Elements of Agroecology
FAO
Diversity
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Diversification is key to agroecological transitions to ensure food security and nutrition while conserving, protecting and enhancing natural resources. Agroecological systems are highly diverse. From a biological perspective, agroecological systems optimise the diversity of species and genetic resources in different ways. For example, agroforestry systems organise crops, shrubs, and trees of different heights and shapes at different levels or strata, increasing vertical diversity.
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Co-creation
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Agricultural innovations respond better to local challenges when they are co-created through participatory processes. Agroecology depends on context-specific knowledge. It does not offer fixed prescriptions – rather, agroecological practises are tailored to fit the environmental, social, economic, cultural and political context. The co-creation and sharing of knowledge plays a central role in the process of developing and implementing agroecological innovations to address challenges across food systems including adaptation to climate change.
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Synergies
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Building synergies enhances key functions across food systems, supporting production and multiple ecosystem services. Agroecology pays careful attention to the design of diversified systems that selectively combine annual and perennial crops, livestock and aquatic animals, trees, soils, water and other components on farms and agricultural landscapes to enhance synergies in the context of an increasingly changing climate.
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Efficiency
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Innovative agroecological practises produce more using less external resources. Increased resource-use efficiency is an emergent property of agroecological systems that carefully plan and manage diversity to create synergies between different system components.
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Recycling
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More recycling means agricultural production with lower economic and environmental costs. Waste is a human concept – it does not exist in natural ecosystems. By imitating natural ecosystems, agroecological practises support biological processes that drive the recycling of nutrients, biomass and water within production systems, thereby increasing resource use efficiency and minimising waste and pollution.
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Resilience
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Enhanced resilience of people, communities and ecosystems is key to sustainable food and agricultural systems. Diversified agroecological systems are more resilient – they have a greater capacity to recover from disturbances including extreme weather events such as drought, floods or hurricanes, and to resist pest and disease attack.
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Human and Social Values
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Protecting and improving rural livelihoods, equity and social well-being is essential for sustainable food and agricultural systems. Agroecology places a strong emphasis on human and social values, such as dignity, equity, inclusion and justice all contributing to the improved livelihoods dimension of the SDGs. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems. By building autonomy and adaptive capacities to manage their agro-ecosystems, agroecological approaches empower people and communities to overcome poverty, hunger and malnutrition, while promoting human rights, such as the right to food, and stewardship of the environment so that future generations can also live in prosperity.
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Culture and Food Traditions
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By supporting healthy, diversified and culturally appropriate diets, agroecology contributes to food security and nutrition while maintaining the health of ecosystems. Agriculture and food are core components of human heritage. Hence, culture and food traditions play a central role in society and in shaping human behaviour. However, in many instances, our current food systems have created a disconnection between food habits and culture. This disconnection has contributed to a situation where hunger and obesity exist side by side, in a world that produces enough food to feed its entire population.
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Responsible Governance
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Sustainable food and agriculture requires responsible and effective governance mechanisms at different scales – from local to national to global. Agroecology calls for responsible and effective governance to support the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems. Transparent, accountable and inclusive governance mechanisms are necessary to create an enabling environment that supports producers to transform their systems following agroecological concepts and practises. Successful examples include school feeding and public procurement programmes, market regulations allowing for branding of differentiated agroecological produce, and subsidies and incentives for ecosystem services.
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Circular and Solidarity Economy
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Circular and solidarity economies that reconnect producers and consumers provide innovative solutions for living within our planetary boundaries while ensuring the social foundation for inclusive and sustainable development. Agroecology seeks to reconnect producers and consumers through a circular and solidarity economy that prioritises local markets and supports local economic development by creating virtuous cycles.
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