necessary to bring together scientists and practical actors as well as distributed knowledge from different areas of expertise. Considering the heterogeneity of the actors it was of great importance to establish a shared understanding of the research problem the project was to deal with during the initial phase. For this step the method of Constellation Analysis (CA) was applied: a visualisation and analysis tool which aims at joint problem framing by focusing on the dominant elements of a social-ecological problem and their relations in a discursive process. Due to the size of the project team and the necessity to involve a broad range of actors, a group of scientists led the iterative process and prepared CA drafts which were validated by practitioners. This design can be categorised as ‘consulting’ rather than ‘participatory’ transdisciplinarity. Proceeding this way can be seen as a compromise between more intense forms of transdisciplinary exchange and forms that are manageable when considering time and resource constraints in third-party funded projects.CA has proven to be a suitable tool for organising processes of mutual understanding between heterogeneous actors and fostering social integration in inter- and transdisciplinary research groups. In ELaN the main benefit of the process was an adjustment and enrichment of problem framing which was formulated in the project proposal thus contributing to integrated system knowledge as a basis for the interdisciplinary project consortium and involved practitioners. The insights gained during this process led to changes in the design of some of the sub-projects as well as the targeted end products. This experience confirms the importance of a structured process of joint problem framing in inter- and transdisciplinary projects, especially for thematic fields of such high complexity as land use research.     

Determinants and impact of sustainable land management (SLM) investments: A systems evaluation in the Blue Nile Basin,Ethiopia

Ongoing debate over water management along the Blue Nile and land degradation in Ethiopia emphasizes the need for efficiency gains in agricultural production through sustainable land management (SLM). However, previous SLM studies overlook the tradeoffs involved in maintaining SLM investments over time. We address this limitation by combining a household survey that evaluates the economic impacts of SLM investments and maintenance, with a hydrological model that explores location‐specific infrastructure effects. We then use a multi‐market model to evaluate the impacts of alternative SLM investments on agricultural production, prices, and incomes over time. Analysis suggests SLM investments must be maintained for at least seven years to show significant increases in value of production, and that terraces on moderate and steep slopes are most effective in increasing agricultural yields. However, the benefits of terracing do not outweigh the cost of foregone off‐farm labor opportunities, nor compensate for lower agricultural prices from increased supply. Thus, SLM investments must be paired with other input and infrastructure investments, as well as subsidies for initial labor costs, in order to incentivize adoption and long‐term SLM maintenance.     

我国宅基地使用管理制度的演变、存在问题和改革途径——基于北京市的调查

通过文献研究和归纳比较法对我国宅基地使用和管理政策演变进行梳理,发现我国宅基地使用和管理制度演变经历了5个阶段,并且对宅基地的所有权和使用权、审批制度和面积标准、确权登记政策、流转政策、退出机制等做了分析,总结宅基地使用和管理现存的主要问题为:"一户一宅"等政策难以落实;"无地可批"和"有地不批"现象普遍存在;确权登记时权属来源材料缺失;自发流转普遍等。提出其改革的途径:同户籍管理制度改革相结合改进宅基地审批制度;形成规划、审批、确权、退出等一体化管理体制;推进房地合一的宅基地确权登记发证工作;实行宅基地"所有权、使用权、经营权"三权分置;统筹谋划,全面实现宅基地财产权。     

国家地质公园管理体制与运营模式探究——以内蒙古赤峰市地质(矿山)公园为例

国家地质公园发展速度迅速,近年来暴露出其管理体制和运营模式的多种不足之处。通过对内蒙古赤峰市地质(矿山)公园管理体制与建设现状调研,分析赤峰市域范围内所有地质(矿山)公园在公园管理、资金使用、运营等方面的问题,提出适合其长远发展的管理及运营建议。在此基础上,尝试性地探究了适合国家地质公园发展的管理及运营模式。