Transforming the food value chain based on ecologically and economically sustainable crop production (TRANSECO)

Transforming agriculture is key for achieving several UN Sustainable Development Goals, and for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Interest is surging for more resilient and environmentally friendly crop production based on AgroEcological (AE) principles that rely on Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by managed and wild biodiversity. But uptake is low, partly because ecological and economic efficiencies and trade-offs are poorly understood.

Also, actors along the entire food value chain need to engage for a broad transition. We investigate AE practices on 15 farms, compared with 15 conventional farms in Sweden.

We develop indicators to track ecological and economic efficiencies, i.e., how inputs of labour, capital, nutrients etc, influence the farm economy, productivity and waste, and how ecological-economic processes drive input-output relations.

This feeds into statistical models to predict how AE practices affect yield, ES and farm economy under climate change.With actors in the entire food value chain, we develop business and marketing solutions which realise sustainability values gained, that return to and incentivise the farmer for further sustainability progress.

We assess the capacity for upscaling of AE practices and business models by examining actor-specific motivations for adoption on large actor populations in the value chain. Gained knowledge will inform policy makers for the transition to sustainable and resilient food systems.