WITH the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) painting a dire picture of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, there is a growing urgency over the ecological crisis and increasing evidence that our socio-economic systems are fundamentally undermining the functioning of the natural world in catastrophic ways.
Other major reports have drawn attention to other convergent crises, including the accelerating extinction rate of species, looming water shortages for five billion people, dangerous degradation and pollution of land and soil and accelerating resource throughputs as well as the increasing levels of air pollution and resultant health-related deaths and diseases.
Over recent years, agroecology emerged on the international policy arena as ‘an alternative concept for food and farming that can address multiple crises in the food system, contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and enable a just transition’.
The Encyclopaedia of Soils in the Environment (2005), describes agroecology as: “The field of agroecology deals with the management and cultivation of agronomic ecosystems (or agroecosystems).”
An agroecosystem is the basic unit of study in agroecology.
According to Altieri’s commonly used definition in the scientific field, agroecology is an approach integrating the concepts and methods of a variety of disciplines of agronomy, ecology, economics and sociology, among others. Aiming to promote the services rendered by natural processes, it analyses at different levels – from field to territory, from individual to community, from short-term to long-term, the evolutionary relations which are created within these systems between the living, its management method and the ecological, economic as well as social context of this management.
Agroecosystem analysis is an analysis of an agricultural environment that considers ecology, sociology, economics and politics with equal weight.
Principles of agroecology, science of sustainable agriculture, were presented in books of Altieri (1995) and Gliesman (1997).
The term ‘agroecology’ first appeared in 1928 under the pen of American agronomist Basil Bensin.
His understanding of agroecology then referred exclusively to the application of methods of ecology to the processes of agronomic research.
This idea grew progressively during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
It first appeared within the scientific literature in the 1930s as a combination of two traditional disciplines — agronomy and ecology— to study biological interactions between crops and other natural elements of the agroecosystem.
Agroecology aims to promote sustainable food systems, respectful of people and the environment.
These systems involve agricultural production methods and sectors that value the ecological, economic and social potential of a territory.
Their development relies on trans-disciplinary approaches that bring together professionals from the agriculture, scientists, actors of agroecology and public policy social movements.
Agroecology is an alternative to intensive agriculture based on the artificialisation of crops through the use of synthetic inputs (fertilisers, pesticides) and fossil fuels.
It promotes agricultural production systems that value biological diversity and natural processes (the cycles of N, C, water, the biological balances between pests and auxiliary crops).
Agroecology, defined as “…the integrative study of the ecology of the entire food system, encompassing ecological, economic and social dimensions…,” entails various practices and processes that differentiate it from conventional agriculture.
Agroecology is a practical approach to farming that encourages researchers, educators and students to embrace the wholeness and connectivity of systems and stimulate a focus on the uniqueness of each place and solutions appropriate to its resources and limitations.
In this regard, agroecology is seen as an approach to transforming the food system in ways that provide environmental and social benefits.
It is sub-categorised under three strands – namely:
- A scientific discipline—which evolved mainly from two disciplines (agronomy and ecology), but also other disciplines such as zoology and botany/plant physiology, and their applications in addressing agricultural and environmental issues;
- Agricultural practices—which applies principles that can be applied to food production in a particular context, realised through various sustainable land management practices including mulching, agroforestry, legume integration, crop rotation, mixed farming, living fences, biological corridors, microbial and botanical inputs, plants for soil cover, organic fertilisers and composting.
Key agroecology principles include:
- Co-production of knowledge between producers, scientists and other stakeholders,
- Reducing the use of toxic and synthetic inputs and using natural means for controlling insect/pests and diseases,
- Using biological means such as organic matter to enrich the soil,
- Conservation to minimise energy, water, nutrient and genetic resource loss,
- Farm-level and landscape-scale genetic diversification; and
- Social movements—in some regions agroecology developed from agrarian social thought and movements that arose in response to rural industrialisation which emerged as an unexpected outcome of the Green Revolution
Agroecology social movements envision food production systems that rely on traditional ecological knowledge, innovation and the use of local resources according to Altieri and Toledo, (2011).
Agroecology aligns with food sovereignty — ‘‘…the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and their right to define their food and agriculture systems.”
Thus, agroecology, as a social movement, empowers farmers, defends their fundamental rights, such as access to land, free use of plant genetic resources, access to markets and a more inclusive political economy.
As an integrated and holistic approach, agroecology allows farmers to see beyond their own farm boundaries and that enables learning about how individual land-use decisions are inter-connected with dynamics at a landscape level.
Indeed, the territorial approach is especially critical in this regard because agroecology is based on ecosystem functions – like pollination, wildlife habitat and watershed management, among others — that are mobilised on a scale exceeding that of the farm or any single parcel of land.
Local interactions and collaboration on ecosystem functions between agricultural producers and other land users in a territory are viewed as key to adequately developing the spatial distribution of agricultural and non-agricultural land use in the landscape.
At the territorial level, actors are able to work collectively and to mobilise their agency to shift the rules of the game, to reform institutions, build markets and foster innovation.
Agroecology emphasises the localised processing and distribution of foods, where foodstuffs produced via agroecological methods are often ill-suited for undifferentiated export markets and thus undervalued. This situation requires the development of territorial and inter-territorial food processing facilities (mills, local abattoirs and community food processing units, among others.), distribution mechanisms and markets for agroecologically produced goods.
Agroecology can play different roles by either conforming to the dominant food regime or by helping to transform the dominant food regime through strategic empowerment.
One way that farmers are empowered is by allowing room for active participation in the design and implementation of farming strategies using locally available resources such as manure, compost and a deep understanding of the nature of agroecosystems in local areas and the principles by which such agroecosystems function.
Agroecological transitions move beyond the farm scale, to consider unequal power dynamics in the food system, to address social and economic inequities of the food system.
Trans-discipline in agroecology stems from its evolution from diverse disciplines and the integration of knowledge systems – both Western scientific and traditional, to co-produce knowledge that helps to understand the food system and transform it.
Dr Tony Monda BSc, DVM, DPVM, is currently conducting veterinary epidemiology and agroeconomic research in Zimbabwe.
For views and comments, email: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
