Agri-system histories and trajectories: crops, landscapes, and heritage

We aim to create a holistic framework to study traditional agri-systems within their local agroecological, cultural, and historical settings, focusing on Tigray in the northern Ethiopian Highlands. Globally, agrobiodiversity has declined markedly since the mid-twentieth century, partly prompted by a focus on developing a narrow range of high-yielding crop varieties, shifts to mechanisation, intensive irrigation and the use of agro-chemicals.

Genetic diversity within crops is largely preserved in small holdings, making them important areas for in situ conservation of crop landraces (local varieties). Ethiopia is a key location to study agrobiodiversity and the ways it is created and maintained within cultural systems as the Ethiopian Highlands are one of the centres of crop diversity famously identified by Vavilov, and are characterised by both indigenous crops and secondary diversity in several others.

This diversity has been preserved in enclaves of the highlands, alongside traditional food processing and non-mechanised farming. Local crop landraces together with associated traditional practices and knowledge are, however, increasingly endangered due to new agricultural methods, urbanisation, and land use change. Northern Ethiopia is important to study as it is more drought prone, and experiences higher levels of food insecurity than central and southern zones.

Droughts are increasing in frequency, and the region is feared to be particularly vulnerable to climate change.

It is not possible to fully understand local agricultural trajectories without studying soils and erosion histories, how land use (especially phases of terracing) influences soil variability over time, and documenting people's perceptions of landscape change. Crop diversification and soil preservation are essential for future resilience in the Tigray region.

The project is urgently needed to capture knowledge from elderly farmers to determine any changes in crop/landrace roles and the ecological advantages or use properties of these crops. The relationship between land modification, soils and changing patterns of agrobiodiversity can be especially studied in Tigray due to detailed datasets available to the project on terrace development since the 1970s.

These datasets will enable us to distinguish traditional and modern categories of land-use and erosion mitigation, and hence to study the legacy and efficacy of terraces over time. Also, by distinguishing local vs introduced terracing, we will contribute to studies of landscape as local heritage.

The project will establish a new multidisciplinary, international and cross-sector research partnership to study agriculture, crops and food systems within different agro-climatic zones across Tigray. We will undertake fieldwork to design and pilot interdisciplinary research methods to study traditional agri-systems, and will assess and locate a range of suitable case-study areas (e.g. contrasting local environments, preservation of traditions, connecting with local NGOs, or local archaeological projects that provide useful contextual data on long-term environmental histories).

Methods development and pilot research will investigate (i) relationships between local crop choices, environments and cultural influences together with the main reasons for change; (ii) the ways in which current farming strategies are influenced by local patterns of soil variation, landscape modification (especially terraces), and erosion histories; and (iii) the ongoing relationship between traditional agricultural systems and cultural heritage (such as items made from crop-processing by-products, material culture connected with food processing, agricultural landscapes, intangible heritage such as songs sung during threshing).