The future of agriculture lies in using ecological knowledge to make production systems more environmentally sustainable without sacrificing yield.
With a range of agroecological research projects taking place, and courses teaching sutsainable agricultural practices and agroecological concepts, Lincoln University is leading the way in this area.
“We have to feed nine-and-a-half billion people in a couple of decades and it can’t be done using current practices,” says Lincoln University Ecology Professor Steve Wratten. “Land use change in all its forms is the biggest cause of climate change – not cars and buses, not aeroplanes.
“We need to consider the contribution that ecosystem services (or nature’s services) can make towards a clean, green future.”
Professor Wratten’s areas of expertise include ecology, biological control of pests and enhancing nature’s services on farmland.
He is a proponent of using non-crop plants to provide SNAP (shelter, nectar, alternative food and pollen) to help natural enemies of pests.
“This approach restores and enhances ecosystem services in agriculture, thereby improving the environment,” he says.
Professor Wratten has previously carried out research on the tall Chinese grass, Miscanthus x giganteus (Mxg), which can create shelter on irrigated dairy farms.
Mxg is a fast-growing, sterile hybrid biofuel grass that grows up to 4m tall and produces a crop each year without needing to be replanted. It has the potential to increase dairy farm income, as it can be harvested and used to make renewable diesel.
Former Lincoln University PhD student Chris Littlejohn, who worked with Professor Wratten on the project, discovered many other ecosystem service benefits from using Mxg on dairy farms, including providing shelter for stock and generating extra pasture growth.
To ensure that agroecological principles are part of Lincoln students’ education from the beginning of their studies, the first-year introductory course, LINC101, teaches concepts relating to sustainability and sustainable land use.
LINC101 – Land, People and Economies, is a compulsory course for students studying for the Bachelor of Agriculture and Bachelor of Agricultural Science degrees.
“The course leads with information about the ‘big picture’, so when students come to Lincoln in the first semester, they begin their university careers learning about agroecology,” Professor Wratten said.
“LINC101 covers details on the challenges farming is undergoing globally and the solutions available.”
In addition, Lincoln offers an undergraduate 300-level paper called Agroecology, ECOL 309.
Improving soil health, understanding the management of nutrients and pests, diversifying grazing systems and integrating forestry into agricultural systems (agro-forestry) are the main topics of study.
Lincoln University also offers, in partnership with the BHU Organics Trust, the Diploma in Organic Agri-Food Production.
The growing popularity of organic production in recent years means that some graduates are now teaching primary and secondary school students about the importance of sustainable farming and gardening and embedding the philosophy into the education system.
Professor Wratten says there is a great deal of global interest in sustainable agriculture, with the amount of research in the area increasing rapidly over the past few decades.
One Lincoln student with a commitment to agroecological principles is Joel Faulkner, who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Conservation and Ecology) with Honours. His goal is to lead the agricultural industry into a new era of sustainability.
A few months ago, he was invited to Brazil to study how very large farmed areas are managed sustainably for effective pollination.
“It was a life-changing experience for me,” he says.
He has now been selected from 60 applicants to conduct a PhD on sustainable management of clover pests and this may lead to a visit to collaborators in France.
“I want to work in landscape management, encouraging bigger companies to use more dynamic systems,” Joel says. “Larger, wild spaces provide ecosystem services that we can get food from and it’s about working with a whole landscape rather than individual farms.”
During his Honours degree, Joel gained plenty of experience through professors and other faculty staff, which helped him decide what he wants to do in the future.
“I have realised that my main goal is to research agricultural methods that don’t damage the environment for the sake of a company’s short-term profit.”
Lincoln University has the expertise and the connections to ensure that new generations of students can follow in Joel’s footsteps and learn to help change the agricultural industry for the better.
These ambitions are supported by a recent multi-author international publication* (including Prof Wratten as an author), which clearly showed that agricultural biodiversity really does increase yields.
*A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax0121