The conference will focus on the future of agricultural landscapes and the role of technology and actors in their transformation. In particular, discussions will focus on the synergies and trade-offs between different environmental goals such as preventing biodiversity loss, adapting to climate change, conserving soils and their functions, and reducing chemical inputs. The potential of emerging technologies and socio-technological innovations, including agricultural digitalization and biotechnological innovations, will also be explored in the context of transforming agroecosystems.

The conference will delve into the political, socio-economic and cultural aspects of transformation. That includes both positive and negative social consequences, the role of policy and actors' behaviours, their interactions and their contribution to the knowledge co-production. This conference provides a unique opportunity for researchers to come together to share their knowledge and experiences in transforming agroecosystems. The discussions and presentations at LANDSCAPE 2024 will help lay the foundation for a more sustainable future for agriculture in the EU and worldwide and provide insights for policymakers and practitioners to make informed decisions.

Visions

The future of agricultural landscapes and their agroecosystems is a topic of great attention and debate, with many initiatives and political agenda set in place to ensure their sustainable development. The short to middle-term outlook involves setting concrete goals and targets, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (2030), UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2030), Pesticide-free Agriculture for Biodiversity Conservation (2030), and the EU Green Deal (2050). These goals are crucial for the transformation of agricultural landscapes, but it is equally important to develop long-term visions to identify transformation pathways for upcoming decades under global change including climate change. These visions should take into account the future function and management methods of the transformed agricultural landscapes, as well as prepare political frameworks and enhance capacity building to meet the changes as a society. The possibilities to harmonize different goals, such as prevention of biodiversity loss, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, conservation of soils and their functions, healthy and sustainable food security, and reduction of synthetic chemical inputs, will be discussed. Additionally, the conference provides a platform for the presentation of such visions from all over Europe and will facilitate a discussion of promising strategies. The conference will also discuss the role of science in realizing these visions, in identifying the new research questions and research frontiers and in implementing the actions necessary to bring the visions to reality/stakeholder/outcome.

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Technologies

Emerging technologies play a crucial role in transforming agricultural landscapes towards increased productivity, sustainability, social acceptability and resilience in the face of global change. For instance, precision agriculture with digitalization optimizes crop yields, improves resource efficiency, and reduces environmental impact. Conservation agriculture with technology-supported practices such as no-till farming, crop rotation, crop microbiome management and pesticide-reduction will lead to improved soil health and increased biodiversity. Intercropping and relay-cropping offer the possibility to dramatically increase crop yield and resource use efficiency. These new agricultural landscapes and systems will call for new technologies such as phenotyping, plant breeding, remote and proximal sensing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and microbiome management including alternative biocontrol applications and strategies. The understanding of the complex ecosystem as well as the value chain can be improved through technology, providing farmers, consumers and policy-makers a decision support to conduct their management in a sustainable manner. We invite researchers to contribute their knowledge and research on promising technologies and their limitations in transforming agricultural landscapes.

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Actors

​Actors play a central role in the transformation of agricultural landscapes, often considered as locked-in situations, as their actions and interactions across social, cultural, political, economic, technological, and environmental spheres significantly influence the outcomes of this transformation. In particular, the transformation of agroecosystems may require significant systemic and structural shifts, including changes to actors’ behaviors, values, norms, and interests, as well as novel regulatory regimes and financial institutions. As intentional transformations may lead to both positive and negative social consequences, better understanding and considering aspects of social and environmental justice is required. To facilitate systemic change with impact at the landscape level, change in behavior will have to be coordinated across and within actor groups. This calls for an inclusive process of co-designing and co-implementing research and policy, which involves both, directly and indirectly affected stakeholders. Open science and living lab approaches offer new prospects for producing new knowledge and drawing transition trajectories. Under this theme, we invite research on the economic, policy and socio-cultural aspects of this transformation. This includes the interdependence of diverse actors and how their norms, values, behaviors, and interactions contribute to the vision and processes of a just transformation. Moreover, the conference will address the role of socio-technological innovations and knowledge co-production in creating high-quality and socially robust knowledge that can lead to effective solutions and the transformation of agricultural landscapes.