Subproject 4: Livelihoods and farming systems
Aims:
We aim to better understand processes and options for crop-based (Workpackage Crops) and livestock-based activities (Workpackage Rangelands). Our ultimate goal is to help farmers achieve resilience in their livelihoods, and to cope better with future climatic conditions.
Approach:
To generate results on spatial and temporal scales relevant for decision-making, we combine experiments with field observations and modelling. Our findings are integrated in dynamic models (crop models and rangeland models) to better understand the opportunities for increasing productivity and decreasing risk in crop and livestock production in Limpopo.
- In our on-station experiments we aim to understand management options in face of scarce and variable rainfall such as resting schemes of rangelands in face of drought (DroughtAct experiment), or rainwater harvesting and conservation agriculture on croplands (WaterHarvest AND Water & Nutrient Capture experiment).
- Our field observations and on-farm experiments concentrate on the LLL (core villages) to facilitate a close cooperation with other subprojects.
- We harness farmers' local knowledge in LLL core villages for assessing functional interactions within the social-ecological systems.
- Our findings are integrated in dynamic models (crop models and rangeland models) to better understand the opportunities for increasing productivity and decreasing risk in crop and livestock production in Limpopo.
Links to other subprojects:
Our subproject has close links to other SPs via a common focus on the productivity and state of rangeland vegetation and crop land (SP1, SP3), as well as the role of functional diversity for crop and rangeland performance within agricultural landscapes (SP2).