ENGINEERING THE TRANSITION
towards agroecology
Landscape approaches: can upland communities design their own development pathway?
Integrated landscape approaches contribute to both adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The experience of many projects shows that uplands communities can co-design their own development pathways. Secured land tenure, access to productive resources and market information are key assets towards a sustainable diversification and ecological intensification of their farming systems. But, scaling up success stories is challenging as the required intervention mechanisms may not be compatible with existing development practices.
Capacity development: can extension agents facilitate collective negotiation processes?
As upland communities are getting organized to respond to the challenges of market integration and climate change, the role of extension agents needs to evolve. Consequently, their training/education should adapt to their new role. Supporting rural development requires new skills and expertise such as facilitation of collective negotiation processes in situations such as land use planning, contract farming, or provision of advisory services. Nowadays, the innovation processes do not come as seeds or chemical inputs that just need to be distributed to farmers but as collective planning and deal negotiations.