Marcos Lana

• Dr. sc. agr.
• Associate Professor at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Global climate change is projected to disproportionately impact cereal crop yields in developing regions, such as Kenya, due to increased vulnerability and limited adaptation capacity of the population. This study examines the current and projected influence of climate change on maize yields in two major maize-producing counties of Kenya. Utilizing...

This study explores climate-smart agriculture (CSA) adoption and the application of agroecology (AE) principles among Tanzanian smallholders, using a survey of 315 households (HHs). Findings reveal that most CSA adopters integrate several AE principles, though application varies by CSA practices. Socioeconomic factors, like HH head, HH size, land o...

Brazil is one of the world’s largest beer producers and also a major food producer. These activities generate a large amount of residues which, if disposed of inappropriately, can have adverse effects on the environment. The objective of this research was to evaluate the potential of using these residues for both mushroom cultivation (traditional u...

This article analyses the Buckets Revolution, an urban agroecological movement in a Brazilian favela that emerged to address waste management issues. We aim to explore the movement’s achievements in promoting socio-ecological justice in a vulnerable community of the Global South through agroecology, investigating: i) what socio-ecological problems...

Although social learning (SL) conceptualization and implementation are flourishing in sustainability sciences, and its non-rigid conceptual fluidity is regarded as an advantage, research must advance the understanding of SL phenomenon patterns based on empirical data, thus contributing to the identification of its forms and triggering mechanisms, p...

Macro-level landscape patterns are often a result of a strong influence on human decisions at the micro level. The abilities and objectives of decision-makers should be explicitly addressed to improve our understanding of land use transformation. This research explores the factors influencing smallholder farmers to transform their land use while im...

Agricultural production assessments are crucial for formulating strategies for closing yield gaps and enhancing production efficiencies. While in situ crop yield measurements can provide valuable and accurate information, such approaches are costly and lack scalability for large-scale assessments. Therefore, crop modeling and remote sensing (RS) te...

We modelled an intercropping system of cereals and forage legumes and made a scenario assessment where we compared the intercropping system to sole cropped cereals in terms of how different soil and plant related functions were affected.

Maize (Zea mays L.) productivity in Kenya has witnessed a decline attributed to the effects of climate change and biophysical constraints. The assessment of agronomic practices across agroecological zones (AEZs) is limited by inadequate data quality, hindering a precise evaluation of maize yield on a large scale. In this study, we employed the DSSA...

Land degradation continues to be a major concern for agriculture in developing countries, including Tanzania. Agroforestry is one solution that benefits food production and reduces land degradation. However, various challenges hinder its widespread adoption. This study uses an integrated assessment framework, combining MESMIS (an indicator-based su...

Land degradation and forest fragmentation have been prominent issues in the Amazon since the 1970s, primarily driven by the suppression of primary forests due to land use changes. In this study, we propose an innovative approach by integrating artificial neural networks (ANN) and cellular automata Markov chain (CA-MA) models to predict future land...

Agroforestry systems (AFS) upscaling has the potential to integrate sustainability and resilience objectives into agriculture. However, this is a daunting task requiring multi-actor collaboration across public and private sectors at multiple governance levels, coupled with innovative approaches to jointly managing AFS knowledge. Understanding such...

Organic agriculture and organic food have expanded in recent decades but have undergone conventionalisation. Some claim that this contradicts some or all of the principles of ‘health’, ‘ecology’, ‘fairness’ and ‘care’ established by the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movement (IFOAM). It is currently unclear how research on organi...

In low-income countries, the livelihoods of smallholders are affected to different extent by multiple issues, such as food insecurity or low soil fertility, depending on their multiple assets and farming characteristics. In this study, we aim at assessing the current sustainability of households in Tanzania to suggest potential changes in farming s...

Although sunflower production in Tanzania is increasing, smallholder farmers still face a number of constraints that result in poor yields. Lack or inadequate nutrient supply is one of the main factors limiting crop productivity in Tanzania. However, mineral fertilizer is not always easily available and not economically affordable by smallholder fa...

Maize production in low-yielding regions is influenced by climate variability, poor soil fertility, suboptimal agronomic practices, and biotic influences, among other limitations. Therefore, the assessment of yields to various management practices is, among others, critical for advancing site-specific measures for production enhancement. In this st...

*Agroforestry systems such as cacao agroforestry systems (CAFS) have been recognized as an alternative to support the social-ecological transitions toward sustainable agriculture. *CAFS have been mainly promoted in tropical mountain social‐ecological systems (MtSES) through a restricted set of technological packages, but detailed scientific data ar...

Large-scale assessment of crop yields plays a fundamental role for agricultural planning and to achieve food security goals. In this study, we evaluated the robustness of data-driven models for estimating soybean yields at 120 days after sow (DAS) in the main producing regions in Brazil; and evaluated the reliability of the "best" data-driven model...

This article analyzes factors influencing the adoption of kitchen gardens and food and nutrition security implications of kitchen gardens on farming households. For this, the Per Capita Kilocalorie Intake (PKCI) and Food Consumption Score (FCS) were applied as food and nutrition security indicators. This paper is based on cross-sectional data that...

Population growth and increasing demand for agricultural production continue to drive global cropland expansions. These expansions lead to the overexploitation of fragile ecosystems, propagating land degradation, and the loss of natural diversity. This study aimed to identify the factors driving land use/land cover changes (LULCCs) and subsequent c...

Water shortage and soil salinization are important factors restricting crop production worldwide. To conduct accurate yield prediction and reasonable crop layout, more attention should be paid to the performances of crop resistance and resilience under water and salt stress and their trade-off relationships. Here, we set different water (full irrig...

Different factors such as the genotype, environmental conditions, temperature stress, solar radiation and others can influence the phytochemical status of plants. The concentration of phenolic acids and alkylresorciols (ARs) as well as their chemical composition and biological activity have been determined in twelve winter wheat cultivars grown at...

This policy brief explain how Social learning can facilitate designing and scaling out sustainable land-use systems in conflict-affected areas.

Este documento proporciona una guía científicamente sólida para que los tomadores de decisiones ayuden a promover el aprendizaje social en los instrumentos de políticas, fomenten las sinergias y encuentren equilibrios entre los múltiples objetivos de SSUT (Sistemas Sostenibles de Uso de la Tierra). Este resumen de políticas es una continuación de l...

Unlabelled: Agroforestry systems (AFS) are proved to enhance sustainable land management. Thus, there is increasing demand for effective ways to scale up AFS so that more people can benefit. Consequently, this study assesses the scaling-up potential of agroforestry systems (AFS) using cacao farming and cattle ranching in Caquetá and Cesar, Colombi...

Cereal crop production in sub-Saharan Africa has not achieved the much-needed increase in yields to foster economic development and food security. Maize yields in the region’s semi-arid agroecosystems are constrained by highly variable rainfall, which may be worsened by climate change. Thus, the Tanzanian government has prioritized agriculture as a...

Silvopastoral systems (SPS)—production systems integrating trees, forages, and livestock within the same land area—are recognized as critical for reducing tropical deforestation and improving livelihoods, ecosystem services, and carbon sinks. Yet, research on how scaling SPS influences forest cover changes at large geographical scales is scant. Our...

Ongoing climate change is already affecting crop production patterns worldwide. Our aim was to investigate how increasing temperature and CO2 as well as changes in precipitation could affect potential yields for different historical pedoclimatic conditions at high latitudes (i.e., >55°). The APSIM crop model was used to simulate the productivity of...

This paper provides an analysis of the land use dynamics observed in the Brazilian part of La Plata Basin (BR-LPB) from 1988 to 2018, including major crops such as maize, soybean, wheat, and sugarcane. It also assesses the perception of farmers and other stakeholders on climate change effects and the design of adaptation strategies. Two case studie...

Crop models can be used to explain yield variations associated with management practices, environment and genotype. This study aimed to assess the effect of plant densities using CSM-CROPGRO-Soybean for low latitudes. The crop model was calibrated and evaluated using data from field experiments, including plant densities (10, 20, 30 and 40 plants p...

Among integrated crop–livestock systems, forage succession is an advantageous strategy for the use of pasture to feed cattle in periods of low rainfall, as well as for the generation of biomass for the no-till system for the next crop. Different species have different abilities to accumulate nutrients in their biomass, which are then released into...

Pastoralism in Ethiopia is under increasing pressure, caught in a downward spiral of resource depletion and diminishing resilience against shocks and stresses. This article identifies determinants of pastoral household resilience to food insecurity in Mille, Afar, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional survey using structured interviews of 99 randomly selecte...

The authors recommended four key measures which will be updated and presented to representatives of the EU institutions on several occasions. The four recommendations are: 1) The phasing out of current subsidies by agricultural area and livestock head, and on energy, large equipment and external inputs. Such subsidies create a strong bias in the p...

The global community recognizes that silvopastoral systems (SPS), which are considered a form of sustainable land use, could reduce forest loss. Studies indicate that SPS can improve livelihoods, provide ecosystem services and act as carbon sinks. What has been missing from the literature, however, is how scaling SPS influences forest cover. Our re...

Weak governance is a major threat to sustainable development, especially in rural contexts and within ecosystems of great social and economic value. To understand and compare its arrangement in the grasslands and wetlands of the Colombian Llanos and the Paraguayan Pantanal, we build upon the Institutional and Development Framework (IAD) as we explo...

A series of factors affect the social perception of hazards in a rural context. This article analyzes how weather conditions influence farmers’ perceptions of natural hazards. In order to understand the relationship between time of year/season and farmers’ concerns about hazards, this study was undertaken. The methodology was based on surveys done...

The 2016 peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP created institutional space for an effective implementation of needed rural reforms. However, the change of power structures also contains risks, like the deterioration of natural resources and the strengthening of other armed groups. By addressing collective perceptions re...

Given the persistent poor livelihood of cocoa-farming households, future climate predictions and the worldwide demand pressure for higher cocoa quality and productivity, there is still a strong need to find new approaches that guarantee a sustainable cocoa future in cocoa-producing countries amongst which Cameroon is one of them. This exploratory r...

Silvopastoral system (SPS) is highlighted as an alternative to conventional cattle farming systems in Colombia, where deforestation, driven by extensive cattle farming, is a severe environmental issue. However, despite its considerable benefits, adoption of SPS remains very limited in Colombia. Thus, the objective of this work is to investigate the...

Increasingly, the developmental model of anthropic and extractive interventions is a global concern. Its impacts are challenging not only the precarious equilibrium of natural resources but also the one of local communities and identities. The case of the Colombian Llanos shows how the local culture of the Cultura Llanera (CL) is deep-rooted with n...

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), many smallholder communities continuously grapple with soil-based poverty as the coarse-textured (sandy) soils, on which they eke out a living, have low water and nutrient retention capacities. The new sub-surface water retention technology (SWRT), which is based on the subsurface installation of impermeable water-retai...

In Colombia, the problem of conflict, illicit crops and land tenure are heavily intertwined, generating much interest for many years. The situation is multidimensional, involving several actors and factors. In last years the country’s situation got even more complex because since the peace agreement got signed, increased deforestation took place, a...

Drought and heat-tolerant crops, such as Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), are priority crops for fighting hunger in semi-arid regions. Assessing its performance under future climate scenarios is critical for determining its resilience and sustainability. Field experiments were conducted over two consecutive seasons (2015/2016 and 2016/2017) to de...

Upgrading local food value chains is a promising approach to invigorating African food systems. This endeavour warrants multi-disciplinary North-South collaboration and partnerships through participatory action research (PAR) to help leverage appropriate upgrading strategies (UPSs) with a focus on local stakeholders. The more disciplines, cultures,...

Rainfed agriculture constitutes around 80% of the world’s agricultural land, achieving the lowest on-farm crop yields and greatest on-farm water losses. Much of this land is in developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where hunger is chronic. The primary constraint of rainfed agriculture—frequently experienced in SSA—is water scarc...

Despite some honorable advances, a huge quantity of public, private, and civil climate adaptation initiatives have failed to work in the Santa Catarina State (SC), Southern Brazil. Consequently, the state continues to face climate impacts; sometimes resulting in human fatalities. The main objective of this paper is to present a case study (Tapera d...

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6439/444.2

Establishing food security in sub-Saharan African countries requires a comprehensive and high resolution understanding of the driving factors of crop production. Poor soil and adverse climate conditions are among the major drivers of poor regional crop production. Drought and rainfall variability challenges are not fully being addressed by rainfed...

Climate change is expected to severely affect cropping systems and food production in many parts of the world unless local adaptation can ameliorate these impacts. Ensembles of crop simulation models can be useful tools for assessing if proposed adaptation options are capable of achieving target yields, whilst also quantifying the share of uncertai...

Process-oriented agro-ecosystem models are increasingly applied to assess crop management options or impacts of climate change on agricultural production, food security and ecosystem services. Thereby, the aggregation of initial soil and climate information is a widely used approach for performing simulations at larger scales such as regions, natio...

A resolution signed in June to allow agricultural development on 35% (40 million hectares) of Colombia’s land could risk compromising the government’s 2016 Peace Agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces (see also Nature 558, 169–170; 2018). The agreement places strict controls on the transformation of national lands and environmentally importa...

Implementing agricultural innovations is key for coping strat-egies in the contexts of climate change and food security(Senyolo et al.2018 ;Bommarcoetal.2018 ). The agriculturalsector is still the central focus for rural development, especial-ly in remote areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Links to Small andMedium-size Enterprises (SMEs), among others, a...

Due to beneficial characteristics of cassava such as robustness and versatility for multiple uses, it can have a major role in contributing to local food security. The objective of this study was to find out whether and how the cultivation of cassava benefits smallholder farmers in the regions of Dodoma and Morogoro, Tanzania. In addition, the stud...

Spatiotemporal rainfall variability and low soil fertility are the primary crop production challenges facing poor farmers in semi-arid environments. However, there are few solutions for addressing these challenges. The literature provides several crop upgrading strategies (UPS) for improving crop yields, and biophysical models are used to simulate...

Modern agriculture has generated complex environmental damages. Sustainable food production models must be encouraged. Agroecology is presented as a more sustainable option, since it brings a holistic view of these complex and interdependent elements: food production and environmental protection. However, this model is challenging to apply, which i...

This work was financially supported by the Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA, MACSUR01-UPM), the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (D.M. 24064/7303/15) through FACCE MACSUR − Modelling European Agriculture with Climate Change for Food Se...

Agriculture has the greatest potential to lift the African continent out of poverty and alleviate hunger. Among the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania has an abundance of natural resources and major agricultural potential. However, one of the most important constraints facing Tanzania’s agricultural sector is the dependence on unreliable and...

Trans-SEC: Regional Food and Nutritional Security inTanzania: Methods, Tools and Applications for participativeAction Research. Part 1.This special issue is composed of 13 papers and representsPart 1 of the papers from the Trans-Sec project. Further paperswill be published in the April 2018 issue of Food Security. Wefocus on the tools, methods and...

Food security has become a major worldwide concern and key policy issue (Stephens et al. 2017; Foley et al. 2011). The topic also gained economic importance through global change. New markets, trade liberalisation, volatile price developments and transport issues also shape agricultural production structures (Dithmer and Abdulai 2017). However, whi...

Food security projects have to use tools to interact with communities in order to approach a chain of interconnected problems, as well as to engage the plurality of community voices/actors in a growing future challenges scenarios. This work presents innovative educational tool developed to engaging community voices to understand food insecurity and...

Sunflower is one of the major oilseeds produced in Tanzania, but due to insufficient domestic production more than half of the country's demand is imported. The improvement of the sunflower food value chain (FVC) understanding is important to ensure an increase in the production, availability, and quality of edible oil. In order to analyse causes a...

Tanzania is the second largest country in East Africa with about 50 million inhabitants in 2014, and it is also considered as one of the poorest countries in the world. The country strongly depends on agriculture production. Like many other poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania sees food security as a central part of development and povert...

Maize is one of the world’s most important cereals, cultivated in a wide range of environments. Besides the importance of maize and the gains in yield from selection schemes, commercial breeding drastically reduced the number of cultivars of this crop. Current common sense states that hybrids, when compared to open-pollinated cultivars, are a bette...

The research aims to propose a conceptual framework to allow the combined use of different models participating in the MACSUR project to improve the understanding of the sunflower FVC in Tanzania, especially within a context of food security improvement.

The sampler of documentarsies on Trans-SEC "Innovating Strategies to safeguard Food Security using Technology and Knowledge Transfer: A people-centred Approach" describes various themes of the project to stabilize the food situation in four communities in Tanzania. See also: www.trans-sec.org, www.facebook.com/transsectanzania

Eragrostis plana is a warm-season perennial grass non-native to Brazil and has become a serious weed in pasture lands of Southern South America. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of environmental factors on seed germination and seedling emergence. Seeds germinated at constant temperatures from 15 up to 40 °C, but germination...

Global and climate changes influence the basic conditions for agriculture. Therefore there is not only a demand for a strict climate protection but also for an adaptation of agriculture to changing conditions. For a study region of 60x40 km within the moraine landscape of North-East Germany mainly used for agriculture, water balance, nitrogen and S...

This review presentsthe methods used to assess soil, pore water and groundwater nutrient levels on farms and agricultural fields. The purpose of this catalog of methods is to provide a basis for evaluating the efficiency of measures for the control of water catchment areas. A Zone monitoring model (ZMM) which is a basis for appropriate monitoring s...

As with any other crop, maize yield is a response to environmental factors such as soil, weather, and management. In a context of climate change, understanding responses is crucial to determine mitigation and adaptation strategies. Crop models are an effective tool to address this. The objective was to present a procedure to assess the impacts of c...

Soybean is a very important crop, cultivated mainly as stock feed for animal production, but also for other uses such as biodiesel. Brazil is the second largest producer of soybeans, and the main exporter. About 10% of total Brazilian production is aimed for biodiesel production. The aim of this work was to assess the impact of climate change scena...

In recent years, the addition of microorganisms such as Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) and mycorrhiza are becoming more popular, both in research as well as in practical use. While inoculants are usually not necessary for plants cultivated outdoors on biologically active soil, they can be useful on sterile substrates, newly created artifici...

The study of psychological barriers and the attribution of social meaning is a complex and subjective process, but essential for the development of strategies to adapt to climate change and land-use management. The objective of this paper is to point out and discuss aspects that comprise climate vulnerability, especially regarding the climate perce...

Eragrostis tenuifolia is a weed species that is gaining ground in Brazil. This weed occurs in pastures, grasslands, crop fields, and roadsides. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of different environmental factors on E. tenuifolia seed germination and seedling emergence. The optimum constant temperature for germination was aroun...

The first documentary on Trans-SEC "Innovating Strategies to safeguard Food Security using Technology and Knowledge Transfer: A people-centred Approach" describes the major objectives of the research project to stabilize the food situation in four communities in Tanzania. See also: www.trans-sec.org, www.facebook.com/transsectanzania

The present work aims to clarify the discursive practices of Brazilian scientific literature on chemical pesticides in order to understand, from a historical perspective, which repertoires are available to give meaning to the use of pesticides in Brazil. It further draws a picture of the positions taken in the technical area, from the creation of t...

Stewardship of fresh water resources is of paramount importance throughout Europe and for all environmental policies now and in the future. The problem has especially affected areas under predominantly agricultural use. The chapter provides an overview of methods used to assess soil, pore water and groundwater nutrient levels on farms and agricultu...

Simulation models are a key instrument for the development of sustainable agricultural management strategies. However, the majority of the existing crop models were designed and parameterised for soils of temperate regions. Consequently the soil simulation routines, embedded in the crop models, are not able to correctly mimic the processes that occ...

The objective of this paper is to reflect and discuss how the use of crop models by aware practitioners might trigger learning of how to think and act differently about the adaptation process of farming systems to climate dynamics. The development of adaptation strategies is discussed from the perspective of contrasting metaphors, since the metapho...

Understanding climate change and its impacts on crops is crucial to determine adaptation strategies. Simulations of climate change impacts on agricultural systems are often run for individual sites. Nevertheless, the scaling up of crop model results can bring a more complete picture, providing better inputs for the decision-making process. The obje...

Food security is one of the main goals of rural poor people. To enhance food security in this context, participatory action research can help to ensure sustained success while considering entire food value chains (FVC). This paper assesses the feasibility and potential success of upgrading strategies (UPS) as well as their assessment criteria as de...

Sustainable rural food systems for poor and vulnerable people need to be locally adapted to enhance food security. This requires participatory action research that considers the entire food value chain (FVC). This paper presents an assessment of the feasibility and potential success of upgrading strategies (UPS) for enhancing food security based on...

Diverse, severe, and location-specific impacts on agricultural production are anticipated with climate change. The last IPCC report indicates that the rise of CO 2 and associated " greenhouse " gases could lead to a 1.4 to 5.8 °C increase in global surface temperatures, with subsequent consequences on precipitation frequency and amounts. Temperatur...