Agroecology

Work Package 1: Transdisciplinary co-creation of innovations in Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALLs)

Contacts: Nadia Bergamini (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT), Bernard Triomphe (CIRAD) 

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Accomplishments at a glance

• Multiple stakeholder partnerships were established with 25 implementing partners in 11 ALLs.
• Eleven vision-to-action processes were implemented in ALLs with stakeholders, who then identified the most suitable agroecological transition pathways for each ALL.
• Twenty-six agroecological production practices for priority farming systems were co-designed and assessed with ALL stakeholders according to multiple dimensions
  (productivity, environmental, social and economic).

The Agroecology Living Landscapes
To support agroecological transitions, the Initiative invited food system actors to form ALLs in prioritized countries and territories. The ALLs are multi-stakeholder spaces encompassing small-scale farmers and their networks as well as traders, processors, researchers, extensionists, NGOs and policymakers. These spaces provide a setting for the identification of context-specific pathways to agroecological transitions as well as for identifying, designing, testing and evaluating innovative agroecological practices.

To set the process in motion, WP1 first systematically mapped and identified diverse environments and institutional arrangements in the eight target countries and then engaged with relevant stakeholders. Starting in 2022, country teams facilitated establishment of the ALLs, resulting in a total of 11, where researchers engaged with more than 11,400 food system actors over three years.

A key initial task of the ALLs, once the participants and boundaries were clarified, was to collectively develop a shared vision among stakeholders for a desirable future and for locally driven agri-food system transformations. Using a vision-to-action (V2A) process, this led to the identification of suitable pathways and to the implementation of collectively agreed action plans for achieving the shared vision. The pathways and action plans encompassed context-specific production practices, business models, the institutional environment and needed behavioral changes. While differing for each country and ALL, the V2A process revealed common elements (such as appropriate use of inputs, soil health and economic diversification) for the co-design and testing of innovations.

Entry points to co-create agroecological innovations
The V2A process also helped identify entry points to cocreate agroecological innovations with multiple stakeholders and partners, which were then tested or demonstrated on farm (Table 1). A related task was to provide scientific and transdisciplinary evidence by co-evaluating which types of innovations to focus on as well as how well they performed, where and for whom.

The assessment is informing farmers’ decisions about which innovations to adapt, adopt or scale. In some ALLs, experiments were co-designed over several cycles, each building on the previous one. In addition, training was provided to groups of “farmer researchers” on different topics, from agroecology generally to specific technologies as well as technology co-design and experimentation. As a result, many farmers can now identify, test and monitor by themselves the performance of innovative practices.
In a broader effort to gather technical evidence on agronomic and agroecological performance, WP1 agronomists visited each of the ALLs to assess the performance of the various agroecological practices tested (Figure 1). Some of the initial findings include positive effects, such as:

• Biopesticides: In Kenya, incidence of fall armyworm on maize was reduced by 64%, aphids on legumes by 56% and aphids on cabbage by 31%.}
• Crop-livestock integration: In Kenya, maize productivity increased by 17%. In Senegal, the productivity of groundnut and cowpea as sole crops increased by
  23-36%.
• Conservation agriculture and terraces: In Kenya, maize productivity increased by 25%.
• Crop associations: In India, income (compared to rice on the same area) increased for 46% of farms. In Senegal, groundnut-cowpea productivity increased by 8-16%. In Zimbabwe, push-pull reduced the severity of damage due to fall armyworm by 22%.

Focus on: An International Network of Living Landscapes
In 2023, the WP1 team launched the International Network of ALLs (INALL) through an exchange visit organized around the natural farming approach in Andhra Pradesh, India. Since then, WP1 has facilitated further exchanges, with the aim of enabling ALL stakeholders to share and generate useful knowledge related to agroecological transitions. In Tunisia and Kenya, for example, farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchanges between ALLs where organized. In addition, research teams from India met in Lao PDR and India. The Kenya and Zimbabwe teams organized reciprocal exchange visits that included partners, youth delegations, farmers, government and NGO representatives along with the project teams. These visits covered labs, research stations, demonstration farms, farmer training centers, on-farm experimental sites and seed fairs, with the aim of learning about innovative practices and interacting with local partners and stakeholders. Finally, an exchange involving representatives from Senegal, Burkina Faso and Tunisia took place in Senegal, focusing on forages, agroforestry and crop-livestock integration.

“A vision-to-action process in each ALL led to the identification of context-specific transition pathways and to the implementation of collectively agreed action plans for achieving the shared vision through collaboration among diverse ALL stakeholders. “
Nadia Bergamini, Ecologist and Associate Scientist, Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, and Lead of WP1

First insights on the governance of agroecological transitions
Apart from the benefits of individual exchange visits, INALL further provides the Initiative with an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the ALLs in operationalizing action research on agroecology. A global review addressed how the ALLs contribute to the governance of agroecological transitions and facilitate collective action to address challenges in territorial food systems. Preliminary findings indicate that ALLs build on various alliances and on multiple types of innovations.

At the same time, the ALLs connect multi-stakeholder processes at the local, municipal and regional levels, each of which has its own governance framework and division of responsibilities among stakeholders under common goals. In addition, the ALLs provide an intermediary level between the farm and farming system, referred to as the landscape, which enhances collective action to achieve both local and systemic changes. Landscapes are shaped by the interplay of nature and people together with their cultural views and practices as well as their social, political and economic dynamics. As such, landscapes represent the various scales at which the ALLs work.

The way forward
Experience with the co-creation of agroecological innovations in the ALLs should prove highly relevant to future CGIAR research on multifunctional landscapes. Ongoing vision-based collaboration with partners and co-design work in the ALLs will expand to include other approaches and options for sustainable landscape management. Emerging work involves harmonizing conservation, restoration and sustainable production through integrated systems and landscape approaches, including aquaculture, polyculture and agroforestry. Integrating agricultural, ecological and aquatic ecosystems from “source to sea,” this work will couple landscape- with farm-level processes to understand interactions and co-design complementary solutions.

In partnership with national research institutions, extension, farmers organizations, academia, NGOs and the private sector, researchers and their partners will promote conservation and restoration to enhance regenerative use of common pool resources; devise agroecological and nature-positive solutions to create sustainable and resilient agricultural systems that benefit the environment and create livelihood options; optimize dietary diversity and healthy diets within landscapes; and promote actor-centered advisory services and training to scale solutions. The aim is to understand how and where these different approaches have the potential to maximize synergistic gains, while avoiding negative impacts for people and nature.

Progress towards the Initiative goal
More than 11,400 food system actors (5,200 women) – small-scale farmers and their networks as well as traders, processors, researchers, extensionists, NGOs and policymakers – are collaborating with researchers in eight countries to promote integration of research and innovation for the co-design and testing of context-specific agroecological innovations and for broader learning about the biophysical and socio-economic conditions required for agroecological transitions.