How to square the circle? A conceptual framework synergising strategies for circular agriculture to tackle climate change and enhance overall on-farm sustainability

Abstract

There is an urgent need to change the current extractive and resource-intensive agricultural practices. Adopting circular practices within the agricultural system could provide multiple benefits of slowing global climate change, reducing extractive practices and helping farmers to adapt to a changing climate. However, there are still many barriers for farmers to adopt these desired circular agriculture (CA) practices, among others, a lack of information about on-farm circular practices. There is a need to support farmers in recognising which strategies can increase the circularity of their farm and what this means in terms of their farms' climate neutrality and its long-term sustainability. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to develop a novel conceptual framework to facilitate a broader and integrated understanding of how on-farm CA strategies and practices contribute to the goals of climate change mitigation and on-farm sustainability, thus supporting farmers in transitioning their farms towards greater circularity.

Keywords: Circular agriculture; Circularity strategies; Climate change strategies; Farm scale; Sustainability.

Fig. 1

The 9R strategies for circularity, adapted from Potting et al. (2017) to the context of an on-farm situation (on-farm also refers to the sphere of influence of the farm, see Sect. “Implementation scale in a systems thinking context”)

Fig. 2

Graphical representation of potential scales and spheres of influence related to a farm, in the centre (white). The farmer at the centre has direct control over the practices and activities that happen on the farm; their influence over the practices of others declines the further you go away from the farm either upstream or downstream. Adapted from SAFA guidelines by FAO (2014)

Fig. 3

Graphical representation of the: a on-farm CA conceptual framework, integrating the strategies of Velasco-Muñoz et al. (2021) with the 9R strategies of Potting et al. (2017) (white text and R letters top) with the key aspects to monitor (AtM) of Erisman and Verhoeven (2019) (black text) and with climate strategies (blue text, bottom). The potential for longevity increases along the y-axis, with increases in effort and dependency on place or self-sufficiency increasing along the x-axis. b The on-farm processes and flows relevant for the CA strategies (see Sect. “Processes and flows relevant for CA at farm level” for more detail description). [Note: (1) Refers to Nutrient loops, the nutrients which are mostly “short term”, soil carbon is not included here, but under soil health, as it can take decades to accrue. Note 2. Fossil resources, these refer to non-energy fossil inputs, such as plastic or chemical treatments. Note 3. For slowing resource use, foreground emissions refer to the enteric fermentation and manure management associated with keeping livestock.]

Fig. 4

Graphical representation of a hypothetical results dashboard that could be used to communicate with farmers a what kind of circular strategies they are using on the farm, b where they could make improvements to enhance circularity and climate performance of their farm