The core objective of the project is designing an innovative coupling of substance cycles, evaluated on macro, meso and local scales, and embedded in societal structures. The project covers the São Francisco River catchment up to the Itaparica dam, with empirical research in the surroundings of the Itaparica reservoir under smallholder conditions. Main lessons will be depicted, which are potentially transferrable to other watersheds.

The overall objectives of SP 2 are the increase of the productivity of the reservoir-water irrigated agro-ecosystems, the quantification of their carbon sequestration potentials and the minimization of GHG emissions. To achieve these goals, new crop rotations including energy crops will be introduced, animal husbandry will be integrated into the farm systems and biochar applied to soils. The study comprises three essential parts, (1) inventory of the natural resources as a basis for upscaling of our experimental results to catchment scale, (2) field experiments studying crop rotations, animal husbandry and the application of biochar and (3) the modelling of dynamics of water and nutrients in the soil.