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

Agroecology Newsletter of June 2022
Newsletter
2022
Moeda is an ecosystem of financial services and technology that seeks to create positive social impact and that provides, among other services, an integrated financing model for sustainable social development, focusing on the unbanked population. Since its foundation, the company has used blockchain technology with a focus on people who need...
Brazil
Innovation
2015
Esta revista es una edición especial de la revista LEISA. Aquí, presentamos el primer resultado de un esfuerzo conjunto para sistematizar experiencias agroecológicas, llevado a cabo por diversas organizaciones en América Latina. Los trabajos se llevaron a cabo en diferentes áreas de Bolivia, Perú, Brasil y México; cada uno de...
Bolivia (Plurinational State of) - Brazil - Mexico - Peru
Journal article
2003
CARI is launching a dynamic Desertif’actions 2022 initiative with activities to build and carry out advocacy throughout the year. Desertif’actions 2022 aims to put agroecology at the top of the agenda in the fight against desertification and land degradation, by sharing and pooling the results of actions carried out by...
Event
2022
Black Gold: the Secrets of Compost was filmed on location in Swaziland, and is the first in the Living Classroom series. The Living Classroom is the result of GardenAfrica’s training programmes that have been successfully developed and implemented over the past ten years with sustainable agriculture & permaculture specialists. It was built...
Eswatini
Video
2013