Multifunctional Landscapes that reconcile food production, with ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation

The CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program (MFL SP) is driven by a bold vision of thriving, biodiverse, low-emissions, and healthy landscapes, managed holistically to support both people and the planet. Achieving this vision means transforming how we produce food and steward ecosystems. This vision is operationalized by bringing together the collective strengths of previous CGIAR partnership efforts that converge into a global science platform for action to address complex sustainability challenges across sectors and regions: Agroecology, Nature-Positive Solutions, Livestock and Climate, and the Environmental Health and Biodiversity Impact Area Platform (EHBIAP).

By co-designing solutions with partners, communities, and institutions, the program ensures technologies and practices are relevant and adopted on the ground. These solutions integrate local knowledge, new technologies, ecological practices, and political economy to enhance food production and nutrition while restoring soils, water, and biodiversity. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

In blog one of our “Thriving Landscapes, Vibrant Futures ” Series we share diverse and recent innovations – from seed banks in Africa to agroforestry in the Amazon that the Program is building on to translate its research into real-world impact.  

 Cultivating Diversity: Community Seed Banks and Agrobiodiversity

Enhancing agrobiodiversity is a key pillar of MFL’s solutions. Across several countries in Africa and Asia, the program is helping farming communities conserve and use local crop and tree diversity to improve diets, incomes, and climate resilience. Over 100,000 farmers have benefited from  farmer-led approaches participating in the Nature Positive Initiative and adopting crop, soil, water and waste related technologies. This resulted in increased levels of (agro)biodiversity, access to adapted seeds and crops.

 For instance, community seed banks supported by CGIAR enable farmers to save and exchange a rich variety of seeds, from drought-tolerant grains to nutritious leafy vegetables. This innovation addresses the threat of agrobiodiversity loss, which undermines sustainable food production globally. By safeguarding traditional crop varieties and wild relatives, farmers have a larger toolkit to adapt to climate change and market needs. In Nepal, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and beyond, community seed banks and local tree nurseries empower villages to diversify what they grow, leading to more stable yields, better nutrition, and preservation of genetic resources for future generations. Such efforts show how nutrition-sensitive agriculture can be advanced through local institutions that put seeds and knowledge in farmers’ hands. 

Regenerating Soil and Measuring Success in Agroecology

Using an innovation by the  Agroecology Initiative, farmers, cooperatives and entrepreneurs are also closing loops in soil fertility. In Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Senegal, for example, communities are expanding the use of organic biofertilizers and manures to rejuvenate depleted soils. Rather than relying solely on synthetic inputs, these agroecological practices use compost, animal manure, and bio-inputs (like biopesticides and biofertilizers) to enhance soil health naturally. The demand for such solutions is high, as they help maintain crop yields and resilience in the face of climate stress. By adopting locally available fertilizers and biocontrol’s, farmers improve their productivity and reduce chemical runoff, benefiting both their families’ nutrition and the landscape’s ecology. These on-farm innovations illustrate how agroecology can be scaled by blending scientific research with indigenous knowledge of recycling nutrients.

Another exciting innovation emerging from the Agroecology Initiative is  the Holistic Localized Agroecology Performance Assessment (HOLPA) tool. HOLPA is being developed to address a long-standing challenge: comparisons between agroecological farming and conventional farming often fall short because they use incomplete metrics (for example, only yield per hectare, ignoring ecosystem health or social outcomes). HOLPA instead offers a comprehensive framework that combines global indicators with local, context-specific indicators to evaluate performance of fields, farms, and entire landscapes transitioning to agroecology. The tool involves a process called the Local Indicator Selection Process (LISP), where communities and scientists jointly select indicators that matter locally (such as soil organic matter, diversity of on-farm tree species, dietary diversity in the household, or even cultural value measures). Agroecology also tested HOLPA with results in 8 countries, based on 2,000 household surveys. 

Innovative Land Management

CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program recognizes that sustainable outcomes emerge when diverse stakeholders come together to develop a shared vision for land and water use in their landscape

The Science Program also fosters new ways for farmers to organize and manage their land more holistically. In western Kenya’s Nandi and Vihiga counties, groups of smallholders have piloted Nature-Positive “aggregated” farms. By voluntarily pooling portions of their adjacent lands, these farmers can plan land use collectively, dedicating some areas to crops, others to communal pasture, woodlots, or habitat, following permaculture design principles. This landscape-level approach creates economies of scale for implementing agroecological practices (like intercropping, crop-livestock integration, and water harvesting) and for accessing markets. It addresses problems of land fragmentation, low productivity, and poor market access that individual farmers previously faced. With support from CGIAR researchers and local authorities, the clustered farms are co-developing sustainable value chains, for example, growing high-value organic produce and engaging buyers collectively.  

 To tackle the problem of land restoration and promote the [planting of native tree species, the   Nature Positive Initiative developed My Farm Trees digital platform, featured in the CGIAR Flagship Report, successfully achieved farmer- and community-led tree-based restoration of degraded landscapes with over 6,000 smallholder farmers and more than 200,000 trees growing in Kenya, Vietnam, and India. This innovation uses blockchain to create a transparent link of information from seed collection to tree growth, to improve livelihoods, food security and climate mitigation. 

 Participatory Approaches for Harmonious Rangeland Management

Moreover, the Livestock and Climate Initiative has significantly advanced participatory rangeland management (PRM) practices across 2.3 million hectares, including designated conservation zones. This initiative has successfully engaged local communities in collective governance and management of grazing lands, leading to improved rangeland health, biodiversity conservation, and enhanced resilience to climate variability.  In northern Tanzania, the CGIAR Research Initiative on Livestock and Climate has demonstrated the power of joint village land use planning to manage shared resources. Here, neighboring pastoral and farming communities faced recurrent land conflicts – grazing areas overlapped with farming expansion, and administrative boundaries impeded the movement of livestock.

Working with local government authorities, researchers and NGOs facilitated a process where multiple villages came together to plan land and water use over a vast communal landscape (over 150,000 hectares of rangelands). Through inclusive village assemblies and inter-village councils, stakeholders mapped out zones for grazing corridors, farming, settlement, and conservation. They negotiated rules to govern these zones – for example, protecting critical dry-season pastures and wildlife areas, while designating farmland in more suitable locations. The result was an agreed-upon land-use plan that spans administrative boundaries and has been formally recognized by district authorities. This plan not only reduces conflict but also improves land management – communities are now restoring degraded grazing lands and better regulating resource use according to the collectively devised plan.

Integrating Innovations for Thriving, Resilient Landscapes

Each innovation, whether recycling waste, diversifying crops, or reorganizing farm collaboration, contributes to the broader mosaic of a sustainable landscape.   Adapted to specific contexts in combination  (as “bundles”), these solutions can be greater than the sum of their parts, enhancing food and nutrition security, building climate resilience, and conserving nature. This is how MFL SP’s overarching vision of equitable, resilient eco-agrifood systems comes to life one landscape at a time, charting a path toward sustainable development within planetary boundaries.

Author : Regina Edward – Uwadiale, CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes