Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda

We analyse the impact of two large-scale regime shifts caused by disease incidence or climate change, and associated crop productivity and price changes, on banana-based smallholders in Uganda. We evaluate these farmers' vulnerability and assess the potential of using increased crop diversity to imp...

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Main Authors: Kozicka, Marta, Gotor, Elisabetta, Ocimati, Walter, Jager, Tamar de, Kikulwe, Enoch Mutebi, Groot, Jeroen C.J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Elsevier 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108310
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author Kozicka, Marta
Gotor, Elisabetta
Ocimati, Walter
Jager, Tamar de
Kikulwe, Enoch Mutebi
Groot, Jeroen C.J.
author_browse Gotor, Elisabetta
Groot, Jeroen C.J.
Jager, Tamar de
Kikulwe, Enoch Mutebi
Kozicka, Marta
Ocimati, Walter
author_facet Kozicka, Marta
Gotor, Elisabetta
Ocimati, Walter
Jager, Tamar de
Kikulwe, Enoch Mutebi
Groot, Jeroen C.J.
author_sort Kozicka, Marta
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description We analyse the impact of two large-scale regime shifts caused by disease incidence or climate change, and associated crop productivity and price changes, on banana-based smallholders in Uganda. We evaluate these farmers' vulnerability and assess the potential of using increased crop diversity to improve their resilience. We further explore trade-offs and synergies between environmental, economic and nutritional outcomes faced by the farmers in their decision making when a regime shift occurs. We simulate the large-scale scenarios with the IMPACT model and use the results obtained to assess their effect at the local level using the bio-economic farm-household model, FarmDESIGN. Our results indicate that climate change can lead to a regime shift that expands revenue variance, increases soil erosion and reduces vitamin A yield for farmers. Banana disease can negatively impact income levels and species diversity. We show that under both scenarios farmers have scope to reconfigure their farms and recover farm performance. Specifically, we discuss the benefits of species diversity; increasing agrobiodiversity by adding new crops increases the farm's adaptive capacity and resilience, allowing for much higher revenues, on-farm crop diversity and vitamin A production. The conceptual approach and the method we developed can be applied to assess the local synergies and trade-offs between crop diversity conservation, nutrition, environmental protection and human nutrition that farmers face as a result of global drivers. Our results offer a further understanding of how biodiverse systems respond to regime shifts, which can inform effective policy design. Our method can be also useful to help farmers manage their farms in a way to better meet their complex needs.
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publishDate 2020
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spelling CGSpace1083102025-11-11T17:42:34Z Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda Kozicka, Marta Gotor, Elisabetta Ocimati, Walter Jager, Tamar de Kikulwe, Enoch Mutebi Groot, Jeroen C.J. agrobiodiversity smallholders vulnerability resilience impact assessment crops musa climate change agrobiodiversidad pequeños agricultores vulnerabilidad We analyse the impact of two large-scale regime shifts caused by disease incidence or climate change, and associated crop productivity and price changes, on banana-based smallholders in Uganda. We evaluate these farmers' vulnerability and assess the potential of using increased crop diversity to improve their resilience. We further explore trade-offs and synergies between environmental, economic and nutritional outcomes faced by the farmers in their decision making when a regime shift occurs. We simulate the large-scale scenarios with the IMPACT model and use the results obtained to assess their effect at the local level using the bio-economic farm-household model, FarmDESIGN. Our results indicate that climate change can lead to a regime shift that expands revenue variance, increases soil erosion and reduces vitamin A yield for farmers. Banana disease can negatively impact income levels and species diversity. We show that under both scenarios farmers have scope to reconfigure their farms and recover farm performance. Specifically, we discuss the benefits of species diversity; increasing agrobiodiversity by adding new crops increases the farm's adaptive capacity and resilience, allowing for much higher revenues, on-farm crop diversity and vitamin A production. The conceptual approach and the method we developed can be applied to assess the local synergies and trade-offs between crop diversity conservation, nutrition, environmental protection and human nutrition that farmers face as a result of global drivers. Our results offer a further understanding of how biodiverse systems respond to regime shifts, which can inform effective policy design. Our method can be also useful to help farmers manage their farms in a way to better meet their complex needs. 2020-08 2020-05-25T10:14:35Z 2020-05-25T10:14:35Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108310 en Open Access application/pdf Elsevier Kozicka, M.; Gotor, E.; Ocimati, W.; Jager, T.; Kikulwe, E.; Groot, J.C.J. (2020) Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda. Agricultural Systems (183) 102864 ISSN: 0308-521X
spellingShingle agrobiodiversity
smallholders
vulnerability
resilience
impact assessment
crops
musa
climate change
agrobiodiversidad
pequeños agricultores
vulnerabilidad
Kozicka, Marta
Gotor, Elisabetta
Ocimati, Walter
Jager, Tamar de
Kikulwe, Enoch Mutebi
Groot, Jeroen C.J.
Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda
title Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda
title_full Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda
title_fullStr Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda
title_full_unstemmed Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda
title_short Responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity: A multi-level perspective on small-scale farming in Uganda
title_sort responding to future regime shifts with agrobiodiversity a multi level perspective on small scale farming in uganda
topic agrobiodiversity
smallholders
vulnerability
resilience
impact assessment
crops
musa
climate change
agrobiodiversidad
pequeños agricultores
vulnerabilidad
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108310
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