Agriculture is at a crossroads. Solutions are needed to ensure that present and future systems can produce food in sufficient quantity and quality for the growing population. Yet, agroecosystems must provide more than food, including a wide variety of ecosystem services, while contributing to biodiversity conservation and ensuring resilience in the face of shocks. These multiple challenges call for combined efforts from researchers and other stakeholders to (re-)design sustainable agroecosystems to facilitate the transition to a more circular and sustainable agriculture.
The research theme re-design of agroecosystems entails a deep understanding of plant and ecosystem functioning and societal demands as well as the co-creation of feasible management strategies considering contrasting (and changing) socio-ecological contexts.
Our mission is to assess and design sustainable agroecosystems focused on the provision of multiple ecosystem services, resilience capacity and equitable management of natural resources contributing to global food security, resource conservation and societal well-being.
Our mission is addressed through four research areas: 1) crop performance and breeding, 2) agronomic and technological innovations, 3) ecological processes and diversification, and 4) adaptation and transformation pathways.
The theme sees opportunities around four fundamental scientific challenges, namely:
- Resource use efficiency
- Scaling across hierarchical levels
- Emergent properties
- Resilience
These scientific challenges are cross-cutting and require development in terms of theory, methodology and practice.