Agroecology Knowledge Hub

Efficiency : innovative agroecological practices produce more using less external resources

Increased resource-use efficiency is an emergent property of agroecological systems that carefully plan and manage diversity to create synergies between different system components. For example, a key efficiency challenge is that less than 50 percent of nitrogen fertilizer added globally to cropland is converted into harvested products and the rest is lost to the environment causing major environmental problems.

Agroecological systems improve the use of natural resources, especially those that are abundant and free, such as solar radiation, atmospheric carbon and nitrogen. By enhancing biological processes and recycling biomass, nutrients and water, producers are able to use fewer external resources, reducing costs and the negative environmental impacts of their use. Ultimately, reducing dependency on external resources empowers producers by increasing their autonomy and resilience to natural or economic shocks.

One way to measure the efficiency of integrated systems is by using Land Equivalent Ratios (LER). LER compares the yields from growing two or more components (e.g. crops, trees, animals) together with yields from growing the same components in monocultures. Integrated agroecological systems frequently demonstrate higher LERs.

Agroecology thus promotes agricultural systems with the necessary biological, socio-economic and institutional diversity and alignment in time and space to support greater efficiency.

Database

The YALTA initiatives developed a handbook on agroecology to further support its implementation among the youths and other actors in agroecology. This handbook is a consolidation of information from different sources on agroecology and basic production practices. It aims at imparting knowledge to the agriprenuers, especially the youths but can also...
Manual
2022
Within the framework of the second meeting of the TAPE (Tool for the Evaluation of the Performance of Agroecology) workshops that took place in the southern zone of the green belt of the city of Córdoba, Evangelina Argüello from the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetic Resources tells about the...
Video
2021
For many years, La Vía Campesina and GRAIN have been telling the world about how the agroindustrial food system causes half of all greenhouse gas emissions. But the world's governments are refusing to face these problems head on, and the Paris Summit in December is approaching without any effective commitment...
Video
2015
For many generations subsistence farmers have successfully grown their own fruits and vegetables, and reared their own livestock. KwaHhohho in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, has a rich history of these traditional farming practices. But these are under threat, and this small farming community is fighting to save their natural seeds and traditional...
South Africa
Video
2014
This report advocates for a shift in African agricultural practices, focusing on legume-centered agroecological strategies. It highlights the problems associated with industrialized agriculture's heavy reliance on inorganic fertilizers, which exacerbates food insecurity and environmental degradation. The mid-20th-century Green Revolution, emphasizing monoculture cereal crops and non-renewable inputs, has fallen short of expectations. High...
Policy brief/paper
2023
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