ActionAid joins growing global calls to ‘scale-up’ and ‘scale-out’ agroecology. As governments and donors meet at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 2nd International Symposium on Agroecology we urge them to join forces to support agroecology on a large scale. At least 500 million family farms produce about 80 percent of the world’s food. Comprised of smallholders, pastoralists, landless, fisher folk, forest dwellers and tribal and indigenous peoples, about half of them are women. Peasant agriculture plays a multifunctional role, providing food, fiber and other goods, as well as employment, culture, and a way of life. There is now extensive evidence that peasant-based agroecological systems are superior to high external input industrial agriculture and are highly productive, highly sustainable, empower women, create jobs, engage youth, provide greater autonomy, climate resilience, and multiple social, cultural and environmental benefits for women and men in rural and urban communities.

Based on our positive experiences of agroecology in 25 countries and the wider body of evidence, we urge decision makers to cast aside any ideological bias or skepticism and embrace agroecology as a key policy priority. Seeking a major transformation in agricultural and food systems, we call for increased public investment and adoption of public policies, strategies, programs and incentives to scale-out agroecology. We highlight six key barriers that need to be challenged and seven key steps required to achieve agroecology at scale. We also highlight ActionAid case studies from Brazil, Ghana, India, Kenya, Rwanda and Senegal. The six key barriers we identify are: ideological barriers, international trade and export orientation, marginalization of women, monopoly seed laws, lack of agricultural Research and Development (R&D) on agroecology and concentration of power amongst agribusiness TNCs.