Elisa Marraccini

Landscape agronomy: a new field for addressing agricultural landscape dynamics

Landscape dynamics increasingly challenge agronomists to explain how and why agricultural landscapes are designed and managed by farmers. Nevertheless, agronomy is rarely included in the wide range of disciplines involved in landscape research. In this paper, we describe how landscape agronomy can help explain the relationship between farming systems and agricultural landscape dynamics. For this, we propose a conceptual model of agricultural landscape dynamics that illustrates the specific contribution of agronomy to landscape research. This model describes the relationship between three elements: farming practices, landscape patterns and natural resources. It can stimulate agronomists to deal with research issues in agricultural landscape dynamics and enhance the interdisciplinary integration of farming systems in wider landscape research. On these premises, we discuss the main research issues that will benefit from an active involvement of agronomy, to understand, but also to assess landscape dynamics and to design relevant decision support systems.

Farming systems designing landscapes: land management units at the interface between agronomy and geography

Agriculture faces big challenges, such as feeding a growing population and providing an increasing amount of biomass for energy production. Land is, however, a limited resource and intensification of agricultural practices is deprecated because of the negative impacts on natural resources. Effective answers should therefore be fostered by the development of smarter spatial configurations of agricultural activities. The improvement of farming systems therefore requires agronomy to interact with geography and other disciplines that deal with spatially-explicit aspects of agricultural land management. Different research approaches have supported agronomy in the development of a landscape approach and in this paper we focus on the interactions with geography fostering the enhancement of a common language about the way farming practices are observed and understood by the two disciplines. For this purpose, we compare land management units, identified in recent agronomic literature, with the aim to facilitate future synergies of landscape-oriented research about farming system design. We conclude by arguing for the enhancement of the interface between agronomy and geography and discussing some perspectives on the use of the various land management units in the design of future farming systems with a landscape approach.

Peri-urban agro-ecosystems in the Mediterranean: diversity, dynamics, and drivers

To address sustainability challenges of agro-ecosystems located in Mediterranean urban regions, this paper focuses on the multidisciplinary subject of urban agricultural systems. To better understand the diversity and dynamics of peri-urban agro-ecosystems and the main drivers of their sustainability, we compare six case studies located in Southern Europe (Montpellier, France; Pisa, Italy; Lisbon, Portugal; Athens, Greece) and the Maghreb (Constantine, Algeria; Meknes, Morocco). The research is based on fieldwork in each urban region (qualitative analysis) and literature analysis aimed to position each case study in its national and Mediterranean contexts. The comparison between local contexts indicates large discrepancies in the integration of environmental focus among the respective urban planning objectives. Generally, urbanization tends to accentuate agricultural diversity. The different forms of peri-urban agriculture evolve despite their persistent decline, and they also show a capacity to resist and even new growth in response to urban demand.

Food production for the city: hybridization of farmers’ strategies between alternative and conventional food chains

ABSTRACT Alternative and local food supply chains (ALFSCs) have been indicated as drivers of territorial development through increasing the food security at local scale. The aim of the study is to characterize strategies that periurban farmers adopt to contribute to local food provision through ALFSCs. We surveyed a sample of 55 farmers in the urban region of Pisa, Tuscany (Italy). By combining qualitative and quantitative analysis of on-farm surveys, this study characterized three farmers’ strategies, depending on the percentage of production they allotted to local markets: few/passive, intermediate/opportunistic, entire/active. The main factors influencing each strategy were personal and professional bonds, diversification of the commercial network, and the number and the diversification of products sold in ALFSCs. Even though farmers can allocate 100% of their production to ALFSCs, most farmers combine ALFSCs with conventional food chains, suggesting that hybridization has advantages for the sustainability of these farms. Farmers who adopt an opportunistic strategy appeared more dynamic and adaptable to local opportunities and constraints. This analysis will offer empirical evidence about the participation of farmers in ALFSCs and especially about the hybridization between conventional and alternative food chains, contributing to the characterization of the local supply of produce, with benefits for community food security.

The Territory Agronomy Approach in research, education and training

Landscape and territory agronomy analyses the two-way relationship between farming practices and land patterns. It takes into account both agro-environmental and socio-economic processes. A conceptual framework is presented to facilitate understanding of the complex interactions between the disciplines that contribute to this new field of research. We discuss the organisational issues that arise at various spatial and temporal scales during the development of territory-based case studies and research projects. The territory agronomy approach is a participatory action science. Building on our experiences, we propose a conceptual research-education-action platform for land management and territorial development. It demonstrates that the Territory Agronomy Approach is an iterative process where researchers, teachers, trainers and stakeholders develop new questions and methods through participation. These characteristics make the territory agronomy approach adapted to promote the territorial dimension in research, education and training activities on farming systems.

Assessing the Potential of Farming Regions to Fulfill Agro-Environmental Functions: A Case Study in Tuscany (Italy)

The increasing interest in agro-environmental management entails having tools to assess, monitor and map agro-environmental functions (AEFs) in different regional contexts. In Europe, decision-making in agro-environmental policies generally targets single functions instead of multiple ones and rarely considers the regional variability of agricultural or geo-physical conditions that may influence the fulfillment of functions. We propose and test a method to assess the potential of farming regions to fulfill a set of AEFs. The method was applied in the “Collina interna grossetana” farming region (Italy) and concerned three functions: protection of surface water from nitrates, protection of soil from erosion, and conservation of landscape diversity. These functions were qualified and mapped using various geo-physical and land cover descriptors from common geographical datasets. All of the descriptors were combined using geographical cluster analysis to identify their contribution to the three functions, and thus to assess the potential of the farming region to fulfill these functions. Three levels of potential were calculated, according to the more or less favorable fulfillment of soil and water functions. No totally favorable contribution to the functions was identified in the studied area. Moreover, we mapped the spatial patterns obtained for the different levels of potential. The landscape diversity function was found to be the least variable in the study area, while different patterns were identified for the other functions. In fact, the northern and central sections of the study region were organized more in the form of large core areas of different levels of potential, whereas the southern section presented more boundary areas, small core areas and isolated pixels. The method may help to establish local priorities in agro-environmental management pointing out where the set of functions is completely or partially fulfilled, as well as where and how it is more or less necessary to focus support measures afforded by environmental policies. Such information could help to palliate the current poor consideration of the spatial variability of functions in regional policies.

Food, Integrating Urban and Agricultural Dynamics in Pisa, Italy

Food concerns are reshaping the links between urban and agricultural dynamics. They are emerging as significant issues at the interface between public policies and local initiatives that are in turn establishing new approaches in urban planning and land use. Food occupies a concomitant position as an agricultural product of periurban areas, the principal commodity of a supply system, and a focus of community projects. But does this mean that it acts as an integrating element in an agricultural system? Drawing on data from the research project, ANR-DAUME, which focuses on the sustainability of urban agriculture in Mediterranean cities, we analyse the urban agricultural system of Pisa, Italy, in terms of a geo-agronomical model based on a triad of actors, activities, and spaces. This model highlights the diversity of agricultural food production, the hybridization of sales, distribution networks, and the multifunctionality of organizations involved in various related food projects. These aspects combine in a web of relationships that infuse Pisa’s urban agricultural system with new abilities to transform and adapt to evolving dynamics, showing that food can play the role of a common denominator, integrating actors from these diverse worlds and transforming the dynamics that influence land use and development in the territory.

Unraveling the contribution of periurban farming systems to urban food security in developed countries

The debates on food security in developed countries have raised questions regarding the capacity of periurban farming systems to provide food for urban dwellers. Attention thus needs to be paid to what kind of food production is performed nearby cities. This study aims at developing a methodology to characterize the food production provided by periurban farming systems in terms of quality, quantity and crop production intensity. The case study is the Pisa’s urban area (Tuscany, Italy), which is illustrative of coastal Northern Mediterranean farming systems. The methodology was based on the construction of farm typologies considering 51 on-farm surveys using multivariate statistics (principal component analysis and cluster analysis). Farms were classified into six types, considering seven on-farm indicators. Results showed that the amount of production sold in the local food system is negatively correlated to the farm’s size and the amount of on-farm food production, thus indicating for local food policies the need to support the food allocation in local markets through specific agri-urban projects. In terms of food quality, we have shown for the first time that local food labels seem to positively impact urban markets rather than organic labels. Crop production intensity indicators have heterogeneous dynamics, which do not seem to depend on the farming system, nor on the farm’s involvement in local food systems. This could be an effect of the proximity to urban areas, a specific character of periurban farming systems, that should be carefully investigated in future research. This is the first time that territorial food production is analyzed combining indicators on food quantity, quality and crop production intensity at the farm level. Our results demonstrate that the highly heterogeneous dynamics of periurban farming systems in developed countries need to be accurately analyzed to develop more efficient food policies with benefits for the urban food security.