We study the transition to sustainable ecology-based agriculture by using mixed-cropping systems that combine multiple crop species on a single field. Our team elucidates the ecological processes that make mixed cropping systems sustainably productive and we identify which socio-economic and societal or institutional factor need to be resolved to overcome the lock-in in current conventional farming systems. To allow a broad spectrum of farmers, consumers and stakeholders to reach transition goals, we embrace variation in transition paths. We explicitly compare how existing international value chains require adjustments as well as how new short and local value chains can emerge.

The global food system is challenged by population growth, climate change and environmental degradation, leading to global increase in demand and local decrease in supply. Millions of smallholders in West Africa are responsible for 70% of the global cocoa supply from monoculture and agroforestry systems, which provides them food and income essential to their food security. However, current yields average 400 kg/ha while potential production exceeds 5000 kg/ha. A large proportion of the plantations are old and/or neglected and insufficient use of farm inputs further reduces productivity. This project aims for science-based, sustainable intensification of cocoa production assuring high and stable production now and under future climate change and policy scenarios. We provide integrated crop-, field- and farm-level research exploring technical and socio-economically feasible options. Next to delivering soil-, crop- and farm decision support models, we deliver models to support effective service delivery at scale by public and private partners.

Vegetables are a main source of income and nutrition for ethnic minority farmers in Vietnam’s Northern highlands. While value chains for fresh retail produce and seed markets offer huge opportunities for development, particularly for women and youth inclusion, current smallholder seed systems suffer from multiple problems. These are due to inadequate access to quality seed of exogenous and indigenous vegetables varieties of desirable uniformity, health, and physiological properties, and traits such as disease resistance, micronutrient density, and consumer characters. Insufficient quality guarantees, poor storage and treatment, lack of access to appropriate information resources, and limited smallholder participation in seed value chains, combine with the effects of biotic and abiotic shocks affecting seed security, aggravate the situation. Our proposal will address these issues by elucidating how, and under what conditions, increased access and use of high quality seed translates into enhanced smallholder incomes and nutrition security. We will particularly address the knowledge gap of trade-offs to simultaneously optimize technical, organizational, economic, and social components of seed systems. Increasing clarity about trade-offs is essential to designs highly adapted innovations and to inform the policy debate steering Southeast Asian seed governance. We adopt an integrated approach organized around three major work packages (WP). WP1 will take a broad approach and pursue ‘seed system characterization’ for contrasting situations based on crop reproductive biology, producer ethnicities, and market systems. WP 2 will focus more in-depth on 4 to 6 case studies to research how select demand-driven and business-led improvements in seed production, marketing and business can enhance ‘smallholder seed access’ (specifically for ethnic minorities). WP 3 will provide fast-track insight into ‘evidence-based pathways’, and interactions between seed access vs. nutrition security and seed security vs. food security.

Among the cultivated plants, banana and plantain are the rare species identified to benefit from global warming because both productivity and suitable lands are expected to increase. Initiatives around plantain are very rare in Benin. The aim of this project is to promote plantain production and processing to ensure food security and generate income to practitioners. This project will bring together actors from various knowledge backgrounds including practitioners, as well as scientists to select promising plantain varieties and produce healthy planting material; design a mechanism for strategic dissemination of materials; develop appropriate processing technologies to deliver plantain-derived products that meet the requirements of national and international markets; explore markets for new plantain-derived products. This project will be implemented during 36 months by a consortium composed of two academic research institutes, one private for profit organization and one private non-profit organization with an estimated budget of 361.23 k€.

Living landscapes comprise a diversity of land uses, amongst which agriculture is of prime importance for providing food security and sustaining the livelihoods of rural people, but where other functions such as biodiversity conservation, water storage and recreation should be harmoniously combined. Living landscapes support communities of beneficial insects that suppress pests and pollinate crops, which is critical to the productivity and sustainability of agriculture. These valuable services have generally suffered from intensification of agriculture (e.g. pesticide use) and simplification of agricultural landscapes. Here, we propose to conduct the first comprehensive study in China on the relation between landscape diversity and biological pest suppression and pollination. We will study biological control of aphids in wheat over a gradient of landscapes from highly diverse to simplified. Measurements will be made in farmers? fields to determine the ecological interactions and economical trade-offs between biological control and pesticides as principal strategies for pest management. We will also quantify the effect of natural pollination by bees on the yield of oilseed rape, as influenced by landscape factors and crop management. Models of pest population dynamics and crop-pest relationships will be developed to predict level of ecosystem service in terms of yield increase and monetary value as a function of landscape diversity and crop management. Farmer surveys will be carried out to document farmer behaviour with regard to pest management strategies and analyse the driving factors. These surveys will provide data for quantitative economic analyses of farmers? responses. Farmer valuation of ES will be contrasted to the empirically-based model calculations. We will determine how policies may be used to restore ecosystem services, increase yields, enhance farmer income, and reduce farmer exposure to pesticides. The research package aims at strengthening the functional role of landscape and habitat management for sustainable agriculture and food security in China.