Agroecology and Global Goals

Agroecology and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for a new agricultural approach to ensure sufficient, safe and nutritious food respecting human rights. FAO Members have a common vision for sustainable food and agriculture, and agroecology is a key response to guide the sustainable transformation of our food systems.

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Family farming, herding and artisanal fisheries and aquaculture provide livelihoods for many of the world’s rural poor. Agroecological approaches support food producers in reducing production costs, translating into greater income, economic stability and resilience.

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Agroecological systems optimize the use of local and renewable resources and knowledge. This enables agricultural production systems to harness ecosystem benefits such as pest control, pollination, soil health and erosion control while ensuring productivity. The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity leads to robust ecosystem services and sustainable agriculture.

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

By minimizing the use of potentially harmful agro-chemical inputs, agroecology reduces agriculture’s negative effects on both human and environmental health. By re-localizing diets, agroecology can help to inform sustainable and healthy diets.

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Agroecology depends on knowledge adapted to local contexts by food producers and other actors. It delivers relevant and practical knowledge through empowering peer-to-peer systems, enhanced with the knowledge of formal scientists.

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Women have a central role in agroecology. They are often custodians of healthy and traditional diets and are key players in sustainable food systems, from the home, to the field, to the market and beyond. Agroecology has the potential to advance women’s rights, self-determination and autonomy.

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Agroecology prevents surface water and groundwater pollution and contamination. It promotes practices that are efficient in water use, enhances soil water retention, and values locally adapted crops that require less (or no) irrigation, allowing safer and more sustainable aquifer storage, recovery and recharge.

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Agroecological approaches create new decent rural employment opportunities for youth and women. The increased resilience of agroecological production systems helps to better maintain existing jobs, supporting rural livelihoods and communities.

Reduce inequality within and among countries

Agroecology gives priority to the most marginalised and vulnerable sectors of society: rural women, youth, family farmers and indigenous peoples. Agroecology has the potential to address the inequality of the food system by providing locally–based solutions to specific contexts and territories.

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

By promoting a territorial approach to development, agroecology encourages the development of integrated plans for urban and rural development, with urban areas recognising the multiple benefits that sustainable landscapes can provide them and re-connecting producers and consumers to shorten value chains and increase resilience.

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Agroecology enhances diversification to achieve sustainable and healthy diets and food and nutrition security. Agroecological food systems have proven, in many local contexts, to be exemplary providers of high-quality nutritious, healthy and adequate diets, preserving and promoting local food traditions and traditional knowledge. By shortening value chains, agroecology contributes to the reduction of food losses and waste.

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Agroecology helps mitigate against climate change and its impacts. It reduces the emission of greenhouse gases by promoting integrated production systems that are less dependent on energy from fossil fuels and that store and fix carbon. By promoting diversified and integrated production systems, agroecology facilitates resilience and adaptation to a changing climate.

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

In aquatic systems, the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) and to aquaculture (EAA) demonstrates an agroecological approach. The Ecosystem Approach ensures that the management of living resources applies an integrated approach to fisheries within meaningful boundaries, taking into account knowledge and uncertainties in the biotic, abiotic and human components.

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Agroecology works with local communities, food producers, and other actors to prevent land degradation and restore degraded areas. Agroecology helps to conserve and sustainably use and value the biodiversity and ecosystem services that underpin food production.

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Agroecology supports strong and inclusive producers’ organisations that enable the sharing and co-creation of knowledge, solidarity, representation of their concerns at the policy level and responsible governance.

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Scaling up agroecology calls for increased cooperation between productive sectors, social actors and countries.

 

Agroecology, What is it all About?

What is Agroecology?

Agroecology is a holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agriculture and food systems. It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems within which people can exercise choice over what they eat and how and where it is produced. Agroecology is concurrently a science, a set of practices and a social movement and has evolved as a concept over recent decades to expand in scope from a focus on fields and farms to encompass the entirety of agriculture and food systems. It now represents a transdisciplinary field that includes the ecological, socio-cultural, technological, economic and political dimensions of food systems, from production to consumption.

It is no longer possible to look at food, livelihoods, health and the management of natural resources separately. Embracing systems–thinking through holistic approaches is needed to address these complex and interdependent challenges. The fundamental connection between people and the planet, with sustainable agriculture and food systems, is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which stresses the urgent need to take concerted action and pursue policies directed at transformational change. Ending poverty and achieving zero hunger, while ensuring inclusive growth and sustainably managing the planet’s natural resources, all in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss, will only be possible through holistic and integrated approaches that respect human rights.

Agroecology represents an overarching and comprehensive systems framework to guide public policies towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. It enhances public efficiency by fostering integrated and inter-ministerial policy design and implementation, bringing together agricultural and food sectors that are often disaggregated. It actively engages different stakeholders through inter-disciplinary mechanisms which favour a responsible and transparent governance of resources. As a result, agroecological transitions can support the simultaneous achievement of multiple sustainability objectives – economic, environmental, social, nutritional, health and cultural – holistically and in integrated manner at different levels and scales while being adapted for different environmental and cultural contexts.

Agroecology is based on bottom-up and territorial processes, helping to deliver contextualized solutions to local problems with people at the centre. There is no single way to apply agroecological approaches – it depends on local contexts, constraints and opportunities but there are common principles that have been articulated in the framework of the 10 Elements of Agroecology.

The 10 Elements of Agroecology framework

FAO developed the 10 Elements of Agroecology framework to assist countries in fostering transformative change. The 10 Elements are interlinked and interdependent and represent a simplified, yet holistic, way to think about reality. They describe essential components, key interactions, emergent properties and desired enabling conditions in agroecological transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food systems. The 10 Elements are a useful analytical tool to facilitate decision-making by practitioners and other stakeholders when planning, implementing, managing, and evaluating agroecological transitions.

Agroecology brings solutions to multiple Sustainable Development Goals:

Zero hunger, food security, nutrition and health

Agroecology promotes local, stable and diverse diets with year-round integrated production of healthy and nutritious foods, since it is anchored in diversified, resilient, and sustainable territorial production systems. Farms and ecosystems managed through agroecological practices can enhance the four dimensions of food security – availability, access, stability, and utilization – which contribute to reducing rural poverty, enhancing resilience, promoting local development, and improving communities’ livelihoods.

Poverty alleviation

Agroecology helps boost the livelihoods of family farmers and decreases rural poverty by reducing farmers’ reliance on external inputs, subsidies and volatility of market prices. Agroecology can promote increased economic resilience, provide income stability over the year and connect consumers to producers, thereby improving bargaining power and reducing profit loss when public policy provides support and access to finance and secure markets.

Climate change resilience

Agroecology helps to protect, restore and improve agriculture and food systems in the face of climate shocks and stressors. Diverse, well-integrated agroecological systems can promote greater carbon sequestration, increase resilience of livelihoods and provide climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions. Agroecological systems are also better able to resist other societal shocks and stressors, such as pandemics and market disruptions, by re-localizing food systems and shortening value-chains, leading to greater resilience.

Biodiversity

Integrated agroecological approaches sustain and enhance natural functions and ecosystem services, including the restoration degraded soils, particularly in drylands, with a spillover effect on food security, resilience and sustainable livelihoods. Diverse agroecological systems, such as polycultures, animal-integration systems and agroforestry systems, harness ecosystem benefits such as pest control, pollination, soil health and erosion control, while sustaining productivity.

Youth engagement

Agroecology provides innovative solutions and decent employment for youth. Agroecology is based on knowledge intensive, environmentally friendly, socially responsible, innovative, and skilled labour agricultural production. As a bottom-up, grassroots paradigm for sustainable rural development, agroecology empowers people and communities to become their own agents of change.

Gender self-determination

Women are building agroecology into their everyday practices: preserving and multiplying native seeds; producing healthy, diverse food without pesticides; raising local and indigenous livestock breeds; promoting the preservation of local biodiversity and landscapes; and carrying out artisanal fishing while protecting rivers, lakes and seas. Agroecology applies the practices of solidarity by collective actions to reduce gender inequity by addressing underlying power imbalances that perpetuate discrimination and oppression.

Human rights

Agroecology champions inclusion of marginalized groups and fair access to resources for all. Agroecology helps in furthering the realization of the right to food by advocating for a people-centered approach, with focus on the most vulnerable. Agroecology promotes inclusive, responsible and transparent governance of resources. This entails empowerment of local and community leaders.

Agroecology and Organic Farming

 

Agroecology is sustainable farming that works with nature.

Ecology is the study of relationships between plants, animals, people, and their environment - and the balance between these relationships.

Agroecology is the application of ecological concepts and principals in farming.

Agroecology promotes farming practices that;

• Mitigate climate change - reducing emissions, recycling resources and prioritising local supply chains.
• Work with wildlife - managing the impact of farming on wildlife and harnessing nature to do the hard work for us, such as pollinating crops and controlling pests.
• Put farmers and communities in the driving seat - they give power to approaches led by local people and adapt agricultural techniques to suit the local area - and its specific social, environmental and economic conditions.
  
  

Agroecology in action 

Agroforestry is a great example of agroecology. It's the practice of combining trees and farming; it demonstrates how food production and nature can co-exist.

Grazing farm animals under trees gives them shelter and fodder, whilst their manure enriches the soil. And planting trees on land normally used to grow cereal crops can provide another crop - be that fruit, nuts or timber. This provides another income stream for farmers and also protects soils from erosion, as the trees' deep roots help create a healthy soil structure.

Agroforestry, like many agroecological approaches, is a win-win.

Agroecology: a truly sustainable alternative

At global and local levels, we face multiple food system challenges - flooding, soil degradation, biodiversity collapse, malnutrition and obesity.

Intensive farming systems contribute to these problems. They exhaust natural resources focusing on short-term gains rather than the long-term sustainability that works best for the land, wildlife and local communities. We need an alternative food system that is truly sustainable. The good news is, many of the solutions lie in agroecology.

The Ten Years for Agroecology project models how the UK and the rest of Europe can transition to a food and farming model to reduce climate impacts, support wildlife to bounce back and feed a growing population a healthy diet.

Where does organic fit into agroecology?

Agroecology is an umbrella term that covers lots of agricultural practices that you may be more familiar with, like organic, biodynamic or permaculture.

Organic farming is a form of agroecological farming.

All organic farmers are required to meet a strict set of standards.

These standards guarantee higher animal welfare, fewer pesticides and antibiotics and no GMOs.

Organic practices also support more jobs on farms, healthy soil and more on-farm.

Certified organic farms are inspected on an annual basis to legally verify farmers meet these high standards. So organic is a great way to connect citizens and farmers who are using agroecological methods and support the growth of agroecology.

How can I support agroecology?

The easiest way you can support agroecological farming is to engage with your local farmers and growers. Learn about their farming practices, join a local veg box scheme or buy organic.

Organic food is clearly labelled and provides a guarantee that your products have been produced to some of the highest environmental standards.

However, to achieve an agroecological future, everybody – farmers, caterers, shops and citizens – needs to support a new way of thinking about food, farming and the environment.

With the support of the organic community, we continuously make the case for agroecology in Government, so policymakers understand the opportunities it offers for climate, nature and our health. We’re lobbying for more support, empowerment and advice for farmers, so they are able to explore how they can transition to agroecology.