Opportunities and Challenges for the Promotion of Transitions to Agroecological Practices for Sustainable Food Production in Middle and Low-Income Countries

Dear Colleagues,

This concept note proposes a Special Issue of Sustainability that builds the empirical evidence base on agroecological transitions in middle- and low-income countries, most of which will be in the Global South. 

Calls for policy interventions, scientific research and agricultural practices that promote agroecological transitions are gaining traction. This is both in response to climate change and ways of mitigating its impact, as well as to movements such as those promoting food sovereignty and the protection of indigenous people and the resources that they use. There are as many definitions of agroecology as there are proponents. The High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) definition offers a useful framing that has been taken up by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The HLPE proposes that “…agroecological approaches [are those that] favour the use of natural processes, limit the use of purchased inputs, promote closed cycles with minimal negative externalities and stress the importance of local knowledge and participatory processes that develop knowledge and practice through experience, as well as more conventional scientific methods, and address social inequalities” (HLPE, 2019).

This definition can obscure the lived experiences of the practitioners who implement agroecology in diverse contexts. An alternative approach sees agroecology as “…the integrative study of the ecology of the entire food system; a science, practice and movement; an approach to farming that maximizes ecological processes and does not degrade the natural resource base” (Carlile et al. 2021:10). This more clearly separates the practices of the approach, from the social movements that are involved in advocacy, often for fundamental changes, to food systems.

Despite the interest in this approach, case studies of agroecological transition are limited, and frequently presented as binaries, where practices either are or are not agroecological. The debates are sometimes confounded by allegations of corporate ‘greenwashing’, conflicts within and between social movements concerned with sustainability, and outright misinformation by all stakeholders. This proposal for a Special Issue seeks to contribute towards attempts to bring balance and evidence to these debates through promoting transdisciplinary, systems-based research on agroecological transitions.

Diverse ecological production techniques and their integration at the farm and landscape levels will be included as examples of agroecological transition. Following Gliessman (2016), we will preference case studies that can be placed along a continuum of practices/levels and which provide further examples of these levels and will endeavour to include at least one empirical study that can be linked to Levels 1 through 4. As Level 5 is an aspirational goal, we will ensure that it is at least discussed in the editors’ overview. The levels are:

• Level 1. This refers to practices that increase the efficiency of industrial and conventional practices in order to reduce the use and consumption of costly, scarce, or environmentally damaging inputs. This includes methods and products that help farmers maintain or increase production, such as improved seeds, optimum planting density, more efficient pesticide and fertilizer application, and more precise use of water. It includes some “precision agriculture” and climate-smart practices.
• Level 2. This refers to the substitution of agroecological inputs and practices for conventional alternatives. The objective is to replace external input-intensive and environmentally degrading products and practices with those that are more renewable, based on natural products, and more environmentally sound. Examples include organic farming and biodynamic agriculture.
• Level 3. This level is more ambitious and refers to redesigning agroecosystems so that they function on the basis of a different set of ecological processes. It requires more fundamental changes in overall system design in order to remove the causes of problems that remain in place at Levels 1 and 2. The focus is on the prevention of problems before they occur, rather than trying to control them after they happen. Examples include the reintroduction of diversity in farm structure and management through such actions as diversified and ecologically based crop rotations, food forests, aquaponic gardening and the integration of animal husbandry with crops.
• Level 4. This level goes further to seek the reconnection between producers and consumers of food. Examples include the re-localisation movement that builds on farmers’ markets and consumer cooperatives, as well as networks such as the Community Action Networks that sprang up during the COVID-19 pandemic that linked community gardens to emergency food relief. The focus here is less on methods and products, and rather on approaches such as on territoriality that recognise the importance of ‘place’ and the actions of stakeholders within this ‘place’.
• Finally, at Level 5, change is global in scale, depth and reach, and involves reform across food environments and food supply chains. Movements such as the Via Campesina food sovereignty, the Food Justice Movement, and perhaps the Slow Food movement are embryonic examples of this level.

By adopting this framework, we will contribute to the literature on this topic by providing empirically supported case studies of the different levels. To our knowledge, this is the first publication that has attempted to do this since the publication of the Gliessman’s seminal text in 2006 in which he outlined these levels. The publication will draw on recent work of several international research groups who have been reviewing opportunities for agroecological practices in South America, Africa and South Asia. We are thus confident that we will be able include recent high-quality work that is grounded on the Gleissman framework.

Papers should report on case studies of approaches and technologies that have been implemented in middle and low-income countries (following the latest World Bank classification), or on the results of enquiries that seek to establish ‘proof of concept’. Papers that address issues such as food system resilience, integrated farming systems and social innovation for food security will be prioritised. Studies that contribute towards ‘proof of concept’ debates will be considered, although preference will be given to case studies, and particularly to impact assessments. Systematic literature reviews will not be accepted, although a framing introduction will be written by the editors.

Prof. Dr. Julian May
Prof. Dr. Andy Dougill
Prof. Dr. Claire Helen Quinn
Dr. Melody Mentz-Coetzee
Guest Editors

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• agro-ecological approaches
• transitions
• African agriculture
• resilience
• integrated farming systems
• social innovation