Comments on: Towards Sustainable Diversification

By: Isabelle Baltenweck

Isabelle Baltenweck — Thu, 14 May 2015 18:54:16 +0000

given that we’re testing the hypothesis of ‘sustainable intensification’, this would provide the alternative? so it would be about diversifying the production system and also the food system, towards e.g. insects based food system??

By: Lucy Lapar

Lucy Lapar — Thu, 14 May 2015 16:10:36 +0000

Relevant topic, strong rationale; nice Aziz. If this is intended as a research study, could benefit from a brief elaboration of some testable hypotheses and how it is planned to be explored/tested in the study.

By: Lance

Lance — Thu, 14 May 2015 13:29:39 +0000

In reply to Barry Shapiro. I agree. That would be a natural connection.

By: Alessandra Galie

Alessandra Galie — Thu, 14 May 2015 12:11:31 +0000

Sounds nice but more details are needed. What exactly is sust diversification and what would you like to do about it?

By: Barry Shapiro

Barry Shapiro — Thu, 14 May 2015 10:09:07 +0000

This good idea should be merged with “Climate smart livestock systems”

By: haltshul

haltshul — Thu, 14 May 2015 06:58:09 +0000

I agree with Lance that the specific idea here is not clear. Also, this sounds more like a development project than a research project, in which case, who would be the partners?

By: Lance

Lance — Thu, 14 May 2015 05:38:40 +0000

This is a point made in a recent paper by Polly and myself in which we consider how to apply the sustainable intensification paradigm in drylands (http://livestocksystems.ilri.org/2015/04/20/a-new-perspective-on-the-viability-of-sustainable-intensification-in-drylands/). We mentioned that intensification is one direction, diversification another. Most of what we wrote on diversification got edited out of the final version of the paper, but it does need to be taken seriously.

That being said, is there a set of activities that goes along with this idea? Your description sounds like a principle to observe, not a project to be implemented.