Bayer, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and ETH Zurich (ETH) have joined forces to develop nature-based solutions that counteract biodiversity loss on farms. 

The research collaboration is focused on a global scale and a particular focus on broadacre crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans, grown in simplified agricultural landscapes such as in the US Midwest.

Biodiversity loss has increased alarmingly in the last several decades. This is primarily attributed to land-use change, deforestation, climate change, some crop management practices, and pollution in agriculture. 

The challenge is to safely feed a growing population while preserving natural resources and reducing agriculture’s impact on the environment.

Addressing biodiversity
One way to address biodiversity loss is to shift toward approaches to food production that allow to maintain and support biodiversity, such as the conservation of habitats in the agricultural landscape. 

This involves rethinking how farmers grow certain crops to restore biodiversity on farms and at landscape scales. This could include embracing and adopting new technologies and innovations within agriculture and developing new business models that help farmers gain value from biodiversity-positive farming.

“Agriculture accounts for forty percent of the world’s land surface and is therefore in a prime position to play a role in restoring much of the biodiversity we have lost,” says Jaboury Ghazoul, professor of ecosystem management at ETH Zurich. 

“To do so, we scientists need to work closely with farmers, policymakers, and the agriculture industry to develop new farming approaches that deliver environmental benefits while maintaining quality food production and viable incomes to farming communities.”

Support for farmers
Sustainable innovations and new business models will empower farmers to achieve this balance, which is why Bayer, IFPRI and ETH are committed to developing the right solutions that will help farm operations thrive together with biodiverse ecosystems.

Over the next several months, the first phase of the partnership will begin with interactive farmer engagement that will examine current challenges and risks farmers face to help inform and validate the identification of potentially scalable solutions and business models. Overall, the research collaboration consists of six components:

• Continuous farmer engagement to test and validate the ability to implement the scientific findings
• Development of a framework to assess how agriculture practices affect environmental sustainability, as well as the costs and constraints of farming practices that support biodiversity
• Review the benefits and trade-offs of proposed solutions from conservation, agronomic, and farmer acceptability perspectives
• Explore technical innovations as enablers of habitat conservation measures.
• Assess spatial distributions and patterns of crop production to identify hot spots of simplified cropping systems
• Creation of outreach materials readily accessible to farmers, policymakers, and other relevant agencies

“Biodiversity is critical to the ecosystem services that we all rely on for our health, our livelihoods and even our spiritual well-being,” notes Wei Zhang, a senior research fellow at IFPRI. 

“Supporting these ecosystem services and producing enough healthy food to feed growing global populations requires this sort of collaborative, evidence-based approach that considers how we improve agricultural systems to the benefit of farmers, consumers and our environment.”

Led by ETH and IFPRI, the consortium consists of several research partners from the four countries in focus: Iowa State University (US), University of São Paulo (Brazil), INRA (France) and ZALF (Germany), as well as scientific partners at the University of Maryland and the University of Queensland. 

The collaboration will leverage its scientific and farmer networks and tap into its comprehensive research, insights and experiences in biodiversity and agriculture.

“Farmers can lead the way toward a biodiversity-positive future for agriculture through collaborative contributions to innovation, enabling policies and business models that pay farmers for ecosystem services,” notes Sara Boettiger, head of public affairs, science and sustainability for the crop science division of Bayer.