Search Results (59)

Agroecology has traditionally been implemented using conventional methods. However, the integration of precision equipment, advanced methodologies, and digital technologies (DT) is now essential for transitioning to a more modern and efficient approach. While agroecological principles remain fundamental for planning and managing sustainable food systems by optimizing natural resources, technological tools can significantly support their implementation and adoption by farmers. This transition, however, must also consider socioeconomic factors and policy frameworks to ensure that technological advancements lead to meaningful improvements in farms and agroecosystems. Across both industrialized and emerging economies, various initiatives, such as precision agriculture, digital platforms, and e-commerce, are driving the digitalization of agroecology. These innovations offer clear benefits, including enhanced knowledge generation and direct improvements to the food supply chain; however, several barriers remain, including limited understanding of digital tools, high-energy demands, insufficient financial resources, economical constrains, weak policy support, lack of infrastructure, low digital learning by framers, etc. to facilitate the transition. This review looks for the understanding of how digitalization can align or conflict with local agroecological dynamics across distinct political frameworks and reality contexts because the information about DT adoption in agroecological practices is limited and it remains unclear if digital agriculture for scaling agroecology can considerably change power dynamics within the productive systems in regions of Europe and Latin America. In South America, among countries like Ecuador, with strong potential for agroecological development, where 60% of farms are less than 1 ha, and where farmers have expressed interest in agroecological practices, 80% have reported lacking sufficient information to make the transition to digitalization, making slow the adoption progress of these DT. While agroecology is gaining global recognition, its modernization through DT requires further research in technical, social, economic, cultural, and political dimensions to more guide the adoption of DT in agroecology with more certainty. Full article

After decades of calls for more sustainable land use systems, there is still a lack of consensus on an appropriate way forward, especially for tropical and subtropical agroecosystems. Land Maxing utilises appropriate, community-based interventions to fortify and maximise the multiple, long-term benefits and interest flows from investments that rebuild all six essential capitals of sustainable development (natural, social, human, physical, financial and political/corporate will) for resource-poor smallholder communities in tropical and subtropical countries. Land Maxing adds domestication of overlooked indigenous food tree species, and the commercialization of their marketable products, to existing land restoration efforts while empowering local communities, enhancing food sovereignty, and boosting the local economy and overall production. These agroecological and socio-economic interventions sustainably restore and intensify subsistence agriculture replacing conventional negative trade-offs with fortifying ‘trade-ons’. Land Maxing is therefore productive, regenerative, remunerative and transformative for farming communities in the tropics and sub-tropics. Through the development of resilience at all levels, Land Maxing uniquely addresses the big global issues of environmental degradation, hunger, malnutrition, poverty and social injustice, while mitigating climate change and restoring wildlife habitats. This buffers subsistence farming from population growth and poor international governance. The Tropical Agricultural Association International is currently planning a programme to up-scale and out-scale Land Maxing in Africa. Full article

Urban agriculture is considered by many scientists and policymakers as a key strategy to build climate change-resilient communities within cities by strengthening food systems, with positive food security, biodiversity, nutrition and health outcomes. The estimated potential of urban agriculture to provide between 15 and 20% of the global food supply can be enhanced by applying agroecological principles and practices that revitalize urban agriculture cropping systems, thus leading to the design of highly diversified, productive and resilient urban farms on a planet in polycrisis. Two pillars are used in agroecology: (a) restoring spatial and temporal crop combinations that deter pests by enhancing biological control with natural enemies, and (b) increasing soil organic matter through green manures, compost and other organic practices that enhance soil fertility and beneficial microorganisms. In addition to technical and environmental obstacles, there are a series of social, economic and political barriers that limit the scaling-up of urban agriculture. For this reason, it is important to launch policies that establish mechanisms for cities to provide incentives for urban agriculture, including access to land, water, seeds and technical knowledge. The creation of producer–consumer networks around markets with solidarity is critical for local equitable food provision and consumption. Full article

This study explores how traditional ecological knowledge in Chile can contribute to adaptation strategies within increasingly complex socio-ecological landscapes. It addresses the need for innovative approaches to knowledge production and application in the face of climate change and related crises. Through an exploratory, multi-sited qualitative methodology—integrating ethnographic observation, participatory methods, and in-depth interviews across various regions—this research identifies patterns, contrasts, and synergies in TEK practices related to water management, agroecology, community resource governance, and cultural heritage. The results show that TEK is not a static repository but rather a set of dynamic and adaptive practices and understandings shaped over centuries of interaction with heterogeneous environments. Although pressures such as migration, industrialization, resource privatization, and climatic threats endanger its continuity, TEK demonstrates the ability to integrate with scientific and political frameworks, enabling culturally relevant adaptation driven by local communities. These findings highlight the relevance of relational and transdisciplinary approaches to reduce epistemic gaps, foster cooperation, and guide more equitable, multi-level environmental governance. In conclusion, strengthening TEK’s role—through supportive policies, collaborative research, and inclusive dialogues—can enhance resilience, guide sustainable transitions, and enrich global adaptation strategies that respect local contexts and cultural diversity, thereby advancing progress toward the SDGs. Full article

Soybeans play a crucial role in global food security and international agricultural trade. As the world’s largest consumer and trader of soybeans, China faces significant external dependence on supply and concentration of import sources. In light of increasing uncertainties in the international political and economic landscape, risks within China’s soybean supply chain have become increasingly prominent, highlighting the need to explore the global soybean supply potential and optimize import strategies. In response to national food security strategic requirements and anticipated changes in global production capacity, the Global Agro-Ecological Zone (GAEZ) model and the multi-objective nonlinear programming model are used in this paper to estimate the potential of soybean yield increase globally. From dual perspectives of risk minimization and cost minimization, diversified soybean import schemes for China are proposed across three scopes: neighboring countries, countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and globally. The results indicate that in the long term, the center of gravity for global soybean production capacity remains in the Americas; these areas, along with Europe and Africa, are key regions for China to expand its soybean import sources in the future. If all countries’ soybean production potentials are fully explored, China can achieve sufficient soybean supply by relying on neighboring countries as well as those countries participating in the BRI. Specifically, it is estimated that during the 2020s (2011–2040), the potential soybean production in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina could reach more than 290 million tons, 140 million tons, and 130 million tons, respectively, under scenarios of both yield increase and cultivated land expansion. Neighboring countries such as India and Russia also show significant potential, with India’s production potentially increasing by 42.8 million tons and Russia’s by 10.4 million tons. The results suggest that China can achieve a more balanced and secure import strategy by leveraging the production capabilities of countries in the Americas, Europe, and Africa while also fostering closer economic and agricultural cooperation with neighboring nations and BRI countries. Based on these findings, policy recommendations aimed at stabilizing and ensuring China’s soybean supply are discussed. Full article

The “agroecological transition” has emerged as a framework that aims to explain the complex changes taking place in agrifood systems. This study offers a mapping of the emergence of this framework, and aims to demonstrate that the agroecological transition can refer to different perspectives beyond the simple combination of two concepts. We carried out a bibliometric analysis of 298 articles (2012–2023), searched using the command “agroecologic* transition*”. We used VOSviewer software (version 1.6.20), which is able to reveal clusters of co-citations of the most cited authors and articles. This result, in turn, indicates the existence of different perspectives on the use of agroecological transitions. Four clusters were found: (i) “Techniques and Practices”, represented by articles that document the agroecological transition as an expression of specific agricultural techniques and practices; (ii) “Transition Theory”, which employs the emerging theory and its conceptual contributions; (iii) “Transition Criteria”, which involves the use of criteria to monitor the transition; and (iv) “Political and Social”, made up of articles that explore the political and social movement dimension of agroecology. Each of these clusters, and their approaches, contribute different interpretations of agroecology itself, indicating the emergence of a new framework capable of attributing new meanings to it. Full article

This paper reviews, compares, and critically evaluates two broad groups of sustainable agriculture models: “sustainable agriculture” and “sustainable agrifood systems”. The “sustainable agriculture” models—comprising organic farming, regenerative agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, carbon-capture agriculture, and nature-based solutions—focus primarily on improving ecological sustainability through farm-level practices. These models emphasize reducing external, industrial inputs, enhancing biodiversity, and promoting climate resilience, relying on technological and market-based solutions to address environmental concerns. On the other hand, the “sustainable agrifood systems” models—agroecology, alternative food networks, and permaculture—offer more ambitious visions of systemic transformation. These approaches not only seek to implement environmentally sound practices but also aim to reconfigure the broader food system by challenging corporate power, promoting local governance, fostering food sovereignty, and prioritizing social justice. Grounded in grassroots movements, these models emphasize social justice and economic viability in addition to ecological sustainability. This paper’s contribution lies in its comparative analysis of the wide array of sustainable alternatives, highlighting both their strengths and limitations. Adopting an agrarian political economy perspective, it critiques the former camp for limited engagement with structural issues inherent in capitalist agriculture and the latter camp for underplaying the importance of industrial agriculture for national development in the Global South. Full article

Agriculture is the most important economic sector and simultaneously the greatest threat to the ecosystem functions on which all complex life depends. It is therefore a logical starting point for developing a restorative economy. We must develop and disseminate agroecosystems capable of providing food security for all, while simultaneously restoring vital ecosystem processes degraded by conventional agriculture. We review 25 years of transdisciplinary work towards this goal on an agroecology project in Santa Rosa de Lima, Santa Catarina, Brazil and distill some key lessons for like-minded efforts. We apply the methods of Participatory Action Research and Post Normal Science to integrate the knowledge, insights and goals of farmers, diverse scientists, agricultural extensionists, and policymakers to design high-biodiversity silvopastoral systems and multi-function riparian forests capable of improving farmer livelihoods, and propose policies to support their adoption by aligning the interests of farmers and society. We explain the science underlying our project and document resulting improvements in farmer livelihoods and ecosystem services. We then examine the socioeconomic obstacles to disseminating our innovations and policies that might overcome them and describe our pragmatic approaches to working with policymakers. We conclude that integrating natural sciences, socio-economic analysis and politics are all necessary yet insufficient to promote the large-scale adoption of restorative agriculture. We contend that building a restorative economy will also require a fundamental extension of humanity’s moral values to the rest of nature, and use evolutionary science to support our views. Rather than offering a recipe for successful projects, our take-home message is that developing a restorative agricultural economy in an ever-evolving system is a continuous participatory process with no endpoint. Full article

The U.K. food system exhibits strong unsustainability indicators across multiple dimensions, both in terms of food and nutritional insecurity and in terms of adverse climate change, biodiversity, and physical resource impacts. These indices of an unsustainable and inequitable social metabolism are the result of capitalist agriculture and society in general and, more specifically, of neoliberal and austerity policies adopted with vigour since the global financial crisis. The causal, capitalistic, and, latterly, more neoliberal bases of the U.K. food system are delineated in the first section of the paper. These bases are then detailed in terms of their impacts in exacerbating climate change, biodiversity (and resource) decline and loss, and food and nutritional insecurity. The political narratives and policy frameworks available to dissemble, mitigate, or, more rarely, to address (resolve) these impacts are then delineated. It is argued that the only policy framework available that strongly integrates food security (social equity) with ecological sustainability is political agroecology and an accompanying degrowth strategy. The final section of the paper details what political agroecology and degrowth might entail for the U.K. food system. Full article

Rural agrarian societies, like Bangladesh, rely substantially on women as primary contributors to crop production. Their involvement covers a broad spectrum, from the first stage of seed sowing to the ultimate phase of marketing agricultural products. Information and communication technology (ICT) in agriculture could be a transformative tool for women’s agricultural involvement. Despite the inherent challenges associated with ICT adoption, it has emerged as an effective catalyst for improving the livelihoods of rural women in Bangladesh. This study investigates the impacts of ICT on the livelihoods of rural women. This study concurrently addresses the challenges that infringe upon its sustainability. The study was conducted within Oxfam Bangladesh’s ICT interventions implemented upon the women farmers in Dimla Upazila, Nilphamari, Bangladesh. We employed a mixed-methods research approach to examine the multilayered impacts of ICT on women farmers’ livelihoods. Our findings indicate that ICT support has improved the livelihoods of rural women through a comprehensive capital-building process encompassing human capital, social capital, financial capital, physical capital, and political capital, facilitated by creating an enabling environment. The study also unfolded several challenges stemming from aspects of ICT integration, including the disappearance of indigenous agroecological knowledge and the disruption of traditional multicropping practices. In light of the study’s outcomes, a key recommendation emerges, emphasizing the importance of integrating indigenous agroecological knowledge in the widescale implementation of ICT initiatives. Acknowledging and accommodating indigenous knowledge can enhance the sustainability of ICT-driven livelihood enhancements for rural women in Bangladesh. Full article

Development actors in West Africa have been promoting agroecological farming as a solution to combat climate change and to create more sovereign food systems that enhance the autonomy of local smallholders. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding the actual implementation of such programs and their potential to empower smallholders, especially in the West African region. Drawing on co-produced knowledge from anthropological fieldwork in Western Senegal, the case study of an alternative food network explores the interlinkages between the promotion of agroecology, anti-migration policies, and unequal power and market relations. Informed by decolonial political ecologies, the analysis reveals different layers of coloniality which complicate embodied effects on horticultural smallholders. The authors conclude that instead of fostering the emancipation of smallholders, development actors promote a labor-intensive and unprofitable way of farming that exploits local resources for the sake of green agendas and white markets. This article highlights the need for a critical reflection on the potential limitations of agroecology and calls for a more nuanced approach that considers the complex realities of smallholders in West Africa. Full article

Scientific debates on agroecology highlight the relevance of appropriate narratives as a means to widen and amplify agroecological transitions in the material world. However, it is actually far-right discourses—often linked to populist political proposals—which, though not majoritarian, are reaching broad and growing diffusion among both rural communities and farmers. Research focusing on the symbolic mechanisms around food systems’ transitions are scarce. In order to address this gap, an exploratory research project was developed to identify responses to different messages and audiovisual languages favorable to agroecological transitions, through the dissemination of three brief audiovisual pieces among specific socio-professional profiles linked to food systems, together with an online survey. The results obtained (n = 524) show significant differences in the responses to open questions collected, regarding socio-economic diversity expressed in the axes male/female, urban/rural, farmer/not farmer and organic/conventional farming. Responses from conventional farmers express a need for developing a “politics of recognition” and repair that would acknowledge the unfair, subordinated role that farmers and rural communities feel in the current globalized food system. The paper shows the need for further empirical research on the issue, covering different territories and socio-economic and cultural profiles, in order to fully understand the symbolic mechanisms underlying material, agroecological transitions. Full article

Contemporary ecology and agronomy point to the many benefits of agroforestry crop systems for the provision of ecosystem services by regenerating native ecologies, and in many contexts, socio-economic benefits for coffee farmers, especially the contribution of nitrogen-fixing trees’ litter to soil nutrition and water retention. However, the implementation of agroforestry in coffee cultivation is thus far incomplete and uptake has been uneven. In this paper, we examine the adoption and non-adoption of agroforestry coffee growing techniques as a reflection of the historical, social and cultural embeddedness of smallholder coffee cultivation. It is structured as a narrative literature review contextualized with the results of surveys of smallholder coffee farmers in Colombia, Malawi and Uganda regarding their perceptions of agroforestry coffee in their respective contexts. Findings suggest that coffee farmers’ perceptions of agroforestry and the decision to implement or remove it are influenced by factors included in the notion of embeddedness, involving social relations, historical memory and formal and informal institutions, as well as practical capabilities. Intention and action are sometimes discordant due to the complex interactions of these institutional factors, and they often conflict with outside interveners’ expectations based on epistemological differences. The study illuminates some of the main sources, manifestations and dimensions of the social embeddedness of agricultural practices which mediate the perception of current practices, the sacrifice implied by potential changes, the credibility of theories linking action with outcome and the desirability of expected outcomes. Full article

Agroecology is a sustainable alternative to agricultural science, aiming at balancing the environment-plant-animal-man complex in an equitable way. Different players in the food system across the world are engaging in the practice and promotion of agroecology. Their experience serves as input for agroecology innovation hubs, thus assisting and accelerating the adoption of agroecological practices. Based on existing experience in implementation of innovation ecosystems and living labs in Romania, the study discusses critical factors required for a successful transformation of agriculture, with the aim to fill existing research gaps on agroecological techniques. The authors are also emphasizing the role of new business models in this area. The study used an anonymous survey with Likert scale ratings, and structural equation modeling, PLS. The study results were indicative of a certain degree of enthusiasm for agroecological practice adoption, particularly among organic farmers and business owners. The chances that these practices are adopted by farmers can be enhanced provided there is a systematic exchange of knowledge among the farmers. Clusters of farmers based on community of practice could create innovation ecosystems providing this accelerates its adoption. Correlation with the economic and political processes of the country is necessary, as emphasized by the farmers interviewed during the study. Through innovation hubs, agroecology must move from the currently smaller scale to larger scale practices such as agroecosystems and agri-food systems. These forms of organization should also take due account of relevant socio-economic, cultural, and political factors. Full article

Social initiatives that seek to promote socially fairer and environmentally more sustainable food production and distribution schemes have multiplied in the last two decades. Several studies have analysed their impacts and showed high contextual variability, making visible some of their contradictions. This research is interested in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) as spaces of political mobilisation that aim to modify the predominant food systems. The analysis focuses on the role played by social capital in the capacities and strategies of AFNs to influence the design of public policies. The research was carried out in Mexico City as part of a wither participatory action research project. It is based on participant observation and discussion groups with representatives of citizen collectives involved in agroecological food distribution. The results show that the forms of social and cultural capital are key factors in understanding the interest and capacities of AFNs to strengthen collective action. The study also identifies the importance of the initiatives’ managers as facilitators of interactions between AFNs and other entities, such as universities and civil society organisations, which can ease the influence of social initiatives in the design of public programmes. Full article