Crop diversification is critical to sustainable agriculture, offering opportunities to utilise positive interactions between different crops to increase productivity and resilience, and minimise the need for economically and environmentally costly agricultural inputs. EcoDiv investigates how ‘option by context’ interaction determines the contribution of crop diversification to food security for smallholder farmers in southern Africa, with a focus on Zambia. EcoDiv has three research objectives:
(1) Quantify how the crop production differs among crop configuration options under different environmental conditions.
(2) Identify which crop configuration options can best meet different socioeconomic needs in different environments.
(3) Investigate whether differences in crop configuration performance are determined by their effects on and interactions within the field microhabitat (temperatures, moisture, soil organic matter and nitrogen, and weed, pest, and disease pressure).
In parallel to these research objectives, EcoDiv seeks to develop the career of the lead researcher, Chloe MacLaren, and to establish a collaborative relationship between the EU host, SLU’s Department of Crop Production Ecology, and the outgoing host, CIMMYT Zimbabwe.
EcoDiv collaborates with the larger project ‘Sustainable Intensification for Smallholder Farmers in Zambia’ (SIFAZ) led by CIMMYT, FAO and Zambia’s Ministry of Agriculture. EcoDiv’s societal impacts are realised through its contributions to future research, extension and policy activities undertaken by these organisations.
