To adapt to climate change, NZ farmers are increasingly utilising on-farm diversification as a promising strategy, but there are limited recommendations available on how to do it to address the agroecological and socioeconomic challenges they encounter.
With developing extreme weather events and innovation in diversification, climate-smart agriculture interventions seem to be needed and available. But with many interventions, they face barriers such as risk aversion, loss of local knowledge, and limited access to agronomic and market information, which may cause hesitance to adopt diversification strategies. So what can make the adoption of new technologies and practices easier?
Diversified farm systems can provide a safety net in case of price fluctuations or other disruptions to crop value chains, allowing farmers to adapt their farm systems to climate change and provide increased food security and improved income. Can’t these benefits outweigh the aversion to adopt?
Can agricultural development practitioners and researchers collaborate with farmers by following steps to assist them in decision-making regarding on-farm diversification of cropping, pasture, and agroforestry systems? Enabling an environment for on-farm diversification can be established through networks of agricultural innovation that link farmers and organisations with private companies, public organisations, NGOs, and research institutes.
We are joined by three speakers, supporting that the way forward is working with farmers to create diversified production systems that integrate high-value crops and traditional food production systems.