Landscape Agronomy: background concepts and emerging challenges to address agri-food system design beyond the farm level

The aim of this communication is to present the landscape agronomy framework and how it addresses spatially explicit natural resource management in agriculture. Based on a summary of the scientific background and state of the art on how agriculture is addressed at the landscape level, the result is a conceptual model that provides a framework for observing, understanding, and supporting the actions of actors involved in the dynamics of agricultural landscapes and the design of agri-food systems. The landscape agronomy conceptual model was developed to integrate assessment and monitoring beyond the farm level and across multiple temporal and spatial scales. It was introduced in a seminal paper by Benoît and colleagues (Landscape Ecology, 27(10):2012), which highlighted the importance of an integrated approach to describing and understanding farming practices, natural resources, and landscape patterns. The landscape agronomy conceptual framework is intended to help understand what may be missing to achieve landscape agroecological transitions and to guide the design of research, education and training by raising awareness about the components and relationships of a system approach to agriculture.