Agroecology Knowledge Hub

Synergies: 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.

Building synergies in food systems delivers multiple benefits. By optimizing biological synergies, agroecological practices enhance ecological functions, leading to greater resource-use efficiency and resilience. For example, globally, biological nitrogen fixation by pulses in intercropping systems or rotations generates close to USD 10 million savings in nitrogen fertilizers every year, while contributing to soil health, climate change mitigation and adaptation. Furthermore, about 15 percent of the nitrogen applied to crops comes from livestock manure, highlighting synergies resulting from crop–livestock integration. In Asia, integrated rice systems combine rice cultivation with the generation of other products such as fish, ducks and trees. By maximising synergies, integrated rice systems significantly improve yield, dietary diversity, weed control, soil structure and fertility, as well as providing biodiversity habitat and pest control.

At the landscape level, synchronization of productive activities in time and space is necessary to enhance synergies. Soil erosion control using Calliandra hedgerows is common in integrated agroecological systems in the East African Highlands. In this example, the management practice of periodic pruning reduces tree competition with crops grown between hedgerows and at the same time provides feed for animals, creating synergies between the different components. Pastoralism and extensive livestock grazing systems manage complex interactions between people, multi-species herds and variable environmental conditions, building resilience and contributing to ecosystem services such as seed dispersal, habitat preservation and soil fertility.

While agroecological approaches strive to maximise synergies, trade-offs also occur in natural and human systems. For example, the allocation of resource use or access rights often involve trade-offs. To promote synergies within the wider food system, and best manage trade-offs, agroecology emphasizes the importance of partnerships, cooperation and responsible governance, involving different actors at multiple scales.

Database

In 2019, the South Korean organic movement in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. This was for the provision of environmentally-friendly food[1] to pregnant women and new mothers in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Jeonnam Province, and twenty-three...
Republic of Korea
Article
2020
In this latest book in the Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series published by the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Zhenzhong Si offers a new perspective on how to shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems in China. This book draws upon the framework of the IPES-Food report (from Uniformity to Diversity) to review...
China
Book
2019
The Skoura palm grove is located in the province of Ouarzazate, an Arab enclave in a Berber region where the population lives mainly from oasis agriculture. The project was born of a dozen family farms' desire to organize themselves to enhance the value of their olive oil production. The cooperative has...
Morocco
Innovation
2021
This study presents the conditions to be met for the recovery of food sovereignty in Africa and recommends that to rediscover the integrated approach to agriculture and food systems, there is a need to build resilience and support the strategies of the various actors.
Report
2021
Large, decimated ecosystems can be restored. Bringing large areas back from environmental ruin is possible, and the results are key to stabilizing the earth's climate, eradicating poverty and making sustainable agriculture a reality. Under the guidance of a few people who have knowledge and vision, local uneducated rural poor can...
China
Video
2012