Colliding paradigms and trade-offs: Agri-food systems and value chain interventions

Managing trade-offs for ‘do no harm’ outcomes is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and requires an understanding of impact processes within agri-food systems. However, agricultural programming continues to rely on single point interventions framed by earlier development paradigms at odds with the systemic change goals of the SDGs. The implications of these colliding paradigms are explored using an agri-food systems lens to highlight trade-offs in interventions for pro-poor value chains, nutrition-sensitive value chains and greening of value chains. Analysis reveals problematic assumptions and limited supporting evidence and points to conflicting logics and targets that require societal negotiations about goals and priorities. Steps are outlined to embed a ‘do no harm’ principle in intervention design and evaluation

An open strip-field system at its tipping point in the German-Dutch River Dinkel catchment. Part 1

Three questions were addressed. Firstly, where in pre-19th century landscape did farmers hold strips, camps, meadows and shares in commons? Secondly, did farmers each own strips and camps or were some specialised strip and others exclusively camp farmers? Finally, can we corroborate or reject one of the alternative hypotheses: strip-field-first versus camp-first. The area of interest is the current cadastral district cum medieval parish Epe at today’s German-Dutch border as pars pro toto for the surrounding area of about 100 kilometer diameter in the NW European cover sand belt. Our key data source was the 1827 A.D. cadastre complemented by the historical topographic map and geological, soil and elevation maps. For population estimates, we used six tax registers from 1499-1750 A.D. All parcels per farmstead were identified in the cadastral registry, farms located on parcel maps and hamlet territories delineated as the aggregate of its farms. The following farm features were extracted from the cadastre and averaged per settlement: number of strips and strip-fields, parcel type, farm size, tenure, number of meadows, oak camps, crop camps and pasture camps. Next, the following landscape features were identified from the map set per settlement: farmstead pattern, type of settlement, commons, strip-field, soil and watercourse. We presented the historical context, followed by a description and discussion of farm and landscape features of settlement categories. Finally, we synthesised our findings and discussion, concluding with a hypothetical narrative consistent with our findings, and provided answers to our research questions.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rlsh202021-04-17hj2020Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Agroecological transformation for sustainable food systems : Insight on France-CGIAR research

This 26th dossier d’Agropolis is devoted to research and partnerships in agroecology. The French Commission for International Agricultural Research (CRAI) and Agropolis International, on behalf of CIRAD, INRAE and IRD and in partnership with CGIAR, has produced this new issue in the ‘Les dossiers d’Agropolis international’ series devoted to agroecology. This publication has been produced within the framework of the Action Plan signed by CGIAR and the French government on February 4th 2021 to strengthen French collaboration with CGIAR, where agroecology is highlighted as one of the three key priorities (alongside climate change, nutrition and food systems)