Even as a low-input and low-impact agriculture, mainly following the farming practices of the bygone time, smallholders relying on animal traction must adapt their farming methods. This article is the first in a series of essays dealing with thoughts and new developments relating to future-oriented agriculture. This requires repeated field testing within a trial-and-error approach over several years, which means that the methods described here below are not the end of the story. At best, they represent the current state of the author’s empirical knowledge. These essays are intended to provide inspirations. Let’s move forward questioningly, together!

One way to deal with these different weather extremes is to spread the risk through diversification. When arable farmers expand their crop rotations, they will always have crops that are better adapted to the extreme situation that arises than others. However, in vegetable growing this is much more difficult to implement. Future food security can only be created through an improved climate resilience of our social-ecological system. This requires developing or rediscovering more stable and resilient systems that do not rely on optimizing a single factor. In recent decades, yields and earnings have counted too much.