The Revolution of Mobile Phone-Enabled Services for Agricultural Development (m-Agri Services) in Africa: The Challenges for Sustainability

The provision of information through mobile phone-enabled agricultural information services (m-Agri services) has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and significantly improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Africa. Globally, the benefits of m-Agri services include facilitating farmers’ access to financial services and sourcing agricultural information about input use, practices, and market prices. There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality. Key findings from the exploratory literature review reveal that services are highly likely to fail to achieve their intended purpose or be abandoned when implementers ignore the literacy, skills, culture, and demands of the target users. This study recommends that, to enhance the sustainability of m-Agri services, the implementers need to design the services with the users involved, carefully analyse, and understand the target environment, and design for scale and a long-term purpose. While privacy and security of users need to be ensured, the reuse or improvement of existing initiatives should be explored, and projects need to be data-driven and maintained as open source. Thus, the study concludes that policymakers can support the long-term benefit of m-Agri services by ensuring favourable policies for both users and implementers

Sustainability and Resilience in Organic Greenhouse Horticulture. Examples from Italy and the UK

It is estimated that at least 5,000 ha of greenhouses are managed organically within the EU. One current development is the "conventionalisation" of organic practices, another is the increase of community supported agriculture and short food supply chains. In this study, we capture both ends of the organic spectrum. Sustainability and resilience have been given theoretical definitions; however, the perspectives of organic growers have not been studied. The aim of the research was to connect theory and practice across Europe with two case-study countries, Italy and the UK. An online survey was emailed to organic growers in both countries, and remained open from June 2016 to June 2017, containing 17 questions on general information and 12 researching details on sustainable and resilient practices, and major influencing factors on growers' decisions. These questions were presented as five-point Likert-scaled, so growers were asked to attribute a weight from low (1) to high (5) to issues and practices in relation to their relevance to the sustainability and resilience of their farms' management. Results showed that soil fertility management was rated highest in both Italy and the UK. Biodiversity and landscape protection were rated higher in Italy, while energy efficiency and weed management were rated higher in the UK. Short food supply chains, product traceability and traditional knowledge were equally rated. These interesting differences and similarities were further studied in detail with 20 on-farm interviews (10 in Italy and 10 in the UK), to give voice to growers' specific perspectives on sustainability and resilience.</p

Agroforestry: Challenges and Opportunities in Rhino Camp and Imvepi Refugee Settlements of Arua District, Northern Uganda

In the past, the environment has been a low priority in humanitarian operations for refugee agencies and implementing partners because of the emergency context. However, actions to safeguard the environment can be undertaken concurrently with emergency interventions and organisations should take responsibility for conserving the environment in refugee settlements in the same way that they are responsible for the welfare of refugees. Tree-based interventions, such as agroforestry, have been demonstrated as a viable option for resilience and sustainability in landscapes with increasing human pressure. Refugee settlements are subject to intense human pressure and suffer environmental degradation as a consequence. The potential benefits of agroforestry in refugee settlements though are not well researched. This study explores the implementation of agroforestry schemes in refugee settlements in the Arua district of Uganda. Using semi-structured interviews with the beneficiaries of the International Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF) agroforestry projects in Imvepi and Rhino camps, the study identifies key benefits for participants and the environment. These include improved livelihoods and nutrition. However, there are challenges to overcome before agroforestry can be made more widely available in refugee camps. Key barriers include insufficient land, limited water availability and lack of local knowledge, which limits productivity. This research shows how relief, rehabilitation and development can work hand in hand to reduce social and environmental pressure in the targeted refugee settlements and host communities and improve the well-being of beneficiary households by creating opportunities for income generation, improving nutrition and contributing to social cohesion

Making Way for Trees? Changes in Land-Use, Habitats and Protected Areas in Great Britain under “Global Tree Restoration Potential”

Numerous tree planting initiatives have been launched worldwide, based on the idea that carbon capture by trees can help to limit global warming. A recent study estimated the additional tree canopy cover that could be established given the growing conditions in every square kilometre of land on earth that is not already forested, urbanised, or used for crop production. It reported a total &ldquo;tree restoration potential&rdquo; of &gt;900 million ha worldwide and identified hotspots where opportunities for tree planting initiatives may be the greatest. With the potential for an estimated 4.2 million ha of additional canopy cover, one such hotspot is Great Britain. We quantify the extent of habitats, land uses, and protected areas that would be impacted by tree planting on this scale in Great Britain and discuss the potential social&ndash;ecological trade-offs involved. Our findings show that realising the &ldquo;tree restoration potential&rdquo; would mean a considerable upheaval for the British landscape with 30&ndash;50% of ecologically valuable habitats lost and a reduction of 44% in the area of improved grassland. Up to 21% of land protected by law for its ecological, scientific, scenic, or cultural value would be impacted. Importantly, we demonstrate that an alternative approach based on increasing tree canopy cover by up to 20% in urban areas and on cropland could make a substantial contribution to tree planting targets, potentially offsetting losses elsewhere. Such shifts in the structure and function of the British landscape will depend on deep changes in the food system, evidence-based decisions about which existing habitats to protect, and a long-term commitment to tree planting and maintenance

Identifying future research directions for biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability: perspectives from early-career researchers

We aimed to identify priority research questions in the field of biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability (BESS), based on a workshop held during the NRG BESS Conference for Early Career Researchers on BESS, and to compare these to existing horizon scanning exercises. This work highlights the need for improved data availability through collaboration and knowledge exchange, which, in turn, can support the integrated valuation and sustainable management of ecosystems in response to global change. In addition, clear connectivity among different research themes in this field further emphasizes the need to consider a wider range of topics simultaneously to ensure the sustainable management of ecosystems for human wellbeing. In contrast to other horizon scanning exercises, our focus was more interdisciplinary and more concerned with the limits of sustainability and dynamic relationships between social and ecological systems. The identified questions could provide a framework for researchers, policy makers, funding agencies and the private sector to advance knowledge in biodiversity and ES research and to develop and implement policies to enable sustainable future development