The Next Century for Agriculture: Advancing New Land Management Strategies

By EcoAgriculture Partners and Solutions from the Land

What will be the defining features of agriculture over the next century? This year, the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue honed in on biotechnology, sustainability, and climate volatility as critical opportunities and challenges for reducing food insecurity and ending hunger. While much of the dialogue remained focused on classic issues in agriculture, such as developing improved seed and access to affordable fertilizer – these issues are just one piece of agriculture and land management.

A dialogue about “New Land Management Strategies to Meet 21^st Century Challenges,” hosted by Solutions from the Land, looked at the big picture of how production systems can generate multiple benefits for productivity, environmental conservation, and the livelihoods of local communities within production landscapes. Solutions from the Land promotes collaborative work by multiple stakeholders to achieve these types of integrated land management practices. The interactive panel discussion featured cases of integrated landscape management from the Little Snake River Valley at the headwaters of the Colorado River and the Indian Creek watershed in central Illinois, as well as the results of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative’s Continental Reviews of integrated landscape initiatives in Africa and Latin America.

Not only did the cases show that agricultural production is just one of many demands placed on rural lands in the United States, they demonstrated that farmers are integral in driving these initiatives. The same is true of many initiatives in Latin America and Africa, where producers play a key role in more than 80% of all the initiatives we surveyed. For many at the World Food Prize, the idea of integrated landscape management as a strategy for reducing food security and poverty is a relatively new concept; but the cases presented by panelists demonstrate that, in many cases, integrated strategies are paying off.

For instance, ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley in Wyoming are successfully providing habitat to the largest population of Columbian sharp-tailed grouse in the central Rockies. Panelist Patrick O’Toole described the conservation easements and new partnerships between landowners, government agencies and conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy as crucial, not only for protecting wildlife, but for the well-being of their livestock, livelihoods, and local culture. In Central Illinois farmers have joined together to collectively reduce nutrient flows into Indian Creek as part of a program to reduce nutrient pollution in the Gulf of Mexico. This program has provided the impetus for farmers to experiment with new management practices, participate in the Conservation Stewardship Program, and strengthen partnerships with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and other local and regional organizations.

However, integrated landscape initiatives still have work to do, not the least of which is building capacity to monitor impacts. There is considerable opportunity for innovations in monitoring and measuring the impact of integrated management on important and compelling indicators for the agricultural and policy communities. In many cases, labor and equipment costs for monitoring impact are far higher than landowners and local agencies can afford. Additionally, many of the impacts will only be measurable after years of implementing new management practices. Therefore, networks like Solutions from the Land and the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative have critical roles to play in supporting partnerships that equip farmers with the tools they need for integrated management, as more and more producers around the world are not only participating in, but leading integrated landscape initiatives.