FARSYMABI PROJECT
As part of the ECOPRONAT research programme, the French Development Agency (AFD) is supporting the
FARSYMABI project (A Farming System Approach to Mainstreaming
Biodiversity in the agricultural sector) in Mozambique. Through the
identification of different farming system approaches and their effects
on poverty alleviation, food production and biodiversity conservation,
this research project aims at facilitating the design of national
agricultural policies that mainstream biodiversity, taking into account
the local context and successful interventions.
The project involves a multidisciplinary team of Mozambican and Portuguese researchers from Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR), Faculty of Agronomy and Forestry Engineering - Eduardo Mondlane University (FAEF/UEM), Faculty of Agricultural Sciences - Lúrio University (FCA/Unilúrio), and School of Agriculture - University of Lisbon (ISA/ULisboa).
Goals
This research project aims to understand the possible trade-offs and complementarities between poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity in the context of developing countries, where farmland expansion is a major threat to biodiversity. This research will help understand how local landscape/community units function, how they impact biodiversity and its ecosystem services and how they benefit from them.
This knowledge will make it possible to identify the levers to mainstream biodiversity into the agricultural sector. This project also aims to demonstrate the need to create a link between the national policy framework regarding the mainstreaming of biodiversity into agriculture, and the socio-ecological context of successful local interventions.
Methods
The methodological approach is divided into three steps:
Step 1. Priorities, analysis and mapping at the country level: carried out at national level, with the aim of producing a broad, national picture of the effects of farming systems on poverty reduction, food security and biodiversity conservation; as well as an understanding of the conflicts and complementarities between these objectives.
Step 2. Priorities, analysis and research into local context-sensitive interventions: carried out at the local level, through five case studies, covering the main socio-ecological gradients of Mozambique that should be considered when developing a national strategy to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural policies.
Step 3. Link between local initiatives and the national framework for the mainstreaming of biodiversity in agriculture: aims to integrate the results of the first and second steps, to help the mainstreaming of biodiversity in agricultural policy, addressing the conflicting relationships and complementarities between the objectives of poverty, food security and biodiversity.
This research project mobilizes different scientific disciplines in a transdisciplinary way, such as socioeconomics of agriculture, ecology, agronomy or sustainability sciences. This work will result in the production of a mapping of regions characterized by similar biophysical and socio-economic conditions, composition of agricultural systems, landscape mosaic, and levels of poverty, food insecurity, and biodiversity.
Stakeholders (decision-makers and contributors to public policies at the central level, farmers' organizations, environmental protection organizations, local actors) are also mobilized throughout the research work and their knowledge, perceptions and preferences incorporated into the analyses produced. This involvement of stakeholders aims to co-construct policies for mainstreaming biodiversity in agriculture.
Results
The main expected results of this project are:
Production of a policy paper presenting the regional reference framework (socio-ecologically homogenous regions) and guidelines for mainstreaming biodiversity in each region;
Assessment of the transferability of local success interventions within and across regions;
Identification of the necessary political conditions at the national level for the implementation of local interventions;
Comparative evaluation of different policy tools;
Development of a simulation tool based on a farming system approach, that will allow policy makers to assess ex ante the impacts of alternative policies on the objectives of poverty reduction, and food security and biodiversity and ecosystem services improvement.