Sustainable Fruit farming In the CAatinga: managing ecosystem service trade-offs as agriculture intensifies (SUFICA)

SUFICA项目旨在提高巴西东北部<s:1>奥弗朗西斯科山谷水果农业的竞争力、可持续性和长期恢复力。该项目将与种植者和国际供应公司合作，在水果农场共同设计和测试基于自然的创新，旨在产生多重环境效益，同时提高水果产量或质量，减少投入。它采用跨学科的方法，将科学家、农民和工业界聚集在一起，在经济发展的背景下，解决在粮食-水-环境关系中管理敏感的农业生态系统的挑战。主要有三个结果：1)SUFICA实验测试了“生态集约化”作为可持续集约化农业的途径；2) SUFICA建立了必要的研究基础设施和工具，以监测和持续改善<s:1>旧金山山谷农场的生物多样性和生态系统服务；3) SUFICA展示了伙伴关系如何将农业增长和环境保护的好处结合起来。这一办法也可适用于其他发展中国家。SUFICA伙伴关系是对农业食品部门强烈的市场信号的回应，即农民应采取行动支持生物多样性。该项目将这一生物多样性目标与促进生产的生态系统服务（传粉和水流调节）联系起来，以评估既有利于生物多样性又有利于生产的管理潜力。这种被称为“生态集约化”的方法已经在欧洲和北美显示出了希望，但是还没有在热带半干旱环境中进行实验测试。潜在的科学假设是，多种调节生态系统服务可以协同流动，从而在半干旱农业景观中协同增强，并带来生物多样性效益。SUFICA与农民共同设计了一项重复的农场规模控制影响前-控制后（BACI）实验，以监测对该地区种植者可行且有吸引力的管理行动的效果，从而验证了这一假设。SUFICA试验是第一个科学可靠的、可重复的“生态集约化”试验，其中直接监测多种环境和农艺结果。我们将碳封存纳入其中，因为减缓农业中的气候变化是巴西的一项发展目标。该研究将使用最先进的制图和建模方法来探索机制并预测自然资本存量和生态系统服务提供的变化。SUFICA试验结合了不同的景观和农业环境，并在农民中建立了能力。通过精心设计的知识交流流程，大型农场将学习小型农场的生态和多样化做法，同时支持小型农场参与国际出口市场。参与该项目的所有农民都将参与开发全球公认的农场规模生物多样性评估工具，通过这些工具，他们可以展示自己的积极行动。<s:1>弗朗西斯科山谷位于卡廷加，这是一个半干旱的季节性干燥热带森林生态区，具有全球重要的生物多样性。由于农业导致的栖息地丧失和退化，以及气候变化导致的干旱预计会增加，这对caatinga构成了威胁。农业发展是巴西减少贫困和长期经济增长的关键。按照以前的集约化发展轨迹，这种增长将以牺牲生物多样性和生态系统为代价，降低长期抵御能力，并对小农和农村贫困人口产生不成比例的影响。SUFICA将建立一个过程和基础设施，将集约化重新引导到对环境更敏感的轨道上，旨在减少农业投入和保护高产地区的生物多样性。

The SUFICA project aims to enhance the competitiveness, sustainability and long-term resilience of fruit farming in the São Francisco valley in north-eastern Brazil, as it intensifies. The project will work with growers and international supply companies to co-design and test nature-based innovations on fruit farms, aiming to generate multiple environmental benefits whilst enhancing fruit yield or quality and reducing inputs. It takes a trans-disciplinary approach, bringing scientists, farmers and industry together to tackle the challenge of managing a sensitive agro-ecosystem at the food-water-environment nexus, in the context of economic development. There are three major outcomes: 1) SUFICA experimentally tests 'ecological intensification' as a pathway to sustainable intensive agriculture; 2) SUFICA establishes the necessary research infrastructure and tools to monitor and continually improve biodiversity and ecosystem services on farms in the São Francisco valley; 3) SUFICA demonstrates how a partnership approach enables the benefits of agricultural growth and environmental protection to be combined. This approach can be applied in other developing countries.The SUFICA partnership is a response to strong market signals in the agri-food sector that farmers should take action to support biodiversity. The project links this biodiversity objective with production-enhancing ecosystem services - pollination and water flow regulation - to assess the potential for management that benefits both biodiversity and production. The approach, termed 'ecological intensification', has shown promise in Europe and North America, but has not been experimentally tested in tropical semi-arid environments.The underlying scientific hypothesis is that multiple regulating ecosystem services can be co-erced to flow in bundles, and thus be synergistically enhanced in semi-arid agricultural landscapes, with accompanying biodiversity benefits. SUFICA tests this hypothesis using a replicated, farm-scale, Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) experiment, co-designed with farmers to monitor the effects of management actions that are feasible and attractive to growers in the region. The SUFICA experiment is the first scientifically robust, replicated test of 'ecological intensification', in which multiple environmental and agronomic outcomes are directly monitored. We include carbon sequestration, as climate change mitigation in agriculture is a development goal for Brazil. The research will use state-of-the-art mapping and modelling approaches to explore mechanisms and predict changes to natural capital stock and ecosystem service delivery. The SUFICA experiment incorporates different landscape and farming contexts and builds capacity among farmers. Through carefully designed knowledge exchange processes, larger farms will learn from ecological and diversified practices of small farms, while small farms are supported to engage with international export markets. All farmers in the project will be involved in developing globally recognised farm-scale biodiversity assessment tools, through which they can demonstrate their positive actions.The São Francisco valley lies in the caatinga, a semi-arid ecoregion of seasonally dry tropical forest with globally important biodiversity. The caatinga is threatened by habitat loss and degradation due to agriculture, and predicted increases in aridity due to climate change. Agricultural development is key for both poverty reduction and long-term economic growth in Brazil. With old intensification trajectories, this growth will come at the expense of biodiversity and ecosystems, reducing long-term resilience and disproportionately impacting on smallholder farmers and the rural poor. SUFICA will establish a process and infrastructure to re-direct intensification to a more environmentally sensitive trajectory, aiming to reduce farm inputs and protect biodiversity in highly productive landscapes.