General

Steep slopes of the upland areas of Montane Mainland Southeast Asia are rapidly exploited for agriculture leading to challenges of surface runoff, erosion and soil degradation in turn leading to low yields and profitability of agriculture. Agroforestry (AF) with contour farming techniques is suggested as a solution to reduce soil erosion and land degradation, while improving farm productivity, food and nutrition security and aid in climate change adaptation. This project will assess options for profitable, sustainable, diversified farming systems on sloping land through integration of fruit trees, annual crops and perennial fodder crops. Specific objectives are to evaluate AF-contour farming systems´ potential (1) to buffer extreme weather events and contribute to climate change adaptation and resilience, (2) for soil conservation, system productivity and profitability, and identify success factors, (3) redesign mature AF systems to optimise productivity and profitability, and (4) to sustainably enhance smallholder livelihoods and factors affecting adoption. The proposed project will utilize existing on-farm field trials and demonstrations, and base-line data from an on-going project (Agroforestry for Livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers in Northwest Vietnam 2012-2021) and thus be able to carry out complementary and more in-depth research on mature AF systems. It will also include participatory data collection and AF system evaluation with farmers and extension officers.

General

Climate change will cause extreme fluctuations in precipitation and temperatures generating intense drought and rainfall events. This will affect the functioning of most ecosystems, but the most severely affected include the world’s poorest and food security challenged nations, including Ethiopia. Microorganisms control decomposition of organic matter (OM), and dominate the terrestrial contribution to the global carbon (C) cycle. Water availability is a decisive regulator of microbial processes, but they also depend on C-availability, creating a strong feedback with plants. We will investigate how microbial processes are influenced by changes in water availability across a gradient from cool moist to hot arid Ecosystems in Ethiopia. We will evaluate the effect of different land-uses and field experimental drought on the resilience of microbial functions. Insights will be included in ecosystem models, and used to guide land-use policy in Ethiopia. The aims are: 1. Defining the microbial moisture dependence, and the resilience of the microbial functions to rewetting a soil. 2. Determining both long-term (gradient across Ethiopia) and short-term (within site field-experiments) legacy effects of drought and dry-wet cycles on 1. 3. Disentangling the relative influence of the soil microbial community and land-use on 1. 4. Distinguishing how land-use, restoration of degraded soils, and plant material additions can affect the microbial resilience to drought and variable moisture.

General

Experiments for development of climate smart solutions for sustainable intensification of agriculture in Malawi. Partners will jointly research two specific areas: 1) to assess ways to transform the existing input subsidy program to a program that more strongly stimulates Climate Smart Agriculture through reducing storage losses and land degradation. 2) land and water rights in relation to irrigation agriculture which holds potential but where institutional challenges need more attention.