The options by context paradigm shift builds resilience of agricultural systems through agroecological transitions [REF2021]

Description of impact

International policy and development action
Promotion of agroecological approaches using the options by context (OxC) approach, developed through Bangor’s research, has been adopted internationally by the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) in the context of food security and nutrition in 2019 [5.1] and by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) with respect to climate resilience of agricultural and food systems in 2019 [5.2]. Both bodies recommend promotion of agroecological practices, citing Bangor’s underpinning research. The HLPE report forms the basis of an international policy convergence process initiated at the 46th Session of CFS at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in Rome in October 2019. The GCA report launched in September 2019 sets out a programme for governments and businesses to take urgent action to advance climate adaptation solutions in the light of Bangor’s research findings, including a commitment to improve access for at least 60,000,000 small-scale producers to agroecological practices. By adopting the OxC principles, enhanced policy and practice has occurred at an international scale for securing poverty alleviation, increasing food security and enhancing environmental restoration.

National and sub-national policy
Application of the OxC approach directly associated with Bangor’s underpinning research has led to development of new national and sub-national policies and incentives to promote agroecological options in Vietnam [5.3], Peru in [5.4] and Rwanda [5.5]. In the private sector, Barry Callebaut, one of the largest buyers of cocoa in the world, has adopted the OxC approach for cocoa agroforestry, explicitly derived from Bangor’s underpinning research [5.6]. In Vietnam, OxC trials of agroforestry options to increase farm income and control soil erosion on slopes, have led to implementation of new provincial level policies to promote agroecological transitions [5.3]. In 2015, Yen Bai provincial Resolution (15/2015/NQ-HDND) and Decisions (27/2015/QD-UBND and 2412/QD-UBND) provided financial support for households to establish fruit tree agroforestry practices and agroecological soil and water conservation measures to sustain maize production on sloping land. The Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD) Decision (2477/QD-BNN-HTQT) created MARD’s Agroforestry Working Group set up to review, improve, and propose agroforestry-related policies in Vietnam [5.3]. In Peru, regional implementation of a national agroforestry concession policy incorporates the OxC approach explicitly based on Bangor’s underpinning research [5.4]. This policy grants formal land-title to farmers, provided that they commit to maintain, or establish agroforestry on 20% or more of the land. With the OxC approach thus adopted in national policies, it is estimated that up to 120,000 households in the Peruvian Amazon are benefiting from the OxC rollout affecting over 1,000,000ha [5.4].

Reach of development projects promoting grassroots agroecological practices using OxC
Several major development initiatives have adopted the OxC approach as a direct outcome of the underpinning Bangor research. The Global Climate Fund, together with the Government of Sri Lanka, have invested approximately USD49,000,000 (03-2020) [5.7]. The development work aims to strengthen the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to address climate-induced irrigation and drinking water shortages by improving the resilience of farm- and land-management practices using the OxC approach, targeting at least 1,343,216 beneficiaries and protecting approximately 346,000ha of land [5.8]. The Netherlands invested USD49,461,485 (06-2015) in the Dryland Development project (2014 to 2019) [5.9] in Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso(DryDev), which had the OxC approach at its core. Success was validated by associated planned comparisons funded through the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Dryland Restoration project EUR3,845,630 (04-2015) and USD1,500,000 (04-2015) [5.10] with key impacts for individual farmers being realised at the project delivery and evaluation stages. They showed DryDev reached 219,694 farmers who rehabilitated 122,850ha of common land, practiced improved soil and water conservation on 90,058ha and other climate smart practices on 52,994ha; household resilience was higher in all 5 countries as a result, with dietary diversity of women in Kenyan project sites increased by 15% [5.9]. External mid-term evaluation of this IFAD development project stated that “upscaling of best options by voluntary farmers on their farms and by other farmers (especially neighbours) is very impressive…. the project is currently reaching the impressive number of about 10,000 households, or more than 50,000 beneficiaries in the four action countries which are directly benefiting for their livelihoods from the land restoration project”. Main findings report that “the project may significantly contribute to the achievement of [United Nations Development Goals] SDGs, especially ‘no poverty’ and ‘zero hunger’” [5.10]. The EU and partners have invested EUR21,379,310 (09-2017) in the Regreening Africa project (2017 to 2022), which operates the OxC approach developed from Bangor research across 8 African countries, including Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal in addition to those in DryDev. It targets at least 500,000 households and restoration of at least 1,000,000ha with 145,274 households already actively engaged in restoring 162,697ha by 2019 [5.11]. The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) have invested AUD10,390,000 (01-2017) in two phases of the Trees4FoodSecurity (T4FS) project (2012 to 2020) in Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda that uses OxC to scale-up agroforestry. A 2019 evaluation of the impacts of the ACIAR projects identified the first phase (FSC/2012/014) as 1 of only 3 projects out of 15 evaluated that had contributed to transformational development impacting over 30,000 farmers in 2019 reaching over 48,000 in phase 2 [5.12].

Impact Summary for the General Public

Bangor University’s research partnership with World Agroforestry produced a paradigm shift in agronomy, supporting agroecological transitions across 3 continents. Applying Bangor’s options by context (OxC) approach profoundly changed international, national and private sector policy and practice across 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Diverse and inclusive agroecological options that result from applying this approach, include increasing food security, farm income and environmental resilience for 2,250,316 people, restoring 2,611,902ha of land, with 422,968 households and 428,599ha already reached, through investment of GBP101,631,640 in projects using OxC. Global initiatives target improving access to agroecological practices for over 60,000,000 smallholder farmers and OxC features in national and sub-national policies in Rwanda, Peru and Vietnam.

Description of the underpinning research

For many smallholder farmers (there are 500 million globally feeding 80% of the population in Africa and Asia), conventional agricultural improvement based on the use of fossil-fuel derived chemical fertilisers and pesticides to increase yield of monocultural crops has often either: i) led to debt, reduced dietary diversity and increased environmental degradation where it has been widely adopted (across many contexts in Asia and Latin America); or ii) left rural communities in poverty and food insecurity because improvements have not been adopted, yields and income remain low and environmental degradation has occurred because of a lack of investment in sustainable agricultural practice (across much of sub-Saharan Africa). The fundamental problem in both cases is the lack of locally suitable agricultural practices that regenerate rather than degrade the environment [3.1].

To address these problems Bangor University entered an innovative research partnership with World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in 2009 which resulted in the development of the novel options by context (OxC) approach. This approach supports local innovation by farmers by fostering transition to more agroecological farming methods, including agroforestry. These involve maximizing use of natural processes, such as biological nitrogen fixation, rather than forcing agricultural systems with external inputs [3.1]. Sinclair led an ICRAF-Bangor joint systems research group, based at ICRAF and funded by research grants from ICRAF to Bangor [3.a]. Since 2012, this Bangor / ICRAF partnership resulted in Dr Fergus Sinclair leading the Livelihood Systems Flagship of the CGIAR research programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is part of the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network.

Sinclair’s research pioneered a global analysis of agroforestry adoption that identified how fine-scale variation in farmer context constrained the spread of agroecological farming methods [3.2]. National analysis of the performance of four agroforestry options across Malawi, revealed large variation in crop yield for each option across smallholder contexts, with different options performing well in different contexts [3.3]; thus average performance was not a useful basis for making recommendations for farmers. Research in Kenya [3.4] and Ethiopia [3.5] revealed how contextual factors (e.g. household wealth, land tenure and topography) determined adoption of different agroforestry practices by farmers; moreover they were using a far greater diversity of tree species than previously recognised. These key research findings established the need to take option by context (OxC) interactions into account in generating locally appropriate agronomic innovations.

To enable this, the OxC approach comprises three key departures from conventional agronomic research: 1) The use of structured stakeholder engagement and attendant local knowledge to determine what is known about the suitability of existing options for the range of extant contexts [3.6]; 2) The use of planned comparisons across large numbers of farmers, where variation in the performance of options in real-farm conditions is evaluated in terms of how context determines performance, rather than using conventional controlled experiments to estimate mean differences in performance of different options [3.7]; 3) Iterative co-learning in partnership with farmers who participate in evaluating performance, resulting in locally appropriate knowledge that farmers trust and adopt [3.2]. The outcome is a new agronomic paradigm that supports local innovation and reveals which options work where and for whom, rather than attempting to generate and promote silver bullet technologies that work well on average but not necessarily for particular farmers [3.7]. Locally appropriate use of agroecological approaches supported by OxC is particularly relevant to ensuring post-COVID recovery where resilience of food systems is of paramount importance. Given the nature of this research, key benefits to the farmer are realised at the research-in-development phase.

Impact status	Ongoing
Impact date	2013 → 2020
Category of impact	Environmental, Health/Quality of life, Policy and Public Services, Societal
Impact level	Benefit