Agroecology Knowledge Hub

Practices and innovations

Agroecology is the science of applying ecological concepts and principles to manage interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment for food security and nutrition. All over the world, farmers and food provisioners already apply this approach, which has a fundamental basis in traditional and local knowledge. FAO recognizes the importance of farmers managing human and natural capital to improve food security, nutrition, and rural development. They are seen as constant innovators and researchers who contribute to develop sustainable agriculture and more resilient rural livelihoods.

Below some examples of how farmers and other food provisioners are acting as the custodians of complex and innovative techniques that, through agroecology, combine local knowledge, traditional products and innovation.

In Regions

The countries and regions page offer knowledge and information on agroecology related issues by country (FAO Members and Associated Nations) and region. The purpose is to offer a quick and reliable way to access country-specific information on agroecology without the need to search in each section of the platform.

This guide presents a set of actions to speed up the transformation to sustainable food and agriculture that are based on evidence, experience, technical expertise and collective knowledge within FAO....
2018
The city of Madison, Wisconsin is built on an isthmus between two lakes fed from largely agricultural lands. Water quality, affected by excess phosphorus (P) in particular in this area,...
2018
The community livestock enclosure is an innovative strategy to defend the land for communal use, deployed by peasants, whose occupation areas are territories disputed by the agribusiness in the context...
2018
The ground-breaking Caquetá Pact is a public-private alliance for zero deforestation and cattle ranching reconciliation in the Amazon region of Colombia. It brings together farmers, led by the Caqueta ́s...
2018
The Government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) adopted an innovative, climate change resilient, zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) intervention in 2015. The purpose was to cover 500 000 farmers by 2020,...
2018
Agroecological symbiosis (AES) is a new, transformative model for adaptive and resilient localized food production and consumption. An AES is formed by farms, small and medium-scale food processors, and bioenergy...
2018
Rice-fish co-culture in southern China dates back more the 1000 years. The rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian, Zhejiang Province is one of FAO’s Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Co-culture...
2018
International treaties and conventions encourage national governments to recognize, protect, and promote traditional knowledge, including traditional agroecological knowledge. Following this mandate, a multidisciplinary team of Spanish scientists from 7 universities...
2018
These guidelines have been prepared by IFOAM-Organics International as part of the Global Policy Toolkit on Public Support to Organic Agriculture. The guidelines make the cornerstone of this toolkit and...
2017
This technical guide provides details of numerous techniques specific for tropical wet zones. It describes the core principles of agroecology, distilling local knoweldge accumulated by family farming. This guide is designed...
2017
This guide is intended to serve as the basis for the implementation of the Innovative Agro-ecology component of the GEF Small Grants Programme in its 6th Operational phase, and to...
2016
This guidance document will be produced to assist countries in finding synergies between two important realms of international agreements: sound chemicals management and biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. We suggest...
2016
The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, IPES-Food, is a new initiative aimed at informing the debate on how to reform food systems. IPES-Food has identified 10 key...
2015
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,...
2015
Ce guide, en français et en wolof, capitalise les pratiques agricoles teste es et valide es avec les exploitants dans le cadre du projet REFSA. Loin d’e tre exhaustif, il...
2015
This didactic material STEP BY STEP on the construction of plate tanks is the result of the joint work between the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), and the Articulation...
2014
This Guide has been developed to assist in the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National...
2013
This document sets out international requirements for organic certification bodies (IROCB). These requirements are intended to represent a consensus on good practices in organic conformity assessment among private and public...
2012
In recent years, more attention has been paid to local knowledge for its important contribution to the design of strategies for sustainable management of natural resources. The importance of soil...
2012
This guide draws on the lessons learned in the framework of the project “Increasing incomes and food security of small farmers in West and Central Africa through exports of organic...
2010