Agroecology and the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT

10 March 2025. Brussels. In person meeting of the Collective Action Agroecology. This is a pre-event before the DeSIRA-Lift conference: Boosting agrifood research and innovation cooperation for impact at scale (11-13 March 2025 in Brussels).

Presentation "Agroecology and the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT"
by Carlo FADDA (ABC, Cali) and Liao Yu-Chun

1. Biodiversity for food
and agriculture:
towards more
ecological production
Carlo Fadda, Director Biodiversity
for food and agriculture
Global Lead of Nature Positive
Solutions Initiative

2. The Impact Of Industrial Agriculture
Impact Area
Estimated
Economic Impact Additional Notes
Deforestation
$4.3 to $20 trillion
annually from loss of
ecosystem services
According to FAO agriculture is
responsible for about 90% of
global deforestation, with the
majority of this driven by the
expansion of croplands and
livestock grazing.
Species at Risk
$235 billion to $577
billion annually from
loss of pollination
services alone
According to IUCN, agriculture
contributes to threaten 86% of
the endangered species.
Greenhouse
Gas Emissions
Trillions of dollars due
to the social cost of
carbon (SCC) from
emissions, ranging
from $50 to $150 per
ton of CO2
Up to 37% of emissions,
according to UNEP, are from
agriculture and food systems.
Land
Degradation
$6.3 to $10.6 trillion
annually, about 10% of
global GDP
Affects 40% of global land,
impacting up to 3.2 billion
people. Major causes include
unsustainable agricultural
practices.
Nutrition
3bn malnourished
people and 1bn obese
Health, economic and social
implications
Interconnected

3. www.cgiar.org
The Pillars for a more sustainable food system
Our aim is to produce actionable
science that enables the CGIAR and
broader AR4D ecosystem to plan for
nature-positive agricultural
approaches that promote
productivity in parallel with ZERO
biodiversity loss, ZERO
deforestation, ZERO land
degradation, MINIMAL carbon and
water footprint, ENHANCED
water- and nutrient-cycle
management, and ENHANCED
equity outcomes
Conserve.
Agrobiodiversity
conservation in
situ and ex situ
Manage.
Sustainable
management of
natural
resources
Recycle.
Agro-waste
management
Restore.
Restoration in
degraded land
WP5: Engage.
Social inclusion,
capacity
development
and policy

4. www.cgiar.org
Connections outside
the landscape
are important to
transform landscapes

5. www.cgiar.org
TRUE COST ACCOUNTING (TCA)
METHODOLOGY
TCA is the systematic measurement and
valuation of environmental, social, health,
and economic costs to facilitate
sustainable choices by governments and
food system stakeholders (Baker et al.,
2020; Gemmill-Herren et al., 2021).
Typically accounts for externalities related
to environmental, social, and health costs.
TCA approach is grounded on the TEEB
Agri-food Evaluation framework that
accounts for externalities generated in the
use of natural, human, and social capital.
Source: Impact Institute / True Price,
2020.

6. www.cgiar.org
THE TRUE COSTS OF CROP
PRODUCTION
True costs of food production ($PPP per household)
Vietnam
Structure  of true costs of crop production
 
Kenya Vietnam
Share of
True Costs (%)
Share of
External Costs (%)Share of True
Costs (%)
Share of
External Costs
(%)
Crop production costs (True Costs) 100   100  
Direct crop production costs 70   76  
External crop production costs 30 100 24 100
Environmental 5 16 15 61
Social 25 84 9 39
Kenya

7. www.cgiar.org
Aggregated farms in Kenya
• Two aggregated farms in Kenya for
smallholders to access economies of
scale, restore landscapes, increase
agrobiodiversity & diversify incomes
• Research on nature-positive practices
for improving agrobiodiversity, soil
health and community seed banks;
circular economy status & potential;
true-cost accounting in food systems;
gender-related and other barriers to
nature-positive implementation
• Farmers and stakeholders training on
integrated pest & disease management,
soil and water management, recycling

8. www.cgiar.org
Seeds for Needs: From
Markets to
Conservation 
National and
international
gene banks
Community
seed banks
Data are
used to
detect
demand for
new
varieties
and traits
Environmental
data (soil,
weather) to
assess adaptation

9. www.cgiar.org
It all starts from seeds…..!
50 Community
Seedbanks conserve
and distribute
+5,000 native
varieties from 30
crops to 75,000
farmers (40% men,
60% women).
Value
addition
and
market
access

10. www.cgiar.org
……Which are planted in SOILS
• Soil baseline to analyze the current soil health of Nature+ action farms
for improvement
Kenya India
Agoro East, Jimo East, Vihiga
Akole
Nandurbar

11. www.cgiar.org
Soil health
• Soil nutrient status to analyze and compare the current soil health and performance in terms of farm
productivity, crop residues
• Soil nutrient status to analyze and compare different crops and corresponding management practices by
smallholder farming systems, crop rotation- cereal/ legumes
• Soil biology (microbial diversity)- diverse microbiome, indigenous beneficial microflora, scaling into
product development, taking care of nutrient limitations in soils and self sustance by small holder farmers

12. www.cgiar.org
Recycling agro-waste for resource recovery
Country investment climate for circular
bioeconomy completed for Burkina Faso,
Kenya and India. Colombia and Vietnam
ongoing.
24 circular bioeconomy business models
identified and analyzed across the 5 target
countries
Stakeholder workshops organized to present,
validate and promote circular bioeconomy
models in target countries

13. www.cgiar.org
Restoration and deforestation free actions
•Degraded land needs to be back into production to avoid further
deforestation
•Tree species need to be selected among local species which can
provide additional livelihood benefits to communities AND to improve
diversity
•Tree species need to be adapted to the climate of the future
•Agroforestry of major global commodities needs to be further
developed, using species that are also useful to communities.
•

14. (D4R based tools)
www.diversityforrestoration.org
Colombia
Peru
Ecuador
Belize
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Salvador
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Ghana
Ethiopia
Kenya
(Madagascar)
(Cote d’Ivoire)
(Central African Republic)
Lebanon
Laos
Vietnam
(India)
(Indonesia)
(Malaysia)
Fremout et al 2022 J of
Applied Ecology (most cited
paper in 2023)

15. Building capacity in improved seed systems and verification
www.myfarmtrees.or
g
From Seed to Tree 
•More than 1500 seed collectors
trained
•More than 120 Nurseries registered
•More than 2000 Farmers registered
on Platform 50% women

16. www.cgiar.org
Transforming agroforestry systems
www.cacaodiversity.org
Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua,
Honduras, El Salvador, or
Guatemala Colombia, India Uganda

17. www.cgiar.org
Economic Incentives
•Approaches such as the aggregated farms need to be economically viable
and sustainable. This requires a thorough cost/benefit analysis, access to
finance, market linkages
•Governments need to support the transition towards such approaches by
providing financial incentives (reversing damaging incentives) as well as
through extension service.
•Governments need to support multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary
research programs within NARS.
•Governments and private actors need to pay for restoration ecosystem
services when they contribute to public and/or private goods e.g. using TCA
approaches.
•Strong programs on rural entrepreneurship needs to be put in place to
involve youth in innovative and biodiversity based economy and to make
local communities stronger in marketplaces
•Governments need to make efforts to reduce blockages to use of diversity
(e.g. seed laws) so that communities can benefit from seed and other
planting material production and distribution.

18.  Thanks!