Farming Systems Ecology Group

Farming Systems Ecology

6 Scientific staff, 2.5 Postdocs, 15 PhD Students, 4 Support staff1, 2 Guest researchers

Vision: To be an internationally leading player in the fields of research and education that, 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.

Analysis

Design

Agroecological design Experiments

ModellingNetwork analysis

Landscape ecologyCo-innovation

Social learning gamesAgent-based systemsEvolutionary systems

design

Sustainable Food Baskets

Multifunctional Landscapes

Agro-ecosystem

properties & functions

Social-ecological

Interactions

Ecological intensificationOrganic farmingConservation agricultureCrop-livestock integrationPure graze animal productionComplex adaptive systemsPest suppressive landscapesEcosystem servicesResilience and adaptation

How?

What?

Integration level

Human-nature

Territory

Agro-ecological resilience

Farming systems

Soil biology and manure decomposition

Biology of decomposition and nitrogen mineralization of solid cattle manure in production grasslands

Muhammad I. Rashid Peat (FYM) Peat (slurry) Sand (FYM) Sand (slurry)

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Manure management history

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Tying stall: farmyard manure +some liquid manure

Background

Improving the agro-environmental value of cattle straw manure

Shah, G.A.

Nutrient cycling and N emissions

Ground beetle dispersal – The Netherlands

Video tracking

Mark-release recapture

Simulations

5 m2 36 m2 2500 m2

105 m2 day-1 3 m2 day-1 18 m2 day-1

No effect of crop type, gender or feeding level

No effect of vegetation density No effect of gender

Bas AllemaQuantifying ground beetle dispersal in an agricultural landscape

Supervisors: Walter Rossing, Wopke van der Werf, Joop van Lenteren

Rice-ducks-fish-azolla - Indonesia

Uma Khumairoh

Designing intensive production systems

Michoacan, Mexico

Intensification pathways

Cortez-Arriola et al., subm.

Productivity per animal

Productivity per unit labour

Evolutionary systems design

Ecological intensification of livestock grazing systems in the East of Uruguay

Student: Andrea Ruggia

Supervisors:Santiago Dogliotti (FAGRO)Walter Rossing

Promotor:Pablo Tittonell

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 DescheemaekerPromoter: Pablo Tittonell

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)

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

Mapa de la Reserva de la Biosfera de la Sepultura. Fuente: CONANP

Simulation and gaming - Mexico

Kondwani Khonje

Social networks and knowledge systems

How does the nature and strength of social networks affect adoption of soil and water conservation technologies?

Scales and dimensions

Biophysical

Field & cropping system

Farm & farming system

Landscape & territory

Regions & sectors

Soil-Plant/ organism

Socio-economic

Renewed FSE research strategy• Ecological intensification as a structuring concept;• Reinforce ‘Design’ as our core business;• Focus on farming systems, ecological services and the landscape;• Develop boundary approaches to interface Ecology and Society;• Deploy parallel strategies for North and South;

Farming systems ecology

Crop & weed ecology

Soil quality group

Organic plant breeding

Animal production systems

Plant production systems

Farm technology group

Innovation & communication

studies

Rural sociology

New challenges, new developments

Analysis

Design

Sustainable Food Baskets

Multifunctional Landscapes

Agro-ecosystem

properties & functions

Social-ecological

Interactions

Our guiding paradigm

Yield potential Soil quality

Precision agriculture

Ecological Intensification(Cassman, 1999)

Produce more, but produce

differently

Ecological Intensification(Doré et al., 2010)

Make intensive use of the natural functionalities that ecosystems offer...

Ecological intensification: how?

1. Mobilising advances in plant sciences

2. Lessons from natural ecosystems

3. Valorisation of farmers’ knowledge and lay expertise

4. Synthesising knowledge through meta- and comparative studies

5. Ecological intensification in the ‘agronomy’ curricula

Recent advances in plant sciences

… making intensive use of the natural functionalities that ecosystems offer…

Definitions of ‘design’

Goewie, 1993

To decide upon the look and functioning of an object by making a detailed drawing of it:

« a number of architectural students were designing a factory»

To do or plan (something) with a specific purpose in mind:

« the tax changes were designed to stimulate economic growth »

Research Design

Analysis

Synthesis

Structure

Function

Purpose

Structure

Function

Purpose

Structure

Function

Purpose

Purpose

Function

Structure

Purpose

Function

Structure

Purpose

Function

Structure

New facts, new reality

ConclusionsDecisions

Knowledge

Questions

Problems

Reality (agroecosystems)

Designing agricultural systems by mimicking nature

The SCV (systèmes sous couverture végétale)

Non-disturbed soil structure Permanent vegetation cover Biomass inputs to the soil Nutrient recycling Exploration of multiple strata above and below

ground

Structure

Function

Fernando Funes-Monzote

Intensive low-input systems in Cuban agriculture

Input Output

Input Output

Specialized System

Agro-diverse System

Externalities

Externalities

Re-desin: Produce more, but produce differently…

Ecoefficiencies

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Africa Asia Europe Latin America North America Oceania

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Fertiliser use

N fixation (agriculture)

N fixation (natural)

Dry deposition

Wet deposition

Magnitude of anthropogenic and natural nitrogen inflows per continent

Seufert et al., 2012

Organic vs. Conventional crop yields

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

How can agricultural intensification and wildlife be best accommodated in a village territory? 

Baudron, Delmotte, Herrera, Corbeels, Tittonell

Landsacape level interactions

Intensification through conservation agriculture to preserve habitats and biodiversity

Agent-based modelling

Example from a Dutch dairy landscape

Landsacape level interactions

Bio

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Pesticide useCurrent landscape?

• Natural biocontrol• pollination• Profitable agriculture• Landscape aesthetics• biodiversity• Water quality

Groot and Rossing, 2010

Designing pest suppressive landscapes

Nectar

Aphids

Lepidoptera

Felix Bianchi

A methodological framework

Fields, landscape elements

Farms

Landscapes

FarmIMAGESFarmDESIGNFarmSTEPSFarmDANCES

FieldIMAGESNDICEARotSOMRotErosion

LandscapeIMAGESActorIMAGES

Spatialcoherence

Landscapemetrics

Nutrient balance

Labor balance

Waterbalance

Economicresults

Nutrient balance

Crop yield

Organicmatter

Nutrient uptake

Soilerosion

Nutrient losses

Feedbalance

Nutrientlosses

Waterbalance

Plantdiversity

Economicresults

Nutrientlosses

Co-innovation and Modeling Platform for Agro-ecoSystem Simulation – Groot et al., 2012

COMPASS

Land use systems

Collective decisions

Trade-offs across scales

Attic Agro-ecosystem diversity, Trajectories and Trade-offs for Intensification of Cereal-based systems

A Cimmyt-Wageningen collaboration in the context of the CRP Maize and Wheat

Diego Valbuena (WUR)

Bruno Gerard (CIMMYT) Jeroen Groot (WUR)Santiago Lopez Ridaura (CIMMYT)Fred Baudron (CIMMYT) Andy McDonald (CIMMYT)Tim Krupnik (CIMMYT)Katrien Descheemaker (WUR)Pablo Tittonell (WUR)

3 new PhD to start in 2013

Evolutionary learning cyclesAction:

Implementing a ‘bright idea’

Observation:Find out

consequences

Analysis:What are

implications?

Plan:Which

improvements?

Describe: What?

Explain: Why?

Explore Diversify What if?

Design Select Which?

Farm design

Describe

Design

Explore

Explain

Validate

Groot et al., 2012. Agricultural Systems.

FSE in the world (PhD theses)

Current theses

‘Inherited’ theses

Start in 2013

1. Affholder, F., Tittonell, P., Corbeels, M., Roux, S., Motisi, N., Tixier, P., Wery, J., 2012. Ad Hoc Modeling in Agronomy: What Have We Learned in the Last 15 Years? Agronomy Journal 104, 735-748. 2. Tittonell, P., Scopel, E., Andrieu, N., Posthumus, H., Mapfumo, P., Corbeels, M., van Halsema, G.E., Lahmar, R., Lugandu, S., Rakotoarisoa, J., Mtambanengwe, F., Pound, B., Chikowo, R., Naudin, K., Triomphe, B., Mkomwa, S., 2012. Agroecology-based aggradation-conservation agriculture (ABACO): Targeting innovations to combat soil degradation and food insecurity in semi-arid Africa. Field Crop Res., 1-7. 3. Baudron, F., Tittonell, P., Corbeels, M., Letourmy, P., Giller, K., 2012. Comparative performance of conservation agriculture and current smallholder farming practices in semi-arid Zimbabwe. Field crops Research 132, 117-128. 4. Lahmar, R., Bationo, B.A., Lamso, N. D., Guéro, Y., Tittonell, P., 2012. Tailoring conservation agriculture technologies to West Africa semi-arid zones: Building on traditional local practices for soil restoration. Field Crops Research 132, 158-167. Berg, 5. W. van den, Grasman, J. & Rossing, W.A.H., 2012. Optimal design of experiments on nematode dynamics and crop yield . Nematology 14(7): 773-786 6. Berhe, A.A., Stroosnijder, L., Habtu, S., Keesstra, S.D., Berhe, M. & Hadgu Meles, K., 2012. Risk assessment by sowing date for barley (Hordeum vulgare) in northern Ethiopia. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 154-155 (March): 30-37. 7. Groot, J.C.J., Oomen, G.J.M. & Rossing, W.A.H., 2012. Multi-objective optimization and design of farming systems. Agricultural Systems 110: 63-77. DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2012.03.012. 8. He, M., Tian, G., Semenov, A.M. & van Bruggen, A.H.C., 2012. Short-term fluctuations of sugar-beet damping-off by Pythium ultimum in relation to changes in bacterial communities after organic amendments to two soils. Phytopathology 102(4): 413-420. 9. Khumairoh, U., Groot, J.C.J. & Lantinga, E.A., 2012. Complex agro-ecosystems for food security in a changing climate. Ecol Evol 2 1696-1704. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.271. 10. Shah, G.M., Shah, G.A., Groot, J.C.J., Oenema, O. & Lantinga, E.A., 2012. Irrigation and lava meal use reduces ammonia emission and improves N utilization when solid cattle manure is applied to grassland. Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 160: 59-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2011.07. 017. 11. Shah, G.M., Rashid, M.I., Shah, G.A., Groot, J.C.J. & Lantinga, E.A., 2012. Nitrogen mineralization and recovery by ryegrass from animal manures when applied to various soil types. Plant and Soil (Online first) DOI 10.1007/s11104-012-1347-8. 12. Zotarelli, L., Dukes, M.D., Scholberg, J.M.S., Femminella, K. & Munoz-Carpena, R., 2011. Irrigation Scheduling for Green Bell Peppers Using Capacitance Soil Moisture Sensors. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering-Asce 137(2): 73-81.

Publications appeared during 2012

FSE: Systems approaches to ecological intensification

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

Five guiding heuristics

Thanks for your attention