Collaboration between The Netherlands and CGIAR to strengthen the Science Program on Multifunctional Landscapes

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The Netherlands (NL) – CGIAR research programme contributes to transformational change in agriculture around the world by advancing food system knowledge and joint public and private innovation. The programme is part of the strategic partnership between the Government of the Netherlands and CGIAR, now entering its second phase (2024–2030), focuses on advancing sustainable food systems knowledge, objectives which are also key to CGIAR’s Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program (MFL). Building on this synergy, the MFL program is delighted to welcome three scientists who will contribute their expertise to furthering the shared goals of sustainable landscapes and resilient food systems.

Pablo Tittonell

Pablo Tittonell is Professor of Agroecology and Sustainable Landscapes at the University of Groningen, and Senior Associate Researcher at the French International Cooperation Centre for Agricultural Research and Development (CIRAD). He holds a WWF-endowed Chair on Resilient Landscapes for Nature and People at the Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences, and has been nominated Principal Research Scientist by Argentina’s National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET) since 2017, formerly with a seat at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. He holds a PhD in Production Ecology and Resource Conservation, and his areas of expertise include agroecology, soil fertility, biodiversity and systems analysis.

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Pablo contributes to the Science Program by enhancing understanding of the role that social movements and organizations play in scaling out program outcomes. He will support the Program in fostering more effective engagement with these groups and advise on country-specific strategies to expand the reach of food system innovations in agroecology, nature-positive solutions, and related areas.

Key messages from Pablo Tittonell

In two recent events organized by the Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program, Pablo shared his insights, sharing reflections on how we can work efficiently at the landscape level to protect, manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems, while fostering landscape diversity and advancing nature-driven agricultural landscapes. * Here are some of his key messages:

Integrating ecological and social processes: To address landscape-level challenges, it is imperative that we work on both ecological and social processes simultaneously. One particularly effective tool is the co-creation of storylines or community-based timelines, which help trace landscape transformations over time. This historical lens, when combined with the development of typologies, allows us to target interventions more precisely. Landscapes are not just spatial entities; they are temporal, geospatial, and deeply cultural. Recognizing this multidimensional character is essential in designing context-sensitive solutions.

Working across farms for landscape multifunctionality: When considering ecological processes, we must work across farms, leveraging the diversity among them for multifunctional purposes—including biodiversity conservation, ecological regulation, and livelihood resilience. Research increasingly shows that landscape-level processes often override plot-level management in shaping ecological outcomes, particularly regarding ecosystem regulation. Therefore, while nutrient efficiency on individual farms is important, what truly matters is overall system efficiency at the landscape scale.

Scaling Solutions with Caution and Context: Scaling agroecological solutions at the landscape level remains a complex endeavor. One key insight is that there are no one-size-fits-all designs. Each farm is unique, and while we cannot replicate exact farm designs, we can transmit and share knowledge. Transitions must be gradual and co-designed with farmers to ensure buy-in. We must acknowledge the challenge of engaging a critical mass of farms within a landscape to enact transformative change. The transmission of landscape-level objectives into tangible, farm-level actions requires patience, trust-building, and iterative learning.

Embedding Landscape Diversity into Value Networks: Finally, to truly foster landscape diversity, we must look beyond the field and farm toward the broader bio-economic system. This means rethinking conventional value chains and embracing the concept of value networks. Such networks are more flexible and capable of optimizing interventions not just for economic output but for ecological and social value. By embedding diversity and circularity at every level—from production to processing to consumption—we strengthen the agroecological foundation of our landscapes.

*Pablo Tittonell recently intervened in two events:

–   A side event at CGIAR’s Science Week 2025 on Leveraging agroecology and regenerative agriculture across multifunctional landscapes

–   A planning workshop of a project on Improving biodiversity and ecosystem health in climate-stressed agricultural landscapes in Africa and Latin America

Jeroen Groot

Jeroen Groot is an associate professor of Farming Systems Ecology (FSE) at Wageningen University. Jeroen specialized in farming systems analysis, model-informed landscape planning and design, and participatory modelling and gaming. He holds a PhD in Agronomy and MScs in grassland science, animal physiology, and tropical animal husbandry. He performed post-doc research in national and international projects concerning nutrient cycling, modeling sustainability indicators, and design of mixed farms in multifunctional landscapes dominated by dairy farming systems. Currently, Dr Groot has a coordinating role in integrated landscape and farming systems analysis addressing multi-scale issues of productivity, natural resource management, human nutrition and equitability for CGIAR Science Programs on Multifunctional Landscapes and Sustainable Farming.  Jeroen has a long-standing collaboration with CGIAR, through a variety of programs, like Humidtropics, MAIZE, WHEAT and ’Roots, Tubers and Bananas’, and the initiatives on Nature-Positive Solutions and Mixed Farming Systems. Jeroen also collaborated with various CGIAR centers while implementing the USAID-funded Africa RISING program.

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Jeroen is contributing to exploring how systems-based landscape approaches can be designed, analyzed, and operationalized to address complex social, ecological, and institutional challenges. In addition, Jeroen will contribute the development of a conceptual framework that will guide co-defining priority areas of intervention, co-identifying context-specific and tailored solutions, co-implementing options and generating evidence of performance.

Jeroen has already become an integral member of the MFL team. He actively participated in CGIAR Science Week, contributing to several side events, and took part in the in-person meeting held in April 2025, which focused on developing a detailed roadmap for the Science Program and co-developing a framework to guide landscape transformation through systems approaches. Additionally, Jeroen has engaged in various meetings across the different AoWs, offering valuable and well-informed contributions.

Eric Schranz

Eric Schranz is the Chair and Professor of the Biosystematics Group at Wageningen University & Research. He also serves on the advisory board of Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam and the scientific advisory board for The Dutch Biodiversity Centre (Naturalis). Eric specializes in plant evolutionary genomics, focusing on understanding the genetic mechanisms that drive plant diversity and adaptation, including crop wild relatives and minor crop domestication. His work emphasizes comparative genomics, integrating genetics, ethnobotany, bioinformatics, and evolutionary biology, with the aim of contributing to global food and nutrition security.

Within the CGIAR Science Program on Multifunctional Landscapes, Eric will lead and contribute to research on agrobiodiversity, ethnobotany, and comparative genomics of key neglected and underutilized root and tuber crops. In collaboration with CGIAR scientists and national partners, the team will investigate the evolution, genetics, uses, and spatial distribution of native crops vital to landscape-level food patrimonies. This includes work on cocoyam and taro in indigenous landscapes of Colombia, Peru, and Vietnam, alongside the development of innovative tools such as citizen science platforms for landrace monitoring through youth engagement. In each country, PhD students and early-career scientists will be mentored, with an emphasis on fostering innovation and building skills for the in-situ conservation of agrobiodiversity. Two PhD students, embedded within national genebank systems, have already been selected to work on taro and cocoyam agrobiodiversity with Colombian, Peruvian and Vietnamese landscapes.  Zahara Lucia Lasso Paredes from AGROSAVIA, Colombia, will study the ethnobotany, landrace diversity and biogeography of cocoyam and taro in different ethnic communities in Colombia and Peru aiming to track the conservation status from transdisciplinary perspective.  Lưu Thị Thúy from the Field Crop Research Institute (FCRI), Vietnam, will work very closely with the Plant Resources Center (PRC) on the phylogenetics and genomic diversity of taro populations maintained in- and ex-situ in the crop’s center of origin.

 

 

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