منصة المعارف عن الزراعة الإيكولوجية

Diversity: 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 optimize the diversity of species and genetic resources in different ways. For example, agroforestry systems organize crops, shrubs, livestock and trees of different heights and shapes at different levels or strata, increasing vertical diversity. Intercropping combines complementary species to increase spatial diversity. Crop rotations, often including legumes, increase temporal diversity. Crop–livestock systems rely on the diversity of local breeds adapted to specific environments. In the aquatic world, traditional fish polyculture farming, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) or rotational crop-fish systems follow the same principles to maximising diversity.

Increasing biodiversity contributes to a range of production, socio-economic, nutrition and environmental benefits. By planning and managing diversity, agroecological approaches enhance the provisioning of ecosystem services, including pollination and soil health, upon which agricultural production depends. Diversification can increase productivity and resource-use efficiency by optimizing biomass and water harvesting.

Agroecological diversification also strengthens ecological and socio-economic resilience, including by creating new market opportunities. For example, crop and animal diversity reduces the risk of failure in the face of climate change. Mixed grazing by different species of ruminants reduces health risks from parasitism, while diverse local species or breeds have greater abilities to survive, produce and maintain reproduction levels in harsh environments. In turn, having a variety of income sources from differentiated and new markets, including diverse products, local food processing and agritourism, helps to stabilize household incomes.

Consuming a diverse range of cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables and animal-source products contributes to improved nutritional outcomes. Moreover, the genetic diversity of different varieties, breeds and species is important in contributing macronutrients, micronutrients and other bioactive compounds to human diets. For example, in Micronesia, reintroducing an underutilized traditional variety of orange-fleshed banana with 50 times more beta-carotene than the widely available commercial white-fleshed banana proved instrumental in improving health and nutrition.

At the global level, three cereal crops provide close to 50 percent of all calories consumed, while the genetic diversity of crops, livestock, aquatic animals and trees continues to be rapidly lost. Agroecology can help reverse these trends by managing and conserving agro-biodiversity, and responding to the increasing demand for a diversity of products that are eco-friendly. One such example is ‘fish-friendly’ rice produced from irrigated, rainfed and deepwater rice ecosystems, which values the diversity of aquatic species and their importance for rural livelihoods.

Database

On the 1st of January 2016, the UN and all its member states officially introduced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; a plan of action based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address the main global challenges of the coming 15 years (United Nations, 2016). Solving these complex challenges...
التقرير
2019
In the world of agriculture, all too often we stop cultivating a vegetable or raising an animal breed simply because they are not profitable enough. The economic market is oriented to maximizing yields at all costs, concentrating on a small selection of the most “productive” species. Though it may warrant...
Palestine
دراسات الحالة
2017
This brief puts the spotlight on trade policies as an engine of climate change, but also positions Fair Trade as a way of mitigating its impacts and fostering the transition towards more resilient and climate neutral supply chains; and protect human rights while creating equal benefits for all.
موجز في السياسات
2023
This website from the Oakland Insitute collects thirty-three case studies on the success of agroecological agriculture in Africa. They demonstrate with facts and figures how an agricultural transformation respectful of the farmers and their environment can yield economic, social and food securit benefits while also fighting climate change and restoring soils...
Benin - Burkina Faso - Democratic Republic of the Congo - Ethiopia - Ghana - Kenya - Malawi - Mali - Niger - Rwanda - Sierra Leone - Uganda - United Republic of Tanzania - Zambia - Zimbabwe
موقع إنترنت
2018