2. Vision: To be an internationally leading player in the fields of research and education that,
Farming Systems Ecology
through a farming systems approach, contributes alternative answers to the major problems
facing current agriculture, namely:
(i) global food security;
(ii) provision of ecological services;
(iii) food and environmental health;
(iv) adaptation to climate change;
(v) preservation of the biological and cultural diversity of agricultural landscapes.
6 Scientific staff, 2.5 Postdocs, 15 PhD Students, 4 Support staff1, 2 Guest researchers
3. How?
Agroecological design
Human-nature
Experiments
Modelling Social- Integration
Network analysis ecological level
Landscape ecology Interactions
Co-innovation
Social learning games
Agent-based systems Territory
Evolutionary systems design
Analysis Multifunctional
Agro-ecosystem Landscapes
properties &
functions Design
What?
Agro-ecological Ecological intensification
resilience Organic farming
Conservation agriculture
Sustainable Crop-livestock integration
Food Baskets Pure graze animal production
Complex adaptive systems
Pest suppressive landscapes
Farming systems Ecosystem services
Resilience and adaptation
4.
5. Background
Nutrient cycling and N emissions
Tying stall: farmyard manure +
some liquid manure
Improving the agro-environmental value of cattle straw manure
Shah, G.A.
6. Ground beetle dispersal â The Netherlands
Video tracking
Mark-release recapture
5 m2 36 m2 2500 m2
105 m2 day-1 3 m2 day-1 18 m2 day-1
Simulations
No effect of crop No effect of
type, gender or vegetation density No effect of gender
feeding level
Quantifying ground beetle dispersal in an agricultural landscape
Bas Allema
Supervisors: Walter Rossing, Wopke van der Werf, Joop van Lenteren
9. Ecological intensification of livestock grazing systems in the East of Uruguay
Supervisors:
Santiago Dogliotti (FAGRO)
Walter Rossing
Promotor:
Pablo Tittonell
Student: Andrea Ruggia
10. Impact of structural and functional changes in
smallholder landscapes on pest incidence
Case of maize stem borers in Ethiopia
Yodit Kebede
Felix Bianchi, Fred Baudron, Diego Valbuena, Katrien Descheemaeker
Promoter: Pablo Tittonell
11. PhD Thesis: Spatially Explicit Multifunctional Landscape Assessment:
A Case Study in Llano Bonito, Costa Rica
Sanjeeb Bhattarai
Bruno Rapidel (CIRAD), Jacques Wery (SupAgro), Jenny Ordonez
(ICRAF), Walter Rossing & Pablo Tittonell (WUR)
12. Simulation and gaming - Mexico
Mapa de la Reserva de la Biosfera de la Sepultura. Fuente: CONANP
Simulation and gaming for improving local adaptive capacity;
The case of a buffer-zone community in Mexico
E.N. Speelman (2008-2013)
Supervisory team
J.C.J. Groot, L.E. Garcia-Barrios, P. Tittonell
13. Social networks and knowledge systems
How does the nature and strength of social networks affect
adoption of soil and water conservation technologies?
Kondwani Khonje
15. Renewed FSE research strategy
âą Ecological intensification as a structuring concept;
âą Reinforce âDesignâ as our core business;
âą Focus on farming systems, ecological services and the landscape;
âą Develop boundary approaches to interface Ecology and Society;
âą Deploy parallel strategies for North and South;
Rural sociology
Farming
systems Innovation &
ecology communication
studies
Crop & weed Soil quality Organic plant Animal production Plant production Farm technology
ecology group breeding systems systems group
16. New challenges, new developments
Social-
ecological
Interactions
Analysis Multifunctional
Agro-ecosystem Landscapes
properties &
functions Design
Sustainable
Food Baskets
18. Ecological intensification: how?
⊠making intensive use of the natural functionalities that ecosystems offerâŠ
1. Mobilising advances in plant sciences
2. Lessons from natural ecosystems
3. Valorisation of farmersâ knowledge and lay expertise
Recent advances in plant sciences
4. Synthesising knowledge through meta- and comparative studies
5. Ecological intensification in the âagronomyâ curricula
19. Definitions of âdesignâ
Reality
To decide upon the look and functioning
(agroecosystems) of an object by making a detailed drawing of
it:
Problems
Research Design
« a number of architectural students were designing a factory»âš
Questions
To do or plan (something) with a specific purpose in mind:
Analysis
« the tax changes were designed to stimulate economic growth »
Structure Purpose
Function Function
Knowledge
Purpose Structure
Synthesis
Conclusions
Decisions
New facts, new
reality
Goewie, 1993
21. Re-desin: Produce more, but produce differentlyâŠ
Organic vs. Conventional crop yields
Specialized System
Input Output
Magnitude of anthropogenic and natural nitrogen inflows per continent
50
Fertiliser use
Ecoefficiencies
45
N fixation (agriculture)
40
Million tonnes of N per year
Externalities N fixation (natural)
35 Dry deposition
Wet deposition
30 Agro-diverse System
25
20
15 Input Output
10
5
0
Africa Asia Europe Latin America North America Oceania
Externalities
Seufert et al., 2012
22. Conversion to organic farming in La Camargue, France
Innovative cropping systems
Systems analysis
(i) Bio-economic models (BEM): Plausible futures
(iii) Land use/cover change models (LUCC): Most
probable spots for change
(ii) Multi-agent models (MAS): Possible pathways Delomtte, 2011
23. Landsacape level interactions
How can agricultural intensification and wildlife be
Figure 2 â Schematic representation of the multi-agent model
Agent-based modelling
best accommodated in a village territory?
Baudron, Delmotte, Herrera, Corbeels, Tittonell
Intensification through conservation agriculture to preserve habitats and biodiversity
25. Designing pest suppressive landscapes
âą Natural biocontrol
âą pollination
âą Profitable agriculture
Biocontrol
âą
Nectar Landscape aesthetics
âą biodiversity
âą Water quality
Aphids
Current landscape? Pesticide use
Lepidoptera
Felix Bianchi
Groot and Rossing, 2010
26. A methodological framework Landscapes
Trade-offs across scales
COMPASS
Attic LandscapeIMAGES
ActorIMAGES
Agro-ecosystem diversity, Trajectories and Trade-offs for Intensification of Cereal-based systems
Economic Spatial Land use
results coherence systems
Farms
Nutrient Landscape Collective
losses metrics decisions
Diego Valbuena (WUR)
Bruno Gerard (CIMMYT)
Nutrient Jeroen Groot (WUR)
Water Feed FarmIMAGES
balance balance balance
Fields, landscape elements
Santiago Lopez Ridaura (CIMMYT)
FarmDESIGN
FarmSTEPS
Labor
balance
Fred Baudron (CIMMYT)
Economic
results
Nutrient
losses FarmDANCES
Andy McDonald (CIMMYT)
Tim Krupnik (CIMMYT)
Katrien Descheemaker (WUR)
Pablo Tittonell (WUR)
Nutrient Organic Soil Water FieldIMAGES
balance matter erosion balance
NDICEA 3 new PhD to start in 2013
Nutrient Nutrient Plant RotSOM
Crop yield RotErosion
uptake losses diversity
Co-innovation and Modeling Platform for Agro-ecoSystem Simulation â Groot et al., 2012
A Cimmyt-Wageningen collaboration in the context of the CRP Maize and Wheat
27. Evolutionary learning cycles
Design Action:
Select Implementing a
âbright ideaâ Describe:
Which?
What?
Plan: Observation:
Which Find out
improvements? consequences
Explore Analysis:
Diversify What are
What if? implications? Explain:
Why?
28. Farm design
Describe
Explain
Design
Explore Validate
Groot et al., 2012. Agricultural Systems.
29. FSE in the world (PhD theses)
Current theses
âInheritedâ theses
Start in 2013
31. FSE: Systems approaches to ecological intensification
Five guiding heuristics
1. Ecological intensification must be precised in terms of how
much, where and how
2. Farming systems research (analysis) is not the same as
farming systems design (synthesis)
3. Agroecological innovation can draw inspiration from nature
and from local knowledge systems
4. Ecological intensification depends on patterns-functions
operating at the landscape level
5. Moving across scales implies meeting trade-offs concerning
resource allocation decisions