AGRO’s new strategy aligns with EU and global research agendas

The 2016-2020 AGRO strategy states that the department’s overall objective is to continue to belong amongst elite institutes that carry out research on agroecosystems. Achieving this objective entails alignment with EU and global research agendas that spearhead thematic prioritization and guides research funding. This article focuses on these research agendas and AGRO’s strategic ambitions.

Drivers without borders

As stated by the Expo 2015 EU Scientific Steering Committee in one of its contributions to the Expo 2015 ‘Feeding the Planet’ theme, alignment of food and agriculture research agendas connotes the identification of common research priorities across national borders. This is in recognition of individual countries being affected by drivers such as climate change, access to resources, economic growth, trade, and consumption that are beyond national boundaries, and which create challenges that cannot be solved at national levels. Alignment of research also serves to coordinate research efforts, thereby reducing the risk of duplication, or of important research not being undertaken.

SCAR feeds into Horizon 2020

In the European context the European Commission’s Standing Committee on Agricultural Research (SCAR) Foresight Studies influence EU and global research and political agendas. First of all, the foresight studies feed into the Horizon 2020 calls that relate to Societal Challenge 2, and may be credited for contributing to research themes that are fairly broad and transdisciplinary.

This is partly because the continuous process of foresighting entails contributions from a wide range of research stakeholders. One such contribution is the ‘Mapping Sustainability Criteria for the Bioeconomy’ report that was accounted for by John Hermansen in the 23 November 2015 issue of AGRO biweekly.

The SCAR process is also aligned with the recently completed process of defining the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as regards food security and climate change.  The SDGs are a case in point as regards increased recognition of global drivers and interactions that we also find in SCAR studies: While the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) focused on the developing world, the SDGs take a more universal perspective on challenges, including those associated with agriculture and sustainability.

Foresight exercise based on global scenarios

In the fourth SCAR foresight exercise (2015), food security within a bioeconomy framework is at the forefront. As is the nature of foresighting, a number of future scenarios for the bioeconomy – in the context of a population of more than nine billion in 2050 that will demand more food, feed, fuel and materials logic – are at play. In the worst-case scenario, previously mentioned drivers such as climate change and economic growth will accelerate and lead to resource scarcity, insecurity and even collapse.  

In the best-case scenario, prudently governed (both nationally and supra-nationally) markets and technology will enable the bioeconomy to deliver on food security, within the fundamental constraint of sustainability.

Achieving best-case scenario goals, with food security as the most prominent, depend on a number of key principles that to quite an extent are associated with agroecology:

• Food First: As external drivers place both demand and supply of food under pressure, availability, access and utilization need to be improved globally.
• Sustainable yields: Based on regulatory frameworks that govern biomass production along the lines of core sustainability principles, with the amount of organic matter in the soil as a key indicator.
• Cascading approach: Prescribing that biomass is used sequentially, from higher levels with steps that may resemble a value chain, towards materials along the steps (or chain).
• Circularity: Closely linked to the concept of cascading, but more systems- and holistic economic model-oriented. As with cascading, this principle is challenged by current market logics
• Diversity : Production systems need to be diverse, with context-specific practices at different scales  producing a diversity of outputs as the key to resilience

Based on these principles, SCAR has put forward a number of research themes and research recommendations, many of which can be addressed by AGRO. The research themes and recommendations are as follows:

• New paradigms for primary production, based on ecological intensification: As noted by Per Kudsk in the 22.10.15 issue of Agro Biweekly, the notion of ecological intensification is a contested one in the context of agroecology. However, agroecology, with its system analysis approach to ecological systems, as well as the emphasis on the regulatory functions of nature, is considered a key ‘route’ towards ecological intensification (and the related, and equally contested, concept of sustainable intensification). Recommended research foci include ‘shift from the study of individual species in relation to their environment, to the study of groups of organisms or polycultures in relation to each other and their environment’  as well as the ‘synergetic effects of combinations of ecosystems services’ (SCAR 2015:49 ). Additionally, a focus on functional ecology to support precision ecology is called for.

• Digital, enabling technologies:  these may strengthen precision ecology, but are also seen to hold great potential for improving resource efficiency through precision crop and livestock agriculture. This includes sensing at animal, crop, field and landscape levels and both engineering applications and decision support tools. The digital revolution is expected to transform production, trade and consumption, and therefore impact on the bioeconomy; research is therefore needed to throw light on how primary production supply chains will be affected, how this may help address diversity of production systems and their food, feed , fibre and fuel outputs and the circular economy in general.

• Resilience for a sustainable bioeconomy: A resilient bioeconomy  is based on systems that can deal with hazards, whether arising from immediate shocks  or more fundamental  ‘drivers’ such as climate change or the vagaries of integrated, global economic systems.  Circular economies also require integration, particularly of sub-sectors; very little is known about how ‘drivers’ and sub-sectoral integration in combination affects resilience, and research should investigate not only that, but also seek to develop systems that support resilience from biological, technological and social perspectives. First and foremost, research and innovation needs to foster, rather than limit, diversity.

• The new energy landscape: The transition to a new, renewable energy landscape will affect primary production that still depends on fossil fuels for the production of inputs. However, fast development of low-cost renewables technologies will reduce the pressure to use organic matter for energy, and lead to use for high value applications instead. Research on how this transition affects agriculture and that identification of appropriate solutions is needed.

• Business and policy models for the bioeconomy:  Cascading and circularity pose challenges as to how conventional economics work and will see new actors and activities. Research must support the development of new business models.

• Socio-cultural dimensions of the bioeconomy:  Recommendations include the generation of knowledge about social effects pertaining to both technologies and social change in the bioeconomy with a view to making it sustainable. Research should also aim to look into food production and consumption as these patterns are likely to change radically. Reactions to these changes in lifestyles – both at producer and consumer ends, need to be well-understood, as do legal implications.

• Governance and the political economy of the bioeconomy:  Cuts across all themes and scenarios, as food security is not just about aggregate supply, but also about social inequalities and access – from the global to the regional and to the household levels. In this light, the outcomes of a circular economy will depend on both regulatory frameworks, the manner in which power is exercised, mechanisms of access to resources and the social distribution of resources. Research should focus on developing frameworks that – by creating level playing fields through e.g. standards, avoids overexploitation of resources,  generates  employment and a diversity of practices – foster the bioeconomy.

• Foresight for the biosphere:  Research should support processes that seek to expand modelling platforms into the non-food dimensions of the bioeconomy. It should also ‘expand foresight capacity by integrating data and dynamic and flexible tools, in order to avoid lock-ins and monitor the sustainability and resilience of the bioeconomy and the biosphere as a whole’ (SCAR 2016: 96).

AGRO’s strategic ambitions relate to SCAR

It is AGRO’s ambition to contribute with research that, by means of agroecological principles, serve to ensure global food and nutrition security.  To this effect the AGRO strategy has opted to align itself with the SCAR process and the above recommendations. It may be argued that that these represent a tall order for any research institution. Indeed, the structure of AGRO’s competencies means that the recommendations cannot be addressed in equal measure.

This is particularly the case as regards the more social science oriented recommendations; however, AGRO may be said to be able to address at least parts of all the themes, and as such, attract talent, resources and partnerships that enable issues to be addressed in their entirety. The four flagships  - Climate-Smart Agri-Food Systems, Sustainable Crop Pest Management, Sustainable Nutrient Management and Soil Functions – by describing clear AGRO strengths and agroecological approaches across research areas, are expected to contribute to this endeavor.

The article is based on two reports:

Expo 2015 Scientific Steering Committee 2015: The Role of Research in Global Food and nutrition Security

European Union 2015: Sustainable Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Bioeconomy - a Challenge for Europe. 4^th SCAR Foresight Exercise