CONTEXT

Successful scaling up from crop level research to adoption by farmers depends on its practitioners being aware of the constraints that arise as scaling up proceeds. Promising ideas from crop level research are not adopted by farmers in many cases.

OBJECTIVE

Scaling up is explored here in a study conducted in five vegetable farms in south Uruguay, where tomato production was one of the main sources of income. We aimed to evaluate the redesign process at both levels (crop and farm) focusing on: synergies and trade-offs between crop yield and farm system improvement and how critical crop constraints could be solved at farm level.

METHODS

Improved crop management practices were proposed following yield gap analysis recommendations developed in previous studies, aiming to maximise crop yield and inputs use efficiency. At the farm level, a multi-year plan defining crops choice, crops area and allocation of fields to crops was designed to match resource demands to supply, especially for labour. Redesign plans were implemented for one year, with 66% of redesigned activities adopted at farm level and 86% at crop level.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

We found several examples where farm system adjustment conflicted with crop yield maximization. We also found constraints prioritised as bottlenecks for crop yield improvement, which require solutions at the farm level. For instance, fertigation problems (quantity and timing) explained part of the yield gap in tomato. Overcoming these constraints requires farm system settings, e.g. adjustment of cropping area to water availability, development of suitable water reservoirs and infrastructure for water distribution and fertilisers injection, besides adjustment of a fertigation plan according to crop demand, soil fertility and greenhouse environment at crop level. Crop yield limiting factors identified through yield gap analysis, considered inside a farm system redesign process, could be a powerful tool to better targeting crop management recommendations to overall farm performance improvement.

SIGNIFICANCE

The consideration of farm systems as a whole showed greater economic and environmental impacts than focusing only on the main crop due to synergies and trade-offs among farm system components. Multi-scale analysis showed that recommendations from crop research need to be tailored to farm context and objectives considering synergies and trade-offs.

中文翻译：

---

从农作物扩展到农场：共同创新框架，提高蔬菜农场系统的可持续性

语境

从作物水平研究到农民采用的成功扩大取决于其从业者意识到扩大收益过程中会遇到的限制。在许多情况下，农民没有采用作物水平研究中有希望的想法。

目的

这里是在乌拉圭南部五个蔬菜农场进行的一项研究中扩大规模的，那里的番茄生产是主要的收入来源之一。我们旨在评估两个阶段（作物和农场）的重新设计过程，重点在于：作物产量与农场系统改善之间的协同作用和权衡取舍，以及如何在农场一级解决关键的作物限制。

方法

根据先前研究中提出的产量差距分析建议，提出了改进的作物管理方法，旨在最大程度地提高作物产量和投入物使用效率。在农场一级，旨在确定作物选择，作物面积和田间分配的多年计划旨在使资源需求与供应（尤其是劳动力）相匹配。重新设计计划实施了一年，其中66％的重新设计活动在农场一级采用，而86％在作物水平上采用。

结果与结论

我们发现了几个例子，其中农场系统的调整与作物单产的最大化冲突。我们还发现限制因素被优先考虑为提高作物产量的瓶颈，这需要农场一级的解决方案。例如，施肥问题（数量和时间）解释了番茄产量缺口的部分原因。要克服这些限制，除了要根据作物需求，土壤肥力和作物水平调整农作物的施肥计划外，还需要对农业系统进行设置，例如根据水的供应情况调整种植面积，开发合适的水库以及用于水分配和肥料注入的基础设施。 。通过产量差距分析确定的作物产量限制因素，在农场系统重新设计过程中考虑，

意义

由于农业系统各组成部分之间的协同作用和权衡取舍，整个农业系统的考虑显示出比仅侧重于主要作物更大的经济和环境影响。多尺度分析表明，作物研究的建议需要针对农业背景和目标进行量身定制，并考虑协同作用和权衡取舍。