Understanding the diversity of current states, life cycles and past trajectories of households and agroecosystems is essential to contextualise the co-design of more sustainable agroecosystems. The objective of this paper was to document and analyse current states, trajectories of changes and their major drivers of households in a highly populated maize-based agroecosystem of Western Kenya. In 2013, we revisited 20 rural households that were surveyed, analysed and categorised 10 years ago (2003) in order to describe major changes in livelihood strategies, land use and soil fertility status. The household-level analysis was complemented with the analysis of secondary data on changes in drivers at the national level for the study period. The diachronic study showed a close association between drivers such as market and transport development, and the structure of rural households in terms of demographic shifts, land and labour exchanges, increased costs of agricultural inputs and better connectivity to markets. Between 2003 and 2013, the surveyed households experienced an increase in non-agricultural income by 30 %; intensity of land cultivation by 60 %; use of hybrid maize seeds by 35 %; and of synthetic fertilisers by almost 50 %. Local households increase their number of cross-bred livestock in detriment of local breeds and used less manure to fertilise their soils. In contrast, there were few changes in terms of food self-sufficiency (around 9 months per year) and in soil conditions (soil fertility was already poor in 2003). In terms of livelihood strategies, better-endowed households tended to diversify and acquire land that enabled them to adapt and benefit from the major changes observed in external drivers. In contrast, more vulnerable households sold labour and land to cope with such changes, remaining in a poverty trap. Households combine and explore diverse strategies to act, cope and adapt to fast-changing local and regional drivers. Policy or development programmes need to account for such diversity and dynamics to support the co-development of more adaptive and sustainable smallholder agroecosystems.

Pesticides are a major tool for the intensification of agriculture, and helped to increase food, feed and biofuel production. Yet, there are persistent concerns about the negative effects of pesticides in human health and the environment, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Given the lack of information on pesticide exposure and hazard, Colombia exemplifies the need to narrow the information gap on pesticide risk in LMICs. We assessed pesticide hazard in Colombia based on the official toxicity categorization, compared it to more integral international standards, and identified main actions to narrow this information gap. Results showed that Colombia has been a relevant regional actor in pesticide production and trade, reaching almost 75 million kilogrammes and liters sold in 2016. Based on acute toxicity for humans, a quarter of the amount of pesticides sales and imports, and a third of the exports in 2016 ranged from moderately to extremenly toxic. The top-selling agrochemicals in 2016 (glyphosate with 14% of the total sales, chlorpyrifos 7.5% and mancozeb 6.9%) are also commonly used in other countries, reflecting a homogenized global industry. Compared to integral international categorizations, we found that for that year 63% of the pesticides sold with slightly acute toxicity are actually considered highly hazardous pesticides (HHP) for humans or the environment, evidencing the need to use a more integral hazard categorization in the country. Narrowing the information gap in pesticide use and associated risks demands a transparent process of knowledge creation and sharing, including funtional information and monitoring systems. This should be part of an integral assessment and regulation that better defines HHP, their production and trade to reduce pesticide risk while informing a transition towards sustainable food systems.

: Sustainable Public Food Procurement (SPFP) is gaining recognition for its potential to improve the sustainability of food systems and promote healthier diets. However, SPFP faces various challenges, including coordination issues, actor dynamics, infrastructure limitations, unsustainable habits, and institutional resistance, among others. Drawing upon insights from the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions and the X-curve model on transition dynamics, this study investigates the role of transition intermediaries in facilitating SPFP-induced transformations in food systems. Focusing on four case studies in Spain, we identify common barriers encountered in SPFP and analyse how distinct types of transition intermediaries contribute individually and collectively to address these challenges. Additionally, we explore how intermediary networks evolve throughout different phases of the transition process. Our findings reveal that SPFP barriers are systemic and interconnected, emphasizing the necessity of collective intermediation to overcome these obstacles. Furthermore, our results reveal how collective intermediation is orchestrated by pivotal intermediaries who mobilize diverse transition intermediaries, shaping multiple transition pathways. These intermediaries operate at both food system regimes and niches, challenging the conventional notion that transformative change can only originate from niche efforts. Lastly, we highlight the dynamic and flexible nature of intermediation in SPFP transitions, underscoring the importance of adaptability in strategies as these transitions evolve over time. Practical implications include the need for context-specific, adaptive approaches and strategies that leverage intermediary diversity. This research offers insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars into SPFP and broader transitions towards food systems transformation, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of these transition processes.

Trajectories of many rural landscapes in Latin America remain unsustainable. Options to support sustainable rural trajectories should be comprehensive and rooted in the interests of rural actors. We selected a municipality in a coffee-growing region in Colombia with an increasing urban–rural nexus to describe interactions between rural processes and their drivers while identifying and contextualising the perceptions of local actors on major constraints and opportunities for more inclusive and sustainable rural trajectories. We described these interactions by combining secondary data on main drivers, agricultural census data, and interviews with different local actors. Changes in population structure, volatility in coffee prices, in-/out-migration, deagrarianisation, and rurbanisation, among others, are reconfiguring the rural trajectories of the study area. Despite not being a major coffee region, farmers in the study area have developed different strategies, including intensification, diversification, replacement or abandonment of coffee production, and commercialisation. The perceptions of local actors and the multiplicity of agricultural households, food/land use systems, rural processes, and drivers described in this study suggest that more sustainable rural transitions need to be supported by inclusive, integrated, and transformative landscape planning approaches that align with local priorities. However, this transformation needs to be accompanied by changes at a systemic level that address the fundamental bottlenecks to real sustainability.