Naar klimaatbestendige agrarische bedrijven op veen en moerige gronden in de Veenkoloniën

Landbouwkundig gebruik van veen en moerige gronden leidt tot de uitstoot van broeikasgassen doordat veen oxideert. Dat gebeurt als de veenpakketten boven de grondwaterstand liggen. Tezamen stoten veen en moerige gronden in Nederland rond de zes megaton CO2 equivalenten per jaar uit. Binnen het Klimaatakkoord hebben alle sectoren, ook de landbouw, een opgave toegekend gekregen om een emissiereductie te realiseren. Veen en moerige gronden hebben de opgave om vanaf 2030 één megaton CO2 equivalenten minder uit te stoten per jaar. Dit rapport focust zich op mogelijkheden om bij te dragen aan de emissiereductie doelstelling van veen en moerige gronden die akkerbouwmatig gebruikt worden. Hierbij wordt er gefocust op de Veenkoloniën, waar veenpakketten in variabele diktes voorkomen en akkerbouw het gangbare landgebruik is, met bijbehorende grote ontwateringsdiepte. Dat leidt op plekken waar veel veen voorkomt tot een flinke bodemdaling van 1 a 2 cm per jaar. Dat resulteert in toenemende hoogteverschillen binnen percelen; de zandkoppen dalen niet mee, en de veenputten dalen juist steeds meer. Dit veroorzaakt droogte schade aan gewassen in droge tijden op de hoge plekken, en natschade in de lage plekken tijdens natte periodes. Het waterschap staat voor de beslissing voor de inrichting van het toekomstig watersysteem. Blijft akkerbouwmatig landgebruik, met bijbehorende lage waterstanden mogelijk? Of kunnen er andere vormen van landbouw plaatsvinden, waardoor er geen grote investeringen in het watersysteem gedaan hoeven te worden. Dit onderzoek draagt bij aan deze discussie. Er is in literatuur onderzoek gedaan naar maatregelen die de CO2 emissies van veengronden kunnen reduceren. Maatregelen zoals het onderwerken van veen en infiltratiedrainage zouden het huidige akkerbouw systeem in stand kunnen houden en tegelijkertijd een reductie van emissies realiseren. Er zijn ook maatregelen gevonden waarbij de functie akkerbouw wordt gewijzigd naar grasland, natte teelten of natte natuurgebieden. Voor dikke veenpakketten in lage plekken van de Veenkoloniën zijn natte teelten en natte natuur een goede oplossing. Bij de dunnere veengronden en moerige gronden kan het onderwerken van veen tot onder de grondwaterspiegel een oplossing zijn. De maatregelen zijn gecombineerd in een zestal ontworpen boerderij-varianten, elk met een specifieke focus. Deze zes zijn; internetboerderij, circulaire boerderij, koolstofboerderij, recreatieboerderij, veenproductenboerderij en de water- en energieboerderij. Zo biedt de internetboerderij technische oplossingen om het huidige systeem beter en fijnmaziger in te richten met infiltratiedrainage, terwijl de veeproductenboerderij zich op natte teelten als cranberries en lisdodde richt. Alle varianten zijn door experts gescoord op een aantal milieukundige en sociaal economische factoren, met een diffuus beeld als resultaat; de ene variant scoort erg goed op een reductie van emissies (de koolstofboerderij), terwijl de andere bijdraagt aan de verdiensten van de landbouw (internet boerderij). Helder is dat het gebied om maatwerk vraagt en er niet één maatregel of boerderij variant is die in het hele focus gebied toegepast kan worden. Dat komt mede door de variatie aan veendikte in ruimtelijke zin en omdat de boerderijvarianten nichemarkten aan zullen moeten boren. In het vervolgonderzoek wordt hier samen met belanghebbende verder naar gekeken

D6.4 - Findings of monitoring and evaluation (Phase 2)

<p>This report shares the findings resulting from monitoring and evaluating the functioning and experiences of the 40 SHERPA MAPs during the second phase of the project between July 2021 and August 2023. </p&gt

Transition pathways for smart mixed cropping systems : PPS Agros

Current arable farming systems produce high yields of good quality, but also face a number of sustainability challenges that jeopardise the resilience of this system. Therefore, robust and resilient novel systems are explored to combat these challenges. Smart mixed cropping systems are one of such systems that is explored within the Public Private Partnership AGROS. Smart mixed cropping systems are systems that use biological and ecological processes as a starting point to create a climate resilient system by growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same field for at least part of their cycle. Complementary smart technology such as sensing systems can then be used to monitor biological processes and help understand biological processes and associated ecosystem functions on the field. This report describes three possible pathways for the development of smart mixed cropping systems. These pathways lead from the current agricultural system towards a future scenario. Using this scenario methodology, we explored what the future of smart mixed cropping systems could plausibly look like in 2040. The goal of creating such explorations is to broaden views and increase reflexivity for example in policy making and strategic decision making (e.g. Verbong and Geels, 2010). We organised two interactive workshops: a scenario workshop and a strategy workshop. The scenario workshop resulted in three diverging future scenarios of smart mixed cropping systems, while the strategy workshop resulted in timelines of transition pathways towards these future scenarios. During the strategy workshop, the transition pathways were translated into action perspective for different stakeholder groups. The first scenario was titled ‘Data for your convenience: chain based transformation’. The main characteristics of this scenario are: big tech in the lead, widespread adoption of robotisation and automation, hedonistic consumer demands, diversified rotations, individual plant treatment in pixel cropping, and a highly technical system. The second scenario was titled ‘Ecology at the wheel: Ecology based transformation’. The main characteristics of this scenario are: ecology in the lead, long-term policy visions for agriculture, regionalisation of agri-food systems, digitalisation in short value chains, mixed cropping as a broader approach of resilient and sustainable cropping systems, and an important role for protein crops. The third scenario was titled ‘Crisis forces action: Climate based adaption. The main characteristics of this scenario are: climate crisis management, top-down centralisation, true pricing in the value chain, mixed cropping as a way to deal with weather extremes, combining annual with perennial crops, and fresh water as the new gold. Starting from the future vision, we describe transition pathways that outline how we got from the current situation to the future vision. For each pathway, milestones for 2025, 2030, 2035 and 2040 are described that need to be reached in order to realise the described scenario. By identifying ‘breakthrough’ moments that create a crucial leap in development from the current system towards the future scenario, we made a first exploration of implications for practice. These breakthrough moments can be translated into action perspectives for different stakeholder groups such as researchers, farmer representatives, policy makers or engineers. An example of such an exploration was provided by exploring implications of the pathways for energy infrastructure

Unfair offers, unfair offenders? Fairness considerations in incarcerated individuals with and without psychopathy

Contains fulltext : 116754.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Offenders with psychopathy have often committed crimes violating social norms, which may suggest a biased moral reasoning in psychopathy. Yet, as findings on utilitarian decisions remain conflicting, the current study investigated different aspects of fairness considerations in offenders with psychopathy, offenders without psychopathy and healthy individuals (N = 18/14/18, respectively). Unfair offers in a modified Ultimatum Game (UG) were paired with different unselected alternatives, thereby establishing the context of a proposal, and made under opposing intentionality constraints (intentional vs. unintentional). As in previous studies, unfair offers were most often rejected when the alternative was fair and when the offer was made intentionally. Importantly, however, offenders with psychopathy demonstrated a similar rejection pattern to that of healthy individuals, i.e., taking the unselected alternative into account. In contrast, delinquents without psychopathy did not adjust their decision behavior to the alternatives to an offer, suggesting stronger impairments in social decision-making. Crucially, the mechanisms and processes underlying rejection decisions might differ, particularly with regard to cognitive vs. emotional competencies. While preserved cognitive perspective-taking could drive seemingly intact decision patterns in psychopathy, emotional empathy is likely to be compromised.7 p

Socio‐Technical Scenarios as a Tool to Improve Farm Advisory Services

International audienc

Conflicting roles of researchers in sustainability transitions : balancing action and reflection

Process-oriented transdisciplinary research is generally seen as a promising approach to facilitate sustainability transitions. This type of research requires new participatory roles for researchers. These new roles may conflict with traditional, more academic roles that researchers often maintain next to their new roles. Using the Dutch transdisciplinary Knowledge-Action Programme on Water (KAP Water) as a case study, we highlight tensions that researchers adopting these new roles experience. We have observed both practical and more fundamental tensions between roles of researchers in process-oriented sustainability research. In particular, it proved difficult to combine more engaged roles, where researchers are involved in dialogues for change, with knowledge-oriented roles, where researchers focus on knowledge provision and are further removed from ‘real-world action’. Tensions arise from three sources: (1) researchers’ self-perception and expectations; (2) expectations from transdisciplinary partners, funders and researchers’ home institutions; and (3) societal convictions about what scientific knowledge is and how it should be developed. This paper contributes to the literature by enhancing the understanding of the interactions and tensions between the roles of researchers in transdisciplinary research.</p

Current challenges and developments related to management of mixed cropping systems : System analysis

In this report we provide a system analysis of agricultural practices and developments at three interacting levels: the wider context or socio-technical landscape (macro level), the ‘status quo’ ofbcurrent agricultural characteristics or socio-technical regime (meso level) and innovations that emerge in technological niches (micro level). This analysis describes the many (sustainability) challenges that current agriculture faces and focuses on mixed cropping systems as an alternative, sustainable agricultural system to deal with these challenges

Digital transformation of agriculture and rural areas: A socio-cyber-physical system framework to support responsibilisation

Digital technologies are often seen as an opportunity to enable sustainable futures in agriculture and rural areas. However, this digital transformation process is not inherently good as it impacts on many aspects (e.g. economic, environmental, social, technological, institutional) and their relations. The responsible research and innovation approach calls for a better understanding and anticipation of the often unknown impacts. To meet this aim we have developed a framework that allows to gain insight on the relations between the social, the cyber and the physical, i.e. a socio-cyber-physical system and have described conditions for a successful digital transformation of such a system. These are design of, and creating access to digital technologies, and navigating system complexity. This framework allows for a better problematisation of digital transformation and has been illustrated through an example of digital dairy farming. It supports an enhanced understanding of moral responsibilities regarding digital transformation, fitting within the responsible research and innovation approach, as well as a better understanding who is responsible or accountable for the identified (positive or negative) impacts, i.e. responsibilisation

Psychopathy-related traits and the use of reward and social information: A computational approach

Contains fulltext : 121151.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Psychopathy is often linked to disturbed reinforcement-guided adaptation of behavior in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Recent work suggests that these disturbances might be due to a deficit in actively using information to guide changes in behavior. However, how much information is actually used to guide behavior is difficult to observe directly. Therefore, we used a computational model to estimate the use of information during learning. Thirty-six female subjects were recruited based on their total scores on the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), a self-report psychopathy list, and performed a task involving simultaneous learning of reward-based and social information. A Bayesian reinforcement-learning model was used to parameterize the use of each source of information during learning. Subsequently, we used the subscales of the PPI to assess psychopathy-related traits, and the traits that were strongly related to the model's parameters were isolated through a formal variable selection procedure. Finally, we assessed how these covaried with model parameters. We succeeded in isolating key personality traits believed to be relevant for psychopathy that can be related to model-based descriptions of subject behavior. Use of reward-history information was negatively related to levels of trait anxiety and fearlessness, whereas use of social advice decreased as the perceived ability to manipulate others and lack of anxiety increased. These results corroborate previous findings suggesting that sub-optimal use of different types of information might be implicated in psychopathy. They also further highlight the importance of considering the potential of computational modeling to understand the role of latent variables, such as the weight people give to various sources of information during goal-directed behavior, when conducting research on psychopathy-related traits and in the field of forensic psychiatry.11 p

Transition pathways development for healthier diets in urban food environments of Accra, Ghana

There are multiple ways to achieve healthier diets in urban food environments. However, people with different backgrounds will have different views on how food systems and urban food environments should change to achieve the healthier diets’ objective or overcome the identified gaps. With a participatory approach, one can determine common visions on what the future food system including urban food environments should look like. Moreover, multiple pathways with diverging emphasis can exist next to each other. However, the organisation of workshops without a network is time consuming. With the collaboration of the Collective Impact Coalition on Ghanaian Urban Food Environments (GUFE) initiated by the Netherlands Food Partnership, a series of participatory workshops with stakeholders was organised to identify the common vision on what the food environment in Accra should look like in 2050, which transition pathways were envisioned, and which action perspectives were identified for the pathways. Within the GUFE coalition, actions were proposed and for those actions a Theory of Change (TOC) exercise was employed. The results of the transition pathways were linked to those TOC results of the GUFE actions. The multiple interactions with the stakeholders resulted in three different pathways towards healthier diets in Accra. The emphases of these pathways were different: i) the cultural pathway maintaining and promoting Accra’s food culture, ii) the economic pathways optimising the food supply chain into Accra in every stage of the process, and iii) and the environmental pathway on greening the city with food crops and trees. The emphasis emerged from the group of stakeholders rather than indicated by the researchers beforehand. Although the descriptions of the pathways were drawn up independently, there can be observed some similarities and differences when comparing the action perspectives of the three pathways. The common elements of the action perspectives were education, stakeholder involvement and policies, although the implementation of these elements differed across the action perspectives of the pathways. However, the action perspectives defined were not as practical as the action defined by the GUFE coalition. Therefore, the pathways were integrated in the TOCs derived from the actions of the four action groups of the GUFE coalition. The pathways fit in the TOCs, although in most cases, the pathways can be linked to actions of multiple action groups. The participatory approach has greatly benefited from the existence of the GUFE coalition initiated by NFP. It created a head start for applying a participatory approach looking for transition pathways towards healthier diets in the urban environment of Accra. GUFE coalition members and other stakeholders voluntarily participated in the workshops and interviews. The composition of the groups of participants of the events was dynamic as people participated only once, people were replaced etc. Despite the changes in participants, there was a core group of people participating in most events. One aspect for improvement of the workshops would be to guarantee the engagement of representatives of all relevant stakeholder groups. The local, regional and national government as well as the consumers and citizens were underrepresented in the workshops. To make sure that the missing stakeholders are informed and/or involved, the next step would be to discuss the results of the pathways with representatives of the local, regional and national governments in Ghana and other missing stakeholders to raise awareness of the opportunities that are there to change and accelerate the transition of the Accra Food System towards healthier diets for all