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The Contribution of Agro-ecology as a Solution to Hunger in the World: A Review
Abstract
Evidence from different studies has revealed a great contribution of agro-ecology in solving the world hunger sustainably. Agro-ecology addresses the problems and limitations of industrial agriculture such as inequalities, increased poverty and malnutrition rate, and environment degradation especially climate change; which are the roots causes of hunger in the world and hinder its eradication. In meeting these goals, agro-ecology raises the availability of food by augmenting yields considerably and increasing urban agriculture; it rises the accessibility of food by decreasing poverty; and upsurges the appropriateness of food by offering a food which is of high-quality nutritional, healthy and socially accepted or adopted. This farming system also contributes to water security and to the respect of the right to water and hygiene by lessening the pressure on water resources, growing the flexibility to water shortage and diminishing the frequency of battles among conflicting water uses; and therefore, enhances food security and the apprehension of the right to adequate food. Agro-ecology contributes in conserving biodiversity and natural resources, in increasing resilience to climate change and combating the extenuation challenge, in growing control of peasants upon agricultural and food systems, and in empowering Women as well.
... Agroecology is guided by sustainable agriculture practices, such as crop rotation, intercropping, agroforestry, and organic farming with no or less impact to the environment (Adidja et al., 2019;Mitra et al., 2020). Conservation agriculture as an agro-ecology component is recently emphasized by international agencies such as the World Bank, FAO and private agricultural organizations at national level to increase agriculture productivity while maintaining and restoring soil productivity, increasing water conservation and organic nutrient use efficiencies (Tittonell et al., 2012;Paracchini et al., 2020). ...
... Sustainable agriculture is a subset of agroecology practices that involve the use of organic manure, organic pest and disease control, adoption of agroforestry, crop diversification and natural control measures for soil erosion (AdeOluwa, 2010;Emeana et al., 2018;Constantine et al., 2021). Agroecology neither emphasizes obsolete farming technologies nor disregard recent agricultural knowledge and innovation, but connect traditional and scientific knowledge in a way that food can be produced without jeopardizing the environment and ecological fragile areas (Adidja et al., 2019;Cote et al., 2019). ...
... The manners through which the policy and legal provisions related to sustainability of agroecological systems are enforced and the manner in which they are adhered to, and the reasons they are not adhered to by farmers and other stakeholders are the issues debated and interpreted differently (Mdee et al, 2018). Regulations and bylaws related to environmental conservation should be enforced strictly in order to rescue forests and its related natural resources from being depleted (Adidja et al., 2019). The bylaws that interrupt the way people meet their livelihoods from forest natural resources should be enforced collaboratively and proactively while suggesting solutions for sustaining the peoples' livelihoods and natural resources conservations (Emeana et al., 2018;Mwamfupe, 2019;Jha et al., 2021). ...
In Sub-Saharan Africa, conventional farming is associated with intensive use of synthetic chemicals and inputs to maximize agricultural productivity. This is done at the expense of sustainable agroecologically based production systems. This objective was to describe limitations of agroecological practices and stakeholders' response along Mountain Uluguru. The area has been vulnerable to unregulated land degradation aggravated by soil erosion largely due to unsuitable agricultural practices. The data were collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews from 72 respondents who were purposively selected. Both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using content analysis and statistical software respectively. Farmers undertake agriculture to increase production so as to meet food needs (44.8%) and employment opportunities (55.2%). About 41.7% of farmers who had land with secure tenure grew fruit and non-fruit trees on their farms or homesteads, 11.7% rented the farming land temporarily from owners through informal arrangements and the rest squatted on public land for cultivation of vegetables. From SWOT analysis, agroforestry is threatened by unregulated agricultural activities (18.6%) and overuse of forest resources unsustainably (7.0%). The agroecology training is not coordinated and supported by government agencies, which have authority to inform the policy makers about insecure land tenure and unavailability of organic inputs that would increase farmers' livelihoods. Agro-soil erosion control and conservation agriculture measures are essential features of agroecology training, but some farmers were not aware of them and those who are aware do not adopt them effectively. The study concludes that, without the government acknowledgement of agro-ecology and its associated contributions there will always be weak institutional coordination among stakeholders required to regulate, promote and support agro-ecology practices to create a balance of conserved environment, protected ecology and enhanced farmers' livelihoods. This is because there is no clear national guidelines and support (financial and technical) addressing the challenges facing agro-ecology practice yet.
... Agroecology is guided by sustainable agriculture practices, such as crop rotation, intercropping, agroforestry, and organic farming with no or less impact to the environment (Adidja et al., 2019;Mitra et al., 2020). Conservation agriculture as an agro-ecology component is recently emphasized by international agencies such as the World Bank, FAO and private agricultural organizations at national level to increase agriculture productivity while maintaining and restoring soil productivity, increasing water conservation and organic nutrient use efficiencies (Tittonell et al., 2012;Paracchini et al., 2020). ...
... Sustainable agriculture is a subset of agroecology practices that involve the use of organic manure, organic pest and disease control, adoption of agroforestry, crop diversification and natural control measures for soil erosion (AdeOluwa, 2010;Emeana et al., 2018;Constantine et al., 2021). Agroecology neither emphasizes obsolete farming technologies nor disregard recent agricultural knowledge and innovation, but connect traditional and scientific knowledge in a way that food can be produced without jeopardizing the environment and ecological fragile areas (Adidja et al., 2019;Cote et al., 2019). ...
... The manners through which the policy and legal provisions related to sustainability of agroecological systems are enforced and the manner in which they are adhered to, and the reasons they are not adhered to by farmers and other stakeholders are the issues debated and interpreted differently (Mdee et al, 2018). Regulations and bylaws related to environmental conservation should be enforced strictly in order to rescue forests and its related natural resources from being depleted (Adidja et al., 2019). The bylaws that interrupt the way people meet their livelihoods from forest natural resources should be enforced collaboratively and proactively while suggesting solutions for sustaining the peoples' livelihoods and natural resources conservations (Emeana et al., 2018;Mwamfupe, 2019;Jha et al., 2021). ...
In Sub-Saharan Africa, conventional farming is associated with intensive use of synthetic chemicals and inputs to maximize agricultural productivity. This is done at the expense of sustainable agroecologically based production systems. This objective was to describe limitations of agroecological practices and stakeholders’ response along Mountain Uluguru. The area has been vulnerable to unregulated land degradation aggravated by soil erosion largely due to unsuitable agricultural practices. The data were collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews from 72 respondents who were purposively selected. Both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using content analysis and statistical software respectively. Farmers undertake agriculture to increase production so as to meet food needs (44.8%) and employment opportunities (55.2%). About 41.7% of farmers who had land with secure tenure grew fruit and non-fruit trees on their farms or homesteads, 11.7% rented the farming land temporarily from owners through informal arrangements and the rest squatted on public land for cultivation of vegetables. From SWOT analysis, agroforestry is threatened by unregulated agricultural activities (18.6%) and overuse of forest resources unsustainably (7.0%). The agroecology training is not coordinated and supported by government agencies, which have authority to inform the policy makers about insecure land tenure and unavailability of organic inputs that would increase farmers’ livelihoods. Agro-soil erosion control and conservation agriculture measures are essential features of agroecology training, but some farmers were not aware of them and those who are aware do not adopt them effectively. The study concludes that, without the government acknowledgement of agro-ecology and its associated contributions there will always be weak institutional coordination among stakeholders required to regulate, promote and support agro-ecology practices to create a balance of conserved environment, protected ecology and enhanced farmers’ livelihoods. This is because there is no clear national guidelines and support (financial and technical) addressing the challenges facing agro-ecology practice
... Apart from being a means of early education for children (Chenarides et al., 2021;Khan et al., 2020) during distance learning activities, encouraging women's participation (Azunre et al., 2019;Khan et al., 2020), and creating biodiversity (Galimberti et al., 2020), this green space effort can realize sustainable urban development (Adidja et al., 2019;Ibrahim & Salim, 2020;Khan et al., 2020;Li et al., 2020b;Yusoff et al., 2017). It was different from before the pandemic, where urban agriculture was dominated by working family and a larger number of household (Chenarides et al., 2021). ...
... The most cultivated agricultural products were horticulture with diverse colours and sizes. Urban agricultural development can empower women (Adidja et al., 2019;Khan et al., 2020), both in the production and marketing of products independently (Mulyani et al., 2019), as well as become a learning tool for children while doing distance-learning during the pandemic. ...
In addition to providing food benefits, urban agriculture also has aesthetic benefits. Therefore, a visual assessment of the urban agricultural landscape can be used to measure this aesthetic value. Gender preference is also carried out to see differences in visual assessment. This research was conducted in Makassar City using primary data with 129 respondents consisting of 53 people who had never been to Makassar and 76 people who had been/lived in Makassar. The aesthetic assessment of agricultural landscapes in Makassar City used the Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) method with a perceptual dimension. The results showed that the most beautiful urban agricultural landscapes had a high level of preference, namely in various plant gardens and verticultural hydroponic systems. Furthermore, the highest SBE score as a potential attraction was shown by male respondent who had never been to Makassar. Possible urban agricultural landscape resources should receive special attention by arranging them neatly and cleanly so that they have high artistic value to provide beauty and comfort for visitors.JEL Classification: C00; O13; Q19
... This environmental function [21]- [23] can help overcome climate change [24]. Besides agricultural sustainability [25], especially for farmers small [26], even creating more sustainable cities [9], [16], [27]- [29]. ...
Urban agriculture is multifunctional. The environmental function is one of the agricultural functions. This research focuses on the level of carbon sequestration in food crops and vegetables. Furthermore, we estimate carbon sequestration differences in farming and non-farming land. This study calculates carbon sequestration using destructive methods. Furthermore, food crops carbon sequestration better than vegetable crops. In the same crop, there is more carbon sequestration in farming land when compared to non-farming land. Economically, this carbon sequestration can provide substantial economic value if it is better managed by considering urban spatial planning.
... Meanwhile, a growing consensus among researchers, practitioners, and official organizations (e.g., Adidja, Mwine, Majaliwa, & Ssekandi, 2019;Badgley et al., 2007;FAO, 2018;FAO & IFAD, 2019;IAASTD, 2008;IPES-Food, 2018;Pretty et al., 2006;Rosset & Altieri, 2017;Smithers, 2019) attests to the resilience of agroecology and its parallel productivity to corporate agriculture. Notably, a UN study found "organic agriculture outperformed conventional production systems based on chemical-intensive farming and is thus more conducive to food security in Africa" (UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP), 2008, p. 236). ...
This chapter addresses the world historical conditions underlying the present crisis of the global agrifood system and its contributions to the combined climate and biodiversity emergency. It is framed through the lens of a succession of international food regimes, from the mid-19th century to the present day, focusing on key food complexes such as wheat, animal protein, and processed foods. It traces how these have evolved through three distinctive world food orders, as industrial agriculture has strengthened its grip on diets, species, and planetary health, intensifying processes of enclosure, human displacement, and corporate monopolization via financialization and digitalization. The remainder of the chapter looks at the 2007–08 world “food crisis” in a long-standing global agrarian crisis (of public support and cheap food dumping in Southern markets), conversion of food crops to fuel crops, and rising land acquisitions for speculation and/or profit as a context for ongoing recognition and development of highly plausible alternatives.
‘Food sovereignty’ has become a mobilizing frame for social movements, a set of legal norms and practices aimed at transforming food and agriculture systems, and a free-floating signifier filled with varying kinds of content. Canonical accounts credit the Vía Campesina transnational agrarian movement with coining and elaborating the term, but its proximate origins are actually in an early 1980s Mexican government program. Central American activists nonetheless appropriated and redefined it in the late 1980s. Advocates typically suggest that ‘food sovereignty’ is diametrically opposed to ‘food security’, but historically there actually has been considerable slippage and overlap between these concepts. Food sovereignty theory has usually failed to indicate whether the ‘sovereign’ is the nation, region or locality, or ‘the people’. This lack of specificity about the sovereign feeds a reluctance to think concretely about the regulatory mechanisms necessary to consolidate and enforce food sovereignty, particularly limitations on long-distance and international trade and on firm and farm size. Several regulatory possibilities are mentioned and found wanting. Finally, entrenched consumer needs and desires related to internationally-traded products – from coffee to pineapples – imply additional obstacles to the localisation of production, distribution and consumption that many food sovereignty proponents support.
The largest demographic in India suffering from the adverse impacts of global climate change are small farmers. India's rural population is approximately 800 million, with the majority being households dependent on small-scale agriculture. For these smallholders, facing a common rural reality of disempowerment and limited disposable household capital, the agro-ecological results of climate volatility will have catastrophic costs. In a single growing season, even moderate climate abnormalities in temperature regime or moisture regime have shown to disrupt farm agro-ecology and diminish harvests over time. Using a precautionary principle to identify sustainable adaptation solutions, ecological farming offers the most practical and holistic traits of resilience, particularly in the areas of soil, water, and biodiversity. When acknowledging ecological agriculture as an empowering adaptation strategy for smallholders, the evident sustainability of this approach is also apparent alongside key structural dynamics limiting its adoption.
The growing demand for food poses major challenges to humankind. We have to safeguard both biodiversity and arable land for future agricultural food production, and we need to protect genetic diversity to safeguard ecosystem resilience. We must produce more food with less input, while deploying every effort to minimize risk. Agricultural sustainability is no longer optional but mandatory. There is still an on-going debate among researchers and in the media on the best strategy to keep pace with global population growth and increasing food demand. One strategy favors the use of genetically modified (GM) crops, while another strategy focuses on agricultural biodiversity. Here, we discuss two obstacles to sustainable agriculture solutions. The first obstacle is the claim that genetically modified crops are necessary if we are to secure food production within the next decades. This claim has no scientific support, but is rather a reflection of corporate interests. The second obstacle is the resultant shortage of research funds for agrobiodiversity solutions in comparison with funding for research in genetic modification of crops. Favoring biodiversity does not exclude any future biotechnological contributions, but favoring biotechnology threatens future biodiversity resources. An objective review of current knowledge places GM crops far down the list of potential solutions in the coming decades. We conclude that much of the research funding currently available for the development of GM crops would be much better spent in other research areas of plant science, e.g., nutrition, policy research, governance, and solutions close to local market conditions if the goal is to provide sufficient food for the world’s growing population in a sustainable way.
The realization of the contribution of peasant agriculture to food security in the midst of scenarios of climate change, economic and energy crisis, led to the concepts of food sovereignty and agroecologically based production systems to gain much attention in the developing world in the last two decades. New approaches and technologies involving application of blended modern agricultural science and indigenous knowledge systems and spearheaded by thousands of farmers, NGOs, and some government and academic institutions are proving to enhance food security while conserving agrobiodiversity soil and water resources conservation throughout hundreds of rural communities in the developing world. Case studies from Cuba, Brazil, Philippines, and Africa are presented to demonstrate how the agroecological development paradigm based on the revitalization of small farms which emphasizes diversity, synergy, recycling and integration, and social processes that value community participation and empowerment, proves to be perhaps one of the only viable options to meet present and future food needs. Given the present and predicted near future climate, energy and economic scenarios, agroecology has emerged as one of the most robust pathways towards designing biodiverse, productive, and resilient agroecosystems available today.
Human-induced climate change is resulting in less and more erratic rainfall, especially in regions where food security is very low. The poor in rural and dry areas will suffer the most and will require cheap and accessible strategies to adapt to erratic weather. This adaptation will need to take into account not only less water and droughts, but also the increased chance of extreme events like floods.
Biodiversity and a healthy soil are central to ecological approaches to making farming more drought-resistant and more resilient to extreme events. Resilience is the capacity to deal with change and recover after it. Practices that make soils better able to hold soil moisture and reduce erosion and that increase biodiversity in the system help in making farm production and income more resilient and stable.
Building a healthy soil is a crucial element in helping farms cope with drought. There are many proven practices available to farmers right now to help build healthy soils. Cover crops and crop residues that protect soils from wind and water erosion, and legume intercrops, manure and composts that build soil rich in organic matter, enhancing soil structure, are all ways to help increase water infiltration, hold water once it gets there, and make nutrients more accessible to the plant.
In order to feed humanity and secure ecological resilience it is essential to increase productivity in rain-fed areas where poor farmers implement current know-how on water and soil conservation. Ecological farms that work with biodiversity and are knowledge-intensive rather than chemical input-intensive might be the most resilient options under a drier and more erratic climate.
In addition to the ecological farming methods described above, continued breeding of crop varieties that can withstand drought stresses and still produce a reliable yield is needed. Many new drought-tolerant seeds are being developed using advanced conventional breeding, without the need of genetic engineering. There are already examples of drought-resistant soybean, maize, wheat and rice varieties that farmers could start taking advantage of right now. On the other hand, genetic engineering technology is not well suited for developing drought-resistant seeds. Drought tolerance is a complex trait, often involving the interaction of many genes, and thus beyond the capability of a rudimentary technology based on high expression of few well characterised genes. There is no evidence that genetically engineered (GE) crops can play a role in increasing food security under a changing climate.
This paper reviews and discusses how studies on (i) on-farm diversity assessment, (ii) access to diversity and information, (iii) extent of use of available materials and information, and (iv) benefits obtained by the farmer or farming community from their use of local crop diversity, are necessary to identify the different ways of supporting farmers and farming communities in the maintenance of traditional varieties and crop genetic diversity within their production systems. Throughout this paper two key themes are emphasized. First, any description or analysis within the four main areas (assessment, access, use and benefit) can, and most probably will, lead to a number of different actions. Second, the decision to implement a particular action, and therefore its success, will depend on farmers and the farming community having the knowledge and leadership capacity to evaluate the benefits that this action will have for them. This in turn emphasizes the importance of activities (whether by local, national and international organizations and agencies) of strengthening local institutions so as to enable farmers to take a greater role in the management of their resources.
The Via Campesina has long argued that farmers need land to produce food for their own communities and for their country and for this reason has advocated for genuine agrarian reforms to access and control land, water, agrobiodiversity, etc, which are of central importance for communities to be able to meet growing food demands. The Via Campesina believes that in order to protect livelihoods, jobs, people's food security and health as well as the environment, food production has to remain in the hands of small scale sustainable farmers and cannot be left under the control of large agribusiness companies or supermarket chains. Only by changing the export-led, free-trade based, industrial agriculture model of large farms can the downward spiral of poverty, low wages, rural-urban migration, hunger and environmental degradation be halted. Social rural movements embrace the concept of food sovereignty as an alternative to the neo- liberal approach that puts its faith in an inequitable international trade to solve the world's food problem. Instead, it focuses on local autonomy, local markets, local production-consumption cycles, energy and technological sovereignty and farmer to farmer networks. Being a global movement, the Via Campesina has recently brought their message to the North, partly to gain the support of foundations and consumers, as political pressure from a wealthier public which increasingly depends on unique food products from the South marketed via organic, fair trade, or slow food channels could marshal the sufficient political will to curve the expansion of biofuels, transgenic crops and agroexports and put an end to subsidies to industrial farming and dumping practices that hurt small farmers in the South. But can these arguments really captivate the attention and support of northern consumers and philantropists? Or is there a need to come up with a different argument, one that emphasizes that the very quality of life and food security of the populations in the North depend not only on the food products but in the ecological services provided by small farms of the South. In fact it is herein argued that the functions performed by small farming systems still prevalent in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in the post peak oil era that humanity is entering, comprise an ecological asset for humankind and planetary survival. In fact, in an era of escalating fuel and food costs, climate change, environmental degradation, GMO pollution and corporate dominated food systems, small, biodiverse, agroecologically managed farms in the Global South are the only viable form of agriculture that will feed the world under the new ecological end economic scenario. There are at last five reasons why Northern consumers should support the cause and struggle of small farmers in the South:
Peter Rosset challenges the conventional wisdom that small farms are backward and unproductive. Using evidence from southern and northern countries he demonstrates that small farms are multi-functional more productive, more efficient, and able to contribute more to economic development than large farms. He analyses the threats posed to small farmers by today's trade liberalization and concludes with a call to unite against an Agreement on Agriculture that might make their continued existence impossible.Development (2000) 43, 7782. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1110149
Recognition that climate change could have negative consequences for agricultural production has generated a desire to build
resilience into agricultural systems. One rational and cost-effective method may be the implementation of increased agricultural
crop diversification. Crop diversification can improve resilience in a variety of ways: by engendering a greater ability to
suppress pest outbreaks and dampen pathogen transmission, which may worsen under future climate scenarios, as well as by buffering
crop production from the effects of greater climate variability and extreme events. Such benefits point toward the obvious
value of adopting crop diversification to improve resilience, yet adoption has been slow. Economic incentives encouraging
production of a select few crops, the push for biotechnology strategies, and the belief that monocultures are more productive
than diversified systems have been hindrances in promoting this strategy. However, crop diversification can be implemented
in a variety of forms and at a variety of scales, allowing farmers to choose a strategy that both increases resilience and
provides economic benefits.
The principal objections to the proposition that organic agriculture can contribute significantly to the global food supply are low yields and insufficient quantities of organically acceptable fertilizers. We evaluated the universality of both claims. For the first claim, we compared yields of organic versus conventional or low-intensive food production for a global dataset of 293 examples and estimated the average yield ratio (organic:non-organic) of different food categories for the developed and the developing world. For most food categories, the average yield ratio was slightly <1.0 for studies in the developed world and >1.0 for studies in the developing world. With the average yield ratios, we modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. Model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base. We also evaluated the amount of nitrogen potentially available from fixation by leguminous cover crops used as fertilizer. Data from temperate and tropical agroecosystems suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen to replace the amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use. These results indicate that organic agriculture has the potential to contribute quite substantially to the global food supply, while reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture. Evaluation and review of this paper have raised important issues about crop rotations under organic versus conventional agriculture and the reliability of grey-literature sources. An ongoing dialogue on these subjects can be found in the Forum editorial of this issue.
This trans-disciplinary study assesses total external environmental and health costs of modern agriculture in the UK. A wide range of datasets have been analysed to assess cost distribution across sectors. We calculate the annual total external costs of UK agriculture in 1996 to be £2343 m (range for 1990–1996: £1149–3907 m), equivalent to £208/ha of arable and permanent pasture. Significant costs arise from contamination of drinking water with pesticides (£120 m/year), nitrate (£16 m), Cryptosporidium (£23 m) and phosphate and soil (£55 m), from damage to wildlife, habitats, hedgerows and drystone walls (£125 m), from emissions of gases (£1113 m), from soil erosion and organic carbon losses (£106 m), from food poisoning (£169 m), and from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) (£607 m). This study has only estimated those externalities that give rise to financial costs, and so is likely to underestimate the total negative impacts of modern agriculture. These data help to identify policy priorities, particularly over the most efficient way to internalise these external costs into prices. This would imply a redirection of public subsidies towards encouraging those positive externalities under-provided in the market place, combined with a mix of advisory and institutional mechanisms, regulatory and legal measures, and economic instruments to correct negative externalities. Further work examining the marginal costs and benefits of UK agriculture would help to inform future policy development.
Agroecology involves various approaches to solve actual challenges of agricultural production. Though agroecology initially dealt primarily with crop production and protection aspects, in recent decades new dimensions such as environmental, social, economic, ethical and development issues are becoming relevant. Today, the term `agroecology' means either a scientific discipline, agricultural practice, or political or social movement. Here we study the different meanings of agroecology. For that we analyse the historical development of agroecology. We present examples from USA, Brazil, Germany, and France. We study and discuss the evolution of different meanings agroecology. The use of the term agroecology can be traced back to the 1930s. Until the 1960s agroecology referred only as a purely scientific discipline. Then, different branches of agroecology developed. Following environmental movements in the 1960s that went against industrial agriculture, agroecology evolved and fostered agroecological movements in the 1990s. Agroecology as an agricultural practice emerged in the 1980s, and was often intertwined with movements. Further, the scales and dimensions of agroecological investigations changed over the past 80 years from the plot and field scales to the farm and agroecosystem scales. Actually three approaches persist: (1) investigations at plot and field scales, (2) investigations at the agroecosystem and farm scales, and (3) investigations covering the whole food system. These different approaches of agroecological science can be explained by the history of nations. In France, agroecology was mainly understood as a farming practice and to certain extent as a movement, whereas the corresponding scientific discipline was agronomy. In Germany, agroecology has a long tradition as a scientific discipline. In the USA and in Brazil all three interpretations of agroecology occur, albeit with a predominance of agroecology as a science in the USA and a stronger emphasis on movement and agricultural practice in Brazil. These varied meanings of the term agroecology cause confusion among scientists and the public, and we recommend that those who publish using this term be explicit in their interpretation.
A joint study by International Food Policy Research Institute and World Resources Institute with Analytical Contributions from Niels H. Batjes, ISRIC; Andrew Farrow, CIAT; Jean Marc Faurès, FAO; Günther Fischer, IIASA; Gerhard Heilig, IIASA; Julio Henao, IFDC; Robert Hijmans, CIP; Freddy Nachtergaele, FAO; Peter Oram, IFPRI; and Manuel Winograd, CIAT
Despite great recent progress, hunger and poverty remain widespread and agriculturally driven environmental damage is widely prevalent. The idea of agricultural sustainability centers on the need to develop technologies and practices that do not have adverse effects on environmental goods and services, and that lead to improvements in food productivity. Here we show the extent to which 286 recent interventions in 57 poor countries covering 37 M ha (3% of the cultivated area in developing countries) have increased productivity on 12.6 M farms while improving the supply of critical environmental services. The average crop yield increase was 79% (geometric mean 64%). All crops showed water use efficiency gains, with the highest improvement in rainfed crops. Potential carbon sequestered amounted to an average of 0.35 t C ha(-1) y(-1). If a quarter of the total area under these farming systems adopted sustainability enhancing practices, we estimate global sequestration could be 0.1 Gt C y(-1). Of projects with pesticide data, 77% resulted in a decline in pesticide use by 71% while yields grew by 42%. Although it is uncertain whether these approaches can meet future food needs, there are grounds for cautious optimism, particularly as poor farm households benefit more from their adoption.
Proponents of a second Green Revolution generally argue that developing countries should opt for an agroindustrial model that relies on standardized technologies and ever-increasing fertilizer and pesticide use to provide additional food supplies for growing populations and economies. In contrast, a growing number of farmers, NGOs, and analysts propose that instead of this capital- and input-intensive approach, developing countries should favor an agroecological model, which emphasizes biodiversity, recycling of nutrients, synergy among crops, animals, soils, and other biological components, and regeneration and conservation of resources. It is argued here that agroecology—a science that provides ecological principles for the design and management of sustainable and resource-conserving agricultural systems—offers several advantages over the conventional agronomic or agroindustrial approach.
This new edition builds on the explosion of research on sustainable agriculture since the late 1980s. By separating myth from reality, Miguel Altieri extracts the key principles of sustainable agriculture and expounds on management systems that “really work.” Providing case studies of sustainable rural development in developing countries, he goes beyond a mere description of practices to include data that reveal the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of alternative projects. Each chapter of Agroecology has been enriched and updated with the latest research results from around the world. New emphasis has been placed on such issues as the ecological economics of agriculture, policy changes needed for promoting sustainable agriculture, rural development in the Third World, the role of biodiversity in agriculture, and new research methodologies.
This volume provides a uniquely rich set of arguments and data for prioritizing our responses to some of the most serious problems facing the world today, such as climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, education, financial instability, corruption, migration, malnutrition and hunger, trade barriers, and water access. Leading economists evaluate the evidence for costs and benefits of various programs to help gauge how we can achieve the most good with our money. Each problem is introduced by a world-renowned expert analyzing the scale of the problem and describing the costs and benefits of a range of policy options to improve the situation. Shorter pieces from experts offering alternative positions are also included; all ten challenges are evaluated by a panel of economists from North America, Europe, and China who rank the most promising policy options. Global Crises, Global Solutions provides a serious, yet accessible, springboard for debate and discussion and will be required reading for government employees, NGOs, scholars and students of public policy and applied economics, and anyone with a serious professional or personal interest in global development issues. BjØrn Lomborg is Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Aarhus and the director of the Danish Environmental Assessment Institute. He is also the author of the controversial bestseller, The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001). © Environmental Assessment Institute 2004 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Chapters: Agroecology, a Tool for the Realization of the Right to Food; Agroecology and the Food System; Development of a Sustainably-Competitive Agriculture; Emissions of Ammonia, Nitrous Oxide and Methane During the Management of Solid Manures; Communication in the Rhizosphere, a Target for Pest Management; A Novel Land-Energy Use Indicator for Energy Crops; Conventional, Organic and Conservation Agriculture: Production and Environmental Impact; Improving Water Use Efficiency for Sustainable Agriculture; Genetic Mechanisms of Drought Stress Tolerance, Implications of Transgenic Crops for Agriculture; Plant Parasitic Nematode Diversity in Pome, Stone and Nut Fruits; Fly Ash for Agriculture: Implications for Soil Properties, Nutrients, Heavy Metals, Plant Growth and Pest Control; Organic Farming History and Techniques.
Many traditional farmers and environmentalists subscribe to the popular idea that the natural world offers ecosystem services that contribute to the stability, productivity, and sustainability of agriculture. Opponents of this view argue that the farm is not an environment to be stewarded by romantic environmentalists, but rather is a battlefield on which the enemies of production must be vanquished. Contemporary research in ecosystem complexity offers a new platform on which to adjudicate between these two points of view. Through particular network structuring, nonlinearity, and stochasticity, and especially with the added dimension of space, recent theoretical and empirical research reveals that ecological systems persist and generate ecosystem services as a result of complex interacting components. Here we report on our research into the ecological dynamics of a collection of species related to key problems in pest control, a critical ecosystem service in coffee production.
Throughout the developing world, resource-poor farmers (about 1.4 billion people) located in risk-prone, marginal environments, remain untouched by modern agricultural technology. A new approach to natural resource management must be developed so that new management systems can be tailored and adapted in a site-specific way to highly variable and diverse farm conditions typical of resource-poor farmers. Agroecology provides the scientific basis to address the production by a biodiverse agroecosystem able to sponsor its own functioning. The latest advances in agroecological research are reviewed in order to better define elements of a research agenda in natural resource management that is compatible with the needs and aspirations of peasants. Obviously, a relevant research agenda setting should involve the full participation of farmers with other institutions serving a facilitating role. The implementation of the agenda will also imply major institutional and policy changes.
A study using a participatory research approach and simple field techniques found significant differences in agroecological resistance between plots on “conventional” and “sustainable” farms in Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch. On average, agroecological plots on sustainable farms had more topsoil, higher field moisture, more vegetation, less erosion and lower economic losses after the hurricane than control plots on conventional farms. The differences in favor of agroecological plots tended to increase with increasing levels of storm intensity, increasing slope and years under agroecological practices, though the patterns of resistance suggested complex interactions and thresholds. For some indicators agroecological resistance collapsed under extreme stress.
This article examines the re-emergence of the peasantry. It argues that farming is increasingly being restructured in a peasant-like way. This restructuring is an actively constructed response to the agrarian crisis that has grown out of five decades of state-induced modernisation and is currently being accelerated by the financial crisis and the generalised economic depression. Through a process of restructuring that is both multi-dimensional and multi-level farmers are reconstituting themselves into peasants (although important features of operating as peasants have never been completely absent), a process that is occurring as much in developed countries as in developing ones. At more or less the same time theoretical concepts of the peasantry and the peasant way of farming are being rediscovered and revisited. Earlier debates are highly relevant for understanding the current situation of a generalised crisis and the responses that are being triggered among farmers. The rediscovery of the peasant as theoretically meaningful concept reflects the socio-material re-emergence of the peasantry, and helps to explain the particular features of this process. The article concludes by arguing that the reconstitution of the peasantry is strategic to future world food security
'Jan Douwe van der Ploeg combines long engagement in the empirical study of farming and farmers, and of alternative agricultures, in very different parts of the world, with a sophisticated analytical acumen and capacity to provoke in fruitful ways.' Henry Bernstein, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK 'This book makes a timely and original contribution. The author revitalizes our interest in peasant societies through an in-depth examination of how rural populations in state systems respond to neo-liberal globalization.' Robert E. Rhoades, Distinguished Research Professor, University of Georgia, US 'There is an increasing interest in this topic, especially as the author links the debate on the peasantry with Empire and Globalization. He has an excellent reputation in the field and is highly qualified to write this book, which draws on his extensive worldwide experience with the issues he discusses.' Crist?bal Kay, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands This book explores the position, role and significance of the peasantry in an era of globalization, particularly of the agrarian markets and food industries. It argues that the peasant condition is characterized by a struggle for autonomy that finds expression in the creation and development of a self-governed resource base and associated forms of sustainable development. In this respect the peasant mode of farming fundamentally differs from entrepreneurial and corporate ways of farming. The author demonstrates that the peasantries are far from waning. Instead, both industrialized and developing countries are witnessing complex and richly chequered processes of 're-peasantization', with peasants now numbering over a billion worldwide. The author's arguments are based on three longitudinal studies (in Peru, Italy and The Netherlands) that span 30 years and provide original and thought-provoking insights into rural and agrarian development processes. The book combines and integrates different bodies of literature: the rich traditions of peasant studies, development sociology, rural sociology, neo-institutional economics and the recently emerging debates on Empire.
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