Scaling up from crop to farm level: Co-innovation framework to improve vegetable farm systems sustainability

Abstract

CONTEXTSuccessful scaling up from crop level research to adoption by farmers depends on its practitioners being aware of the constraints that arise as scaling up proceeds. Promising ideas from crop level research are not adopted by farmers in many cases. OBJECTIVEScaling up is explored here in a study conducted in five vegetable farms in south Uruguay, where tomato production was one of the main sources of income. We aimed to evaluate the redesign process at both levels (crop and farm) focusing on: synergies and trade-offs between crop yield and farm system improvement and how critical crop constraints could be solved at farm level. METHODSImproved crop management practices were proposed following yield gap analysis recommendations developed in previous studies, aiming to maximise crop yield and inputs use efficiency. At the farm level, a multi-year plan defining crops choice, crops area and allocation of fields to crops was designed to match resource demands to supply, especially for labour. Redesign plans were implemented for one year, with 66% of redesigned activities adopted at farm level and 86% at crop level. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSWe found several examples where farm system adjustment conflicted with crop yield maximization. We also found constraints prioritised as bottlenecks for crop yield improvement, which require solutions at the farm level. For instance, fertigation problems (quantity and timing) explained part of the yield gap in tomato. Overcoming these constraints requires farm system settings, e.g. adjustment of cropping area to water availability, development of suitable water reservoirs and infrastructure for water distribution and fertilisers injection, besides adjustment of a fertigation plan according to crop demand, soil fertility and greenhouse environment at crop level. Crop yield limiting factors identified through yield gap analysis, considered inside a farm system redesign process, could be a powerful tool to better targeting crop management recommendations to overall farm performance improvement. SIGNIFICANCEThe consideration of farm systems as a whole showed greater economic and environmental impacts than focusing only on the main crop due to synergies and trade-offs among farm system components. Multi-scale analysis showed that recommendations from crop research need to be tailored to farm context and objectives considering synergies and trade-offs.