Increasing land and water scarcity, unequal distribution and competition over resource use, land degradation and biodiversity loss, exacerbated by climate change, question the capacity of current models of agriculture growth to sustain inclusive resilient rural development. This paper invites to integrate in rural development policies and investment a focus on sustainable, inclusive and adaptive management of natural resources. It combines a conceptual framework based on scientific literature with illustrative examples enriched by the perspectives of the experts participating in two workshops. It proposes 4 key pathways (resource efficiency, systems diversification, sustainable bioeconomy, and landscape approaches) to achieve more inclusive and resilient agrifood systems.
Tag: natural resource management
Probabilistic Decision Modelling to Determine Impacts on Natural Resource Management and Livelihood Resilience in Marsabit County, Kenya
Afforestation and Reforestation of Walnut Forestsin Southern Kyrgyzstan: An Economic Perspective
A review of the literature on the relationships between trees, land use, and hydrological processes in the Andes
From deforestation to development of agroforests in customary land tenure areas of Sumatra
This study attempts to explore the causes of deforestation and the developmentof agroforests using household data collected from 60 randomly selected com-munities in Sumatra. We found that decreases in inherited land per householdand increases in the number of male workers and the dependency ratio led to theclearance of primary forests, whereas change in the inheritance system from amatrilineal to a bilateral system did not significantly influence the pace of defor-estation. We also found that wealthier households tend to clear forest and developagroforests more actively than their less wealthy counterparts.
Understanding gender dimensions of agriculture and climate change in smallholder farming communities
In Uganda, Ghana and Bangladesh, participatory tools were used for a socio-economic and gender analysis of three topics: climate-smart agriculture (CSA), climate analogue approaches, and climate and weather forecasting. Policy and programme-relevant results were obtained. Smallholders are changing agricultural practices due to observations of climatic and environmental change. Women appear to be less adaptive because of financial or resource constraints, because of male domination in receiving information and extension services and because available adaptation strategies tend to create higher labour loads for women. The climate analogue approach (identifying places resembling your future climate so as to identify potential adaptations) is a promising tool for increasing farmer-to-farmer learning, where a high degree of climatic variability means that analogue villages that have successfully adopted new CSA practices exist nearby. Institutional issues related to forecast production limit their credibility and salience, particularly in terms of women’s ability to access and understand them. The participatory tools used in this study provided some insights into women’s adaptive capacity in the villages studied, but not to the depth necessary to address women’s specific vulnerabilities in CSA programmes. Further research is necessary to move the discourse related to gender and climate change beyond the conceptualization of women as a homogenously vulnerable group in CSA programmes
Field-scale modeling of tree–crop interactions: Challenges and development needs
Agroforestry has attracted considerable attention in recent years because of its potential to reduce poverty, improve food security, reduce land degradation and mitigate climate change. However, progress in promoting agroforestry is held back because decision-makers lack reliable tools to accurately predict yields from tree-crop mixtures. Amongst the key challenges faced in developing such tools are the complexity of agroforestry, including interactions between various system components, and the large spatial domains and timescales over which trees and crops interact. A model that is flexible enough to simulate any agroforestry system globally should be able to address competition and complementarity above and below ground between trees and crops for light, water and nutrients. Most agroforestry practices produce multiple products including food, fiber and fuel, as well as income, shade and other ecosystem services, all of which need to be simulated for a comprehensive understanding of the overall system to emerge. Several agroforestry models and model families have been developed, including SCUAF, HyPAR, Hi-SAFE/Yield-SAFE and WaNuLCAS, but as of 2015 their use has remained limited for reasons including insufficient flexibility, restricted ability to simulate interactions, extensive parameterization needs or lack of model maintenance. An efficient approach to improving the flexibility and durability of agroforestry models is to integrate them into a well-established modular crop modeling framework like APSIM. This framework currently focuses on field-scale crops and pastures, but has the capability to reuse or interoperate with existing models including tree, livestock and landscape models, it uses parameters that are intuitive and relatively easy to measure, and it allows scenario analysis that can include farm-scale economics. Various types of agroforestry systems are currently being promoted in many contexts, and the impacts of these innovations are often unclear. Rapid progress in reliable modeling of tree and crop performance for such systems is needed to ensure that agroforestry fulfills its potential to contribute to reducing poverty, improving food security and fostering sustainability.
Editorial: Towards leaner and more effective value chain development
Value chain development (VCD) is a common term in today’s development lexicon1, where its use tends to conjure passionate ideas about how development programming can support smallholder participation in growing markets in the interest of economic growth, job creation, gender empowerment, and sustainable use of natural resources, among other goals. Since the early 2000s, Enterprise Development and Microfinance (EDM) has featured considerable debate on how to design market-oriented development interventions with smallholders, often based on positive experiences by a given NGO or project in a particular context. Early articles helped to put VCD on the development agenda, while advancing innovation in market-based project design and implementation. However, after more than a decade of it being firmly placed on the agenda, we still know relatively little about VCD. Apart from isolated case studies, the question of whether VCD has lived up to the expectations of smallholders, of the private sector, and of development agencies remains an open one. This double edition of EDM addresses the design, implementation, and impact of VCD support to smallholders and to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as an important, yet under-researched dimension of VCD. The eight articles look into the needs and opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of VCD support services, with discussions on: the role of NGOs or governments in VCD; how large-scale buyers and certification programs shape VCD; and the role of finance and impact bonds in VCD. Advancing ideas on how to get the right mix of services, at the right time, to the right people, taking into account variations in the context in which livelihoods and business activities are embedded, will help stakeholders to effectively deliver on poverty and broader development goals.
Land use/cover dynamics in northern Afar rangelands, Ethiopia
This study uses a combination of remote sensing data, field observations and information from local people to analyze the patterns and dynamics of land-use/cover changes for 35 years from 1972 to 2007 in the arid and semi-arid Northern Afar rangelands, Ethiopia. A pixel-based supervised image classification was used to map land-use/cover classes. People’s perceptions and ecological time-lines were used to explain the driving forces linked to the changes. A rapid reduction in woodland cover (97%) and grassland cover (88%) took place between 1972 and 2007. Bushland cover increased more than threefold, while the size of cultivated land increased more than eightfold. Bare land increased moderately, whereas bushy grassland and scrubland remained stable. According to accounts from local people, major events that largely explain the changes include: (1) severe droughts in 1973/74 and 1984/85; (2) increase in dry years during the last decade; and (3) immigration and increased sedentarization of pastoralists. If the present land-use/cover change were to continue, coupled with a drier climate, people’s livelihoods will be highly affected and the pastoral production system will be under increasing threat.
System productivity and natural resource integrity in smallholder farming: Friends or foes?
This chapter aims to conceptualize the yield reduction and soil fertility degradation processes and how these interact and to evaluate the potential impact on yield. Intensification of smallholder agriculture is a must under high population densities but also desirable in less populated areas in order to protect natural ecosystems. After conversion of natural fallows to agricultural land, it has been observed that in the absence of the use of external nutrients, crop yields decline over time as do soil fertility conditions, often expressed as soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Sustainable Intensification (SI) requires increases in productivity and maintenance/restoration of ecosystem services. The chapter focuses on field-based ecosystem services that are regulated by soil conditions. Long-term data assessing the status of yields and SOC are required to make objective inferences about the SI nature of various soil management paradigms and are unfortunately in short supply, especially for sub-Saharan Africa.