Food system transitions in deltas under pressure

Deltas are simultaneously the most promising and the most vulnerable places in the world. They are promising because they are home to fertile land, strategic harbours, excellent living conditions and are rich in biodiversity. However, they are vulnerable because to a host of threats, including floods, droughts, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, salinity intrusion, rising sea levels and land subsidence. The number of people living in deltas is also growing, and their diets are changing.

Deltas are dynamic environments in which change is a constant. Development and adaptation processes in deltas have to find answers to how to deal with increasing challenges originating from a range of sources, including urban development and climate change. These developments put pressure on food systems and on agricultural and water management practices. This is true for the deltas in Bangladesh and Vietnam. There, salinisation, water quality issues, floods and droughts are driving the need for transitions in the current food systems.

To get more insight into today’s challenges and tomorrow’s solutions, one can use a systematic approach. This webpage aims to provide you with a particular kind of systematic approach – the food systems approach – and show how it can be applied in deltas. We build on the Deltas Under Pressure research programme, in which sustainable transition pathways address major goals, such as SDG2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG6 (Water). Both are very important to achieve sustainable agriculture in the delta of Bangladesh and the Mekong delta in Vietnam.

We hope you enjoy reading the texts and watching the videos! If you have any questions, please contact Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Project Leader and Senior Scientist of Adaptive Delta Management at Wageningen University & Research via the contact button on this page.

Figure 1: Food systems approach by van Berkum et al. (2018). Watch the following video to see how this holistic approach can apply to deltas.
Figure 1: Food systems approach by van Berkum et al. (2018). Watch the following video to see how this holistic approach can apply to deltas.

Food systems approach in deltas

Wageningen University & Research has developed and uses a food systems approach to analyse increasingly complex food systems in deltas. Food systems are about balancing the provision of sustainable, affordable and nutritious food while dealing with various factors and interests. For local policymakers, it is often challenging to maintain oversight, not least because decision-making processes are spread across different actors. Farmers have different goals and tools than ministries, the private sector and NGOs. The food systems approach helps us understand how the roles and links between the stakeholders should be balanced.

In the food systems approach, there are objectives: 1) to provide enough nutritious food for everyone; 2) to provide safe food required for a healthy diet; 3) the equitable and fair distribution of costs and revenues along the food supply chain, and 4) to create a sustainable and climate-resilient food system that safeguards biodiversity.

For a general introduction to the food systems approach, watch the video 'The WUR Food Systems Approach explained'.

Figure 2: Food systems approach infographic including the four main goals: 1) Food security, 2) Safe & healthy diets, 3) Inclusiveness & equitable benefits, and 4) Sustainability & resilience.
Figure 2: Food systems approach infographic including the four main goals: 1) Food security, 2) Safe & healthy diets, 3) Inclusiveness & equitable benefits, and 4) Sustainability & resilience.

Deltas under pressure and the food systems approach in deltas

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What's in this video?

This video shows why a food systems approach is so useful in deltas.

Collaboration in food system transitions

In Bangladesh, WUR and Solidaridad are working together to create sustainable food system transitions. Solidaridad is an international NGO that works on value chains and agriculture. Solidaridad employs a holistic landscape approach to secure farmers’ futures against the changing climate. Selim Reza Hasan, country manager Solidaridad Bangladesh, explains that the food systems approach helps to establish an approach to landscapes and with thinking future projects as it is “a holistic approach, [which] consider[s] … socio-economic and environmental drivers … [so it is] a helpful tool in facilitating agricultural transformation. It also considers biodiversity, which is increasingly recognised as being important.” In the following video, Selim Reza Hasan describes the landscape approach that Solidaridad uses and its links with food systems thinking. He appreciates the collaboration between Wageningen and Solidaridad as an example of linking research with a practical initiative.

Solidaridad and WUR’s collaboration in food system transitions in Bangladesh

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What's in the video?

In this video, Selim Reza Hasan describes the landscape approach that Solidaridad uses and its links with food systems thinking. He appreciates the collaboration between Wageningen and Solidaridad as an example of linking research with a practical initiative.

Transition pathways towards the future

Transition pathways approaches can be combined with the food systems approach to explore potential solutions in deltas. Transition pathways are routes towards sustainable future food systems that serve the needs of key stakeholders.

The first step is stakeholders jointly developing at least one vision of a sustainable future food system. In this case, the vision needs to address sustainability issues in the current system. The next step is exploring what sequence of incremental changes might lead the present system to develop into the future vision. If all these smaller changes are plausible, the transition pathway as a whole also is plausible, implying that the developed vision for the future is realistic.

Wageningen University & Research has developed a set of guidelines that give policymakers, researchers and practitioners tools to facilitate the exploration of transition pathways in deltas that align with actors’ needs, balance the food systems’ four goals (previous video) and that are broadly supported. The figure shows the framework that is central to these guidelines to facilitate transition pathways in deltas under pressure. A practical guide for facilitating transitions has been developed as part of recent research.

Watch the video to learn more about transition pathways and why they are so useful in establishing sustainable future food systems in deltas.

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Figure 3: Back casting is helpful for developing transition pathways towards desired food systems.
Figure 3: Back casting is helpful for developing transition pathways towards desired food systems.
Figure 4: Central framework for the guidelines that facilitate transition pathways (Verhagen et al., 2021)
Figure 4: Central framework for the guidelines that facilitate transition pathways (Verhagen et al., 2021)

Developing transition pathways in practice by students


In September and October 2022, workshops on developing transition pathways for food systems in the Bangladesh delta were organised in collaboration with IAAS Bangladesh at Khulna University and Patuakhali University of Science and Technology (PSTU). In these workshops, student groups developed transition pathways for the future they envisioned for Bangladesh’s food system. In the workshop at Khulna University, students chose their geographical focus area, from the whole country to a specific community. Meanwhile, at PSTU, students were encouraged to focus on the Barisal region.

The guidelines for facilitating transition pathways were used as a framework to guide vision and transition pathway development. Afterwards, representatives from the different groups presented their future visions and pathways to their peers. After gaining better understanding of the food system and prioritising challenges and problems, the teams developed future visions of the food systems. Lastly, they developed transition pathways to reach those visions. Back casting was applied to assist in finding an appropriate order for the steps.

To give some examples, one of the groups focussed on the dietary diversity in the Barisal region and identified transition pathways to increase dietary diversity. They encouraged improving storage and transport facilities, raising awareness and diversifying production. Another group focussed on how the intrusion of salinity was putting the food system under pressure. In their vision for the future, technology for dealing with salinity was employed alongside landscape interventions to increase freshwater storage and infiltration.

Bangladesh

Different deltas around the world face different food system challenges. When describing the challenges at stake in terms of the four food system objectives, the trade-offs and synergies between the goals become apparent. This website tells the story of the food system challenges in the delta of Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. In Bangladesh, the challenge is producing healthy food and enough of it for the growing population while limiting negative effects for the environment, ensuring income for farmers and tackling climate change.

By clicking on the tiles below, you can find more information about specific topics and transition pathways. You may find these informative or might want to apply the methodologies yourself. Let us know how you find them!

Vietnam

In the Mekong delta of Vietnam, traditional rice cultivation is under pressure owing to climate change, land subsidence and intensive cultivation. Salinisation is putting the food system under further pressure. There is also a need and desire to diversify food production. This diversification could lead to higher yields for farmers as well as more diverse and healthy diets as in general. Switching from rice to shrimp and dragon fruit cultivation, for example, offers solutions for dealing with increasing salinity in the Mekong delta. This and other challenges in the Vietnamese food systems are addressed in a videoby Ivo Demmers (WUR) and Dang Kieu Nhan (Can Tho University, Vietnam). The other topics and pathways discussed on this website are themed around salinity; a key factor shaping agriculture and food systems in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.Find out more by clicking on the tiles below.

Reflections and ways forward

The food systems approach and the co-development of sustainable transition pathways help us to find more integrated solutions to tackle uncertainties and complexities, and to create a more sustainable future. To address complexity, we should not focus exclusively on food, agriculture or water: we need a language in which we can address them all together. We urgently need solutions for living sustainably in our deltas, now and in the future. Watch the video for further reflections and conclusions.

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We did our best to refer to sources where and when needed. When you notice that we did not do so or did so incorrectly, kindly contact us via the contact form on the right top.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who contributed to this storytelling website in one way or another.