Trade-offs within agricultural systems: analysing what we know and how to move forward
Kate Langford(World Agroforestry Centre)
A recent article reviews four approaches for analyzing trade-offs within agriculture. The study concludes that if stakeholders are not involved the trade-off discussions and analysis, they are of little use for informing practical decision-making.
Can scientific methods for analyzing trade-offs and synergies help smallholder farmers decide on the best use of crop residues to maximize their production?
According to an article in a special issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, the answer is yes, provided the analysis includes stakeholder participation.
“Without stakeholder involvement, trade-off analysis has limited use for informing practical decision-making,” says Lotte Klapwijk from the international Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Plant Production Systems Group at Wageningen University (WUR) as well as lead author of the article.
“Perhaps the best use of trade-off analysis is in supporting discussions rather than in supporting decisions.”
Trade-offs are part of managing any farm or landscape. For two-thirds of the population in developing countries who farm a combination of crops and livestock, one of the most important trade-offs concerns the use of crop residues: what percentages should be used to provide fodder for livestock, applied to fields to enrich soils, used for fuel or construction materials or sold for profit?
In recent years, analyzing such trade-offs has become more popular in assessing the performance of agricultural systems and in managing interventions in multifunctional landscapes aimed at sustainability and food security. With this, have come greater advances in techniques for assessing trade-offs.
Klapwijk and colleagues reviewed 4 state-of-the-art approaches for analyzing trade-offs, taking the management of crop residues in smallholder farming systems as an example: participatory methods, empirical analysis, simulation models and optimization models for analyzing trade-offs, acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of each.
The researchers found that while participatory methods are useful in identifying the importance farmers place on crop residues for different purposes, they usually result in qualitative data, which alone is not well-suited for quantifying trade-offs.
Empirical analysis on the other hand uses experimental approaches to generate quantitative data on the behavior of systems under different conditions. For crop residues, empirical analysis can generate trade-off curves showing impacts of decisions on soil erosion or on the body weight or milk production for livestock. This approach may be powerful for analyzing the outcomes of decisions in the current setting, but cannot be used as a predictive tool.
- See more at: http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/2014/02/04/analyzing-trade-…
Can scientific methods for analyzing trade-offs and synergies help smallholder farmers decide on the best use of crop residues to maximize their production?
According to an article in a special issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, the answer is yes, provided the analysis includes stakeholder participation.
“Without stakeholder involvement, trade-off analysis has limited use for informing practical decision-making,” says Lotte Klapwijk from the international Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Plant Production Systems Group at Wageningen University (WUR) as well as lead author of the article.
“Perhaps the best use of trade-off analysis is in supporting discussions rather than in supporting decisions.”
Trade-offs are part of managing any farm or landscape. For two-thirds of the population in developing countries who farm a combination of crops and livestock, one of the most important trade-offs concerns the use of crop residues: what percentages should be used to provide fodder for livestock, applied to fields to enrich soils, used for fuel or construction materials or sold for profit?
In recent years, analyzing such trade-offs has become more popular in assessing the performance of agricultural systems and in managing interventions in multifunctional landscapes aimed at sustainability and food security. With this, have come greater advances in techniques for assessing trade-offs.
Klapwijk and colleagues reviewed 4 state-of-the-art approaches for analyzing trade-offs, taking the management of crop residues in smallholder farming systems as an example: participatory methods, empirical analysis, simulation models and optimization models for analyzing trade-offs, acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of each.
The researchers found that while participatory methods are useful in identifying the importance farmers place on crop residues for different purposes, they usually result in qualitative data, which alone is not well-suited for quantifying trade-offs.
Empirical analysis on the other hand uses experimental approaches to generate quantitative data on the behavior of systems under different conditions. For crop residues, empirical analysis can generate trade-off curves showing impacts of decisions on soil erosion or on the body weight or milk production for livestock. This approach may be powerful for analyzing the outcomes of decisions in the current setting, but cannot be used as a predictive tool.
- See more at: http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/2014/02/04/analyzing-trade-…
Re-post from the World Agroforestry blog.
Can scientific methods for analyzing trade-offs and synergies help smallholder farmers decide on the best use of crop residues to maximize their production?
According to an article in a special issue of Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability the answer is yes, provided the analysis includes stakeholder participation:
A recently released article reviews four state-of-the-art approaches for analyzing trade-offs within agricultural systems.
Get the article: Analysis of trade-offs in agricultural systems: Current status and way forward.
“Without stakeholder involvement, trade-off analysis has limited use for informing practical decision-making,” says Lotte Klapwijk from the international Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Plant Production Systems Group at Wageningen University (WUR) as well as lead author of the article.
“Perhaps the best use of trade-off analysis is in supporting discussions rather than in supporting decisions.”
Trade-offs are part of managing any farm or landscape. For two-thirds of the population in developing countries who farm a combination of crops and livestock, one of the most important trade-offs concerns the use of crop residues: what percentages should be used to provide fodder for livestock, applied to fields to enrich soils, used for fuel or construction materials or sold for profit?
In recent years, analyzing such trade-offs has become more popular in assessing the performance of agricultural systems and in managing interventions in multifunctional landscapes aimed at sustainability and food security. With this, have come greater advances in techniques for assessing trade-offs.
Klapwijk and colleagues reviewed 4 state-of-the-art approaches for analyzing trade-offs, taking the management of crop residues in smallholder farming systems as an example: participatory methods, empirical analysis, simulation models and optimization models for analyzing trade-offs, acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of each.caption here
The researchers found that while participatory methods are useful in identifying the importance farmers place on crop residues for different purposes, they usually result in qualitative data, which alone is not well-suited for quantifying trade-offs.
Empirical analysis on the other hand uses experimental approaches to generate quantitative data on the behavior of systems under different conditions. For crop residues, empirical analysis can generate trade-off curves showing impacts of decisions on soil erosion or on the body weight or milk production for livestock. This approach may be powerful for analyzing the outcomes of decisions in the current setting, but cannot be used as a predictive tool.
Read the full story on the World Agroforestry blog: Analyzing trade-offs in agriculture requires a combined approach
The work on analysing trade-offs within agricultural systems was analysed during a workshop held last year. The objectives were to share ideas, experiences and concerns, but also approaches, tools and methods. Other objectives were to discuss the application of learned lessons within and between different CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs), to explore potential for synergies and collaboration between scientists and institutes, and to discuss how results of trade-off analysis can best be translated to end-user to achieve as much impact as possible.
Download the Workshop report that has now been made available: Analysis of trade-offs in agricultural systems [PDF]
Read more about the held trade-offs workshop: Shining a light on trade-offs in agricultural systems [Blog]
Kate Langford works as a science writer for the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
