The role of crop diversity in climate change adaptation: insights from local observations to inform decision making in agriculture

Labeyrie, Vanesse; Renard, Delphine; Aumeeruddy‐Thomas, Yildiz; Benyei, Petra; Caillon, Sophie; Calvet-Mir, Laura; Carrière, Stéphanie M.; Demongeot, Marilou; Descamps, Elsa; Junqueira, André Braga; Li, Xiaoyue; Locqueville, Jonathan; Mattalia, Giulia; Miñarro, Sara; Morel, Antoine; Porcuna-Ferrer, Anna; Schlingmann, Anna; Ávila, Julia Vieira da Cunha; Reyes‐García, Victoria

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2021.01.006

Cited by 66 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Knowledge specific to plant species, their uses and their management practices have been widely investigated because they concern socio-cultural, economic and environmental issues, such as biodiversity conservation (Garibaldi & Turner, 2004;Rafidison, 2020), the adaptation of agriculture to climate change (Labeyrie et al, 2021) or the food security of rural communities (Quave & Pieroni, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The agroecology literature particularly emphasises the importance of farmers' knowledge on how to organise the different plant species in space depending on the different ways species adapt to biophysical conditions, and how to associate plant species to account for their positive and negative interactions (Altieri, 2002). However, these aspects of farmers/agrobiodiversity interactions are still poorly understood, although an improved understanding of farmers' knowledge of agrobiodiversity and their associated management practices is crucial if agricultural development initiatives are to match local realities and meet global change challenges (Altieri & Nicholls, 2017;Labeyrie et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring farmers' agrobiodiversity management practices and knowledge in clove agroforests of Madagascar

et al. 2021

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Interactions between farmers and agrobiodiversity are key drivers of agroecosystems sustainability and of the resilience of such systems to perturbations, but research into the human/nature interactions have overlooked some important aspects of agrobiodiversity management. In particular, farmers' ecological knowledge of the spatial organisation of plant diversity remains an open question, although knowledge and practices have major implications for the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. Our study addresses this question by analysing how farmers spatially organise plant species in agroforests based on their knowledge of species interactions and interactions with the environment. The Analanjirofo region on the north‐east coast of Madagascar provides an interesting context to explore this issue in clove‐based agroforests, as these systems were developed by farmers as a sustainable alternative to the traditional system of shifting rice cultivation. Using an emic approach, that is based on the farmers' perspective, and participatory mapping, we studied plant diversity and its spatial organisation in 17 clove‐based agroforests and in 28 management sub‐units defined by farmers in a village of Vavatenina district. The plant functions and farmers' knowledge of plant interactions with clove tree were recorded in semi‐structured interviews, and the interactions were represented in a cognitive map. Farmers manage more than 50 plant species associated with diverse functions. Analysis of participatory maps identified four main types of species association as a function of the age of the clove trees and the associated plant diversity, and different spatial organisation patterns as a function of the topography and the surrounding species. Analysis of farmers' knowledge provided valuable insights into spatial organisation practices, how farmers perceive the adaptation of plant species to biophysical heterogeneity of the environment and whether they can be associated with other species. Our findings and methods pave the way for further interdisciplinary research on farmers/nature interactions to support the development of agrobiodiversity‐based systems taking into account farmer and scientific knowledge and practices, especially in the tropics where the expansion of cash crops in input‐intensive and mono‐cropping systems has driven major disruptions to smallholder agriculture.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring farmers' agrobiodiversity management practices and knowledge in clove agroforests of Madagascar

et al. 2021

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“…One of the major strategies to improve the resilience of food systems is to transform current input-intensive, monoculture-dominated cropping systems into temporally, spatially, and functionally diversified agroecosystems [ 78 , 98 , 99 , 100 ]. However, this transition must be context dependent [ 29 , 101 ] and may not be transferrable across sectors, since most analysis and assessments have compared resilience in the same country or region with similar natural, institutional, and socioeconomic contexts [ 102 , 103 ] A screening between different types of food systems, ecosystems, and climate-related natural hazards would help in the understanding of the resilience prerequisites and reveal patterns of ecosystem services-based strategies that can be introduced to cope and adapt to climate change. Thus, we explored the influence of the socioeconomic and natural context on the smallholder food system resilience to distinguish types of interventions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Considering Ecosystem Services in Food System Resilience

Varyvoda

Taren

2022

IJERPH

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The prevalence and severity of natural hazards pose a serious risk to food systems, undermining their function to provide food security and improved nutrition. The impact of such events is extensive, and the level of damage and recovery significantly depend on ecosystem services, including their own resilience capacity. This paper provides evidence that the role, value, and utilization of local ecosystem services are essential for food system resilience and for food security in parts of the world where high vulnerability and lack of coping capacity exist to combat climate change. Patterns of ecosystem services-based strategies were revealed that can be introduced to cope and adapt to climate-related natural hazards at the smallholder food system level. The study suggests that food system diversification, technological innovations and nature-based practices, and traditional and indigenous knowledge operationalized across the food system components have a potential for sustaining smallholder resilience in the face of natural hazards.

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“…The underlying mechanism of crop diversity may differ. Because the crop diversity at farm level is a relative microscale research, it pays more attention to the behaviour of farmers and the regulation of the market-induces (Labeyrie et al, 2021; Song et al, 2021), while the macroscale study can observe the influence of natural conditions, cropping conditions, accessibility and policies. This study showed that the spatial pattern of crop diversity at the county scale is not static and governed by both anthropogenic and natural forces.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why can China maintain a high crop diversity? A spatial-temporal dynamic analysis

Liu

Tang

Zhou

et al. 2021

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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Crop diversity is crucial for producing more food and nutrition in the crowded planet and achieving agricultural sustainable development, and thus it is a hot topic in shaping policies aimed at ensuring food security. Many studies have revealed that enhanced crop diversity can benefit crop productivity. However, research on how to maintain a relatively high crop diversity at regional and national scales remains limited. This study attempts to examine the underlying mechanisms of crop diversity changes in China and eventually answer why China can maintain a high crop diversity from the spatial-temporal perspective. To achieve this end, the county level crop area dataset for the period of 1980–2014 was compiled and used to quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics of crop diversity in China. The result reveals that the China’s crop diversity trended upward over past 35 years, evidenced by more than 7 major crops at national level and 4 major crops at county level having undergone massive planting process to maintain a high crop diversity. Spatially, the crop diversity increased in more than two-thirds of the counties, and its hotspots moved gradually to the south-west mountainous area. The natural factor of slope and the social factor of population density contributed to shape the crop diversity pattern in global effects. In contrast, the irrigation degree, elevation of cropland, mean annual temperature and precipitation affected the spatially non-stationary distribution of crop diversity at the local level. On the whole, the maintenance of a higher crop diversity in China not only was limited by natural conditions, but also subject to adopt the multi-cropping systems strategic choice for the country to agricultural conditions. We argued that crop diversity can be an indicator to draw agricultural zoning, and increasing crop diversity should be recognized as a policy tool to implement agricultural sustainable development strategy.

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The role of crop diversity in climate change adaptation: insights from local observations to inform decision making in agriculture

Cited by 66 publications

References 33 publications

Exploring farmers' agrobiodiversity management practices and knowledge in clove agroforests of Madagascar

Exploring farmers' agrobiodiversity management practices and knowledge in clove agroforests of Madagascar

Considering Ecosystem Services in Food System Resilience

Why can China maintain a high crop diversity? A spatial-temporal dynamic analysis

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