More with less. This is the challenge and the mantra for our future. There will be many more of us in the years to come. We will go from a population of 7.6 billion today to 9.8 billion in 2050; yet, with our current rate of usage, there will be less fresh water, less arable soil, less available land for agriculture or clean, fruitful seas for fisheries. This is calling into question how we are doing things now and pushing us to find solutions for the future.
The answers don’t have to involve high-tech machinery or expensive system overhauls. In fact, some of the most promising solutions come from the connection between nature and farmers, in particular family farmers. Harnessing the power of nature by mixing modern science with traditional and indigenous knowledge of food producers and farmers is part of the idea behind agroecology.
Agroecology is both the concept and practice of managing and boosting nature’s own ecological processes to improve productivity and avoid farming griefs, such as pest infestation, disease or degradation. Focusing on plants, animals, humans, the environment and the system as a whole, agroecology is a science and a social response, connecting the knowledge and practices of farmers and food producers from all corners of the globe. Uniquely, agroecology is about making sure our food systems - the way food is grown, sold, traded, marketed and consumed – are made fairer and more sustainable in the future.
The 10 elements of agroecology are meant to guide us toward the transition to sustainable food and agricultural systems. These interlinked and interdependent elements are as follows:
1. Diversity: By using varied agricultural production systems such as agroforestry (incorporating trees into farming systems) or polycultures (a wide variety of crops in the same space), agroecology contribute to a range of production, socio-economic, nutrition and environmental benefits.
2. Co-creation and sharing of knowledge and practices, science and innovation: Agroecology depends on context-specific knowledge. Knowledge plays a central role in the process of developing and implementing agroecological innovations to address challenges across food systems. Through the co-creation process, agroecology blends global scientific data with the traditional, indigenous, practical and local knowledge of producers.