Understanding the pathways from biodiversity to agro-ecological outcomes: A new, interactive approach

Abstract

The adoption of agro-ecological practices in agricultural systems worldwide can contribute to increased food production without compromising future food security, especially under the current biodiversity loss and climate change scenarios. Despite the increase in publications on agro-ecological research and practices during the last 35 years, a weak link between that knowledge and changed farmer practices has led to few examples of agroecological protocols and effective delivery systems to agriculturalists. In an attempt to reduce this gap, we synthesised the main concepts related to biodiversity and its functions by creating a web-based interactive spiral (www.biodiversityfunction.com). This tool explains and describes a pathway for achieving agro-ecological outcomes, starting from the basic principle of biodiversity and its functions to enhanced biodiversity on farms. Within this pathway, 11 key steps are identified and sequentially presented on a web platform through which key players (farmers, farmer networks, policy makers, scientists and other stakeholders) can navigate and learn. Because in many areas of the world the necessary knowledge needed for achieving the adoption of particular agro-ecological techniques is not available, the spiral approach can provide the necessary conceptual steps needed for obtaining and understanding such knowledge by navigating through the interactive pathway. This novel approach aims to improve our understanding of the sequence from the concept of biodiversity to harnessing its power to improve prospects for 'sustainable intensification' of agricultural systems worldwide.

Assessing the agroecological status of a farm:a principle-based assessment tool for farmers

“…Furthermore, many surveyed farms were surrounded by a forest monoculture, a landscape feature that farmers have little control over due to differentiated ownership and access to forests. In this way, the development of more local or context-specific management methods applicable for the site to implement a principle on a farm are required (González-Chang et al, 2020). A participatory process to fine tune the interpretation of the assessment factors for each indicator is necessary to be able to capture the local socio-ecological contexts.…”

“…In agroecology, productivity, sustainability and resilience are achieved by breaking monocultures via enhancement of diversity and complexity in farming systems in which ecological interactions and synergisms between its bio-physical components replace external inputs to provide the mechanisms for sponsoring soil fertility, productivity, and crop protection. By enhancing functional biodiversity in farming systems, a major goal of agroecology is to strengthen the weak ecological functions in the agroecosystem, allowing farmers to gradually eliminate their reliance on external (organic or conventional) inputs altogether, relying instead on ecosystem functions (Nicholls et al, 2016;González-Chang et al, 2020).…”

Ecological and Economic Aspects of Efficiency of the Use of Land Resources

“…In the modern world, more and more attention is paid to agroecology systems [18][19][20][21]. Agroecological concepts are based on taking into account the natural features of the functioning of land resources.…”

The Adoption of Landraces of Durum Wheat in Sicilian Organic Cereal Farming Analysed Using a System Dynamics Approach

“…Globally, agricultural production is undergoing marked changes because of rapid shifts in consumer demands, input costs, and increasing concerns for food security and environmental impact, especially under the current biodiversity loss and climate change scenarios [1,2]. A growing body of literature has recently addressed the specific nexus between food security and biodiversity conservation [3][4][5]. Many studies recognized that there exist in the world successful social-ecological systems where a sustainable integration between production and biodiversity conservation has been achieved.…”

“…Many studies recognized that there exist in the world successful social-ecological systems where a sustainable integration between production and biodiversity conservation has been achieved. All such sustainable systems share the principle of enhancing functional agrobiodiversity (FAB) to reduce the reliance on synthetic inputs [4,6]. The adoption of traditional crops represents a good example of FAB generating multiple benefits (e.g., improved income from value-added speciality products; future adaptive capacity and resilience to disturbances) [6].…”