Degraded or abandoned agricultural land is under restoration in an area with a mediterranean climate, and a high risk of desertification. Plantations are based on indigenous forest species, mainly holm oak and cork oak, to ensure a sustainable mature forest in the future.
Approximately 20,000 hectares of degraded land is being rehabilitated land using assisted natural regeneration, enrichment planting and agroforestry. The resultant secondary forests and agroforests will have high values for ecotourism, sequester substantial amounts of carbon, produce a range of in-demand commodities (e.g., coffee, spices), generate bioenergy, and offer improved ecosystem services.
Transforming a monocrop coconut farm into a resilient food forest can sustainably enhance soil health, biodiversity and productivity while reducing labour and external input requirements. This demonstrates the potential to increase yields and provide long-term economic and ecological stability for farmers.
The technology integrates off-grid soil-less cultivation within a net house, utilizing solar-powered root zone cooling and ultra-low energy irrigation, thus significantly enhancing water and energy efficiency for sustainable agriculture in arid regions. This innovation is a key contribution within the Water-Energy-Food Nexus, addressing the unique challenges of food production in the Middle East.
The group micro-irrigation (GMI) approach encourages farmers to share water more sustainably by facilitating cooperative management of irrigation resources. The aim is to improve water security and agricultural productivity by promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices and addressing the behavioural factors that influence water resource sharing.
The Decision Support Tool helps decision-makers prioritize sustainable land management practices using the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus, fostering collaboration, facilitating social learning, and balancing diverse stakeholder interests.
Shallow tillage involves disturbing the upper layer of soil without deep ploughing. It aims to provide a good seedbed, incorporate manure, control weeds, and enhance water infiltration while minimizing soil erosion and compaction. A machine tiller has recently replaced animal traction for this purpose.
Ajoutons qu'un cadre de concertation fut adopté et mise en place pour accélérer l'adaptation, la restauration prometeuse à la bonne concervation des sols. Elle sert aussi à contribuer à l'accélération des bonnes pratiques agricoles et système des productivités.
The integrated wetlands biodiversity conservation project aims to restore wetlands and associated biodiversity. The approach strengthens the resilience of neighbouring marginalized groups to climate change through developing lifelong skills and providing livelihoods support.
The approach focuses on supporting farmers to increase productivity by increasing soil biology and organic matter content, primarily through plant residue and animal waste. Awareness and advocacy are followed by training programs and support for adopting regenerative agricultural practices.
Thadiq pits are water harvesting structures which capture rainfall runoff for planting trees and shrubs. They can also be manually watered. Their size varies, but each Thadiq pit is approximately 2 metres x 1 metre wide and up to 1 metre deep.
The Montado/ Dehesa Agroforestry system contributes to carbon sequestration in Spain and Portugal. The SmartAG app helps in monitoring and management of these systems, providing data available to farmers, producers, and stakeholders.
Organic agriculture is a system of crop cultivation that uses biological methods of pest control and organic fertilizer as substitutes for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. It targets sustainability, enhancement of soil fertility, and biological diversity by aiming to close nutrient cycles while generally prohibiting synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, and growth hormones.
Forests in headwater areas benefit water quality and hydrologic cycling. Furthermore, maintaining and restoring the forest cover in headwater catchments offers other, multiple benefits such as increased soil water retention, intercepted pollution pathways, improved soil, maintained biodiversity and captured carbon dioxide.
Intercropping of grain legumes with cereals is a sustainable agricultural practice in Swiss farming. This involves growing grain legumes (such as peas or beans) alongside cereal crops (like barley or wheat) in the same field, reducing crop failure or yield risk, stabilising the grain legumes, promoting biodiversity and enhancing overall crop yield.
In this approach the inclination of pasture land and its effect on the spread of sun and shadow is used to identify different periods for grazing. This simple approach will raise awareness and provides biological aspects in pasture management. In this approach the vegetation cover of the pasture is linked to the position of the sun. This is specific to mountain areas, where in one location vegetation periods can differ in two spots although they are in the same location.
Pasture calendar services the PUU as part of the implementation of the plan with a specific timeframe and activities. It helps communities in designing intervention with regard to the need of agreed activities in the calendar.
"Pasture and Livestock Management Plan" is a participatory approach which is guiding pasture users, members of Pasture User Unions and Pasture User Groups to develop their action plan on pasture and livestock management. The approach brings together stakeholders, who are involved at any stage in pasture management or can contribute to or impede the implementation of the pasture livestock management plan.