Homegardens as a strategy to contribute to a sustainable future

through Multifunctional Agriculture

As agricultural activities have a significant impact on Earth systems, consequently triggering the planetary boundaries and threatening the livelihood of millions of species, it is essential to focus on a new model of agriculture that contributes to building a sustainable era for all. Thus, the following sub-sections explore the potential role of multifunctional homegarden agroecosystems as a strategy to contribute to sustainable development.

2.4.1 Evolution of sustainable development concept

The first United Nations (UN) Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 has first brought global attention to the challenge of maintaining sustainability while attaining economic growth and development (UN, 1972). That same year, the book "The Limits to Growth" published by the Club of Rome, correctly pointed out that unless drastic changes are made very soon to stop the continual growth in population and production without considering the limits of Earth's finite resources, our social and economic system will collapse, possibly within as little as 70 years (Meadows, Meadow, Randers, and Behrens, 1972).

This study of the future caused shock waves and concern among the international community of scientists, environmentalists, and policymakers.

Later, the authors of the publication entitled “World Conservation Strategy: Living Resource Conservation for Sustainable Development” argued that human beings must consider the reality of resource limitation and the carrying capacity of the ecosystems during the process of economic development. The primary purpose of this document was to help advance the achievement of sustainable development through the conservation of living resources (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource [IUCN], United Nations Environment Program [UNEP], and World Wildlife Fund [WWF], 1980).

31 In 1982, the term sustainable development was adopted and popularized in the report generally known as the Brundtland Commission, presented by the chairwoman Gro Harlem Brundtland of the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development. According to Brundtland (1987), the classic definition of sustainable development relates to the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

(Source: UN, 2015).

The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 also emphasized the intergenerational concept of sustainable development. And it was declared as a fundamental principle, i.e., development today must not threaten the needs of present and future generations. Later, at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002, the intergenerational concept of sustainable development evolved into a holistic developmental approach that integrated three components- environmental protection, economic and social development - as Figure 9. Sustainable development goals of the 2030 agenda.

32 interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development (WSSD, 2003). Finally, scientists and developmental strategists again emphasized the three dimensions (environmental sustainability, economic development, and social inclusion) of sustainable development on the twentieth anniversary of the Rio summit, i.e., during the Rio+20 Summit ("The Future We Want") by the year 2012 (UN, 2012).

The call for the world leaders to create a new global agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in "The Future We Want" was implemented by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN-SDSN), which proposed ten SDGs, each one with three associated specific targets as well as more than ten numerical indicators to track progress on the goals and targets (Sachs, 2015).

Later, the adopted resolution of “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development” was a plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity which established 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Figure 9) and 169 targets to demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda (UN, 2015).

2.4.2 Towards a new model of agriculture

As mentioned earlier, current challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, and other environmental problems that exist very severely in different parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, require immediate attention. In recent years, faced with these urgent needs, scientists and developmental strategists began to seek a new model of agriculture at different scales (global, national, regional, and local) to mitigate adverse environmental effects and at the same time to meet current demands without compromising the needs of future generations to achieve sustainable development.

To be specific, due to the increased awareness about these adverse effects (on environment and society) of intensive and high-input agricultural practices in the 1970 and 1980s, the concept of multifunctionality of agriculture (concerning food security and sustainable development) got global attention. And during the

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“Agenda 21”, FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) and other institutions focused their attention on new aspects of agriculture that would allow addressing issues such as food security, productivity, and sustainability in the future, and crystallized these ideas in the concept of "Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development" (SARD), which proposes to promote sustainable development (in the agricultural, fishing and forestry sectors) to conserve land, water, plant, and animal genetic resources, (without degrading the environment), doing so technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable (UN, 1992;

FAO, 1999).

2.4.3 Multifunctional Agriculture

The concept of the multifunctional character of agriculture and land (MFCAL) derived from SARD (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development) and constituted the new paradigm founded on the notion that all agricultural systems are intrinsically multifunctional, encompassing the full range of environmental, economic, and social functions associated with agriculture and the corresponding use of land. The analysis of this multifunctional character helps to understand the combination of synergies and balances necessary to achieve sustainability in agricultural and rural development (FAO, 1999; Organization for Economic Co- Operation and Development [OECD], 2011).

In this sense, this concept represents a way of analyzing the activity from a more comprehensive perspective since it contemplates the totality of products, services, and externalities that agriculture provides in a given space, which has an either direct or indirect impact on the economy, environment and society (Aldington, 1998; Jessel, 2006, Van Huylenbroeck, Vandermeulen, Mettepenningen, and Verspecht, 2007; Kopeva, Peneva, and Madjarova, 2010).

In general, according to Beverly, Herren, Wakhungu, Judi, and Watson (2009), the concept of multifunctionality refers to agriculture as a multi-productive activity.

It produces primary products such as food, feed, fibers, biofuels, medicinal and

34 ornamental plants, environmental, landscape, and cultural heritage services. And for this reason, it is proposed that the management or design of agricultural policy should be aimed at achieving an optimal balance between social, environmental, and economic objectives (Figure 10).

(Source: Beverly et al., 2009).

2.5 Promotion of traditional agroecosystems for sustainable livelihoods