Addressing the challenges of smallholder farming communities: Restoring Degraded Agroecosystems

The Goal of the project is to improve livelihoods of the rural poor in the tropics by restoring degraded soils and landscapes to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability in an era of climate change. The Purpose is to restore degraded soils and agroecosystems to enhance the productivity, profitability, resilience, and generation of other ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes in Nicaragua and Paraguay that are highly vulnerable to climate change, through the adoption of improved climate-smart agroforestry and silvopastoral based systems (AFS) by smallholder communities. The Outputs are: (i) Strategies developed for the adaptation of AFS that integrate improved crops, forages, multipurpose trees, and management options for improved productivity, profitability and resilience to restore degraded lands and confront climate change. (ii) Impact of improved AFS strategies assessed at farm and landscape scales for ecosystem services (reduced soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions, improved soil quality and water dynamics, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation), based on field quantification and modeling of landscape scenarios. (iii) Tools and strategies developed to identify regions in the tropics facing similar constraints for subsequent adaptation and dissemination of eco-efficient (environmentally sustainable and resilient; economically productive, profitable and competitive; and socially equitable and fair) AFS. (iv) Strategies developed and institutional innovation systems implemented for dissemination of improved AFS for suitable regions of Central and South America.