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 climate crisis and destructive farming practices are challenging African farmers’ ability to produce enough healthy food. The seasonal rains on which farmers depend now fail to materialise or fall in heavy storms that wash away soils and seeds. This book published by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) brings...
Kenya - Senegal - Togo - Uganda - United Republic of Tanzania - Zimbabwe
Book
2021
This article is the Preface of the virtual issue Agroecological Engineering, published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development (www.springer.com/journal/13593) of the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (http://www.inra.fr/en). "Bring diversity back to agriculture. That's what made it work in the first place." David R. Brower.
Journal article
2015
Biowatch advocates for agroecology as a proven, multi-faceted approach to creating a sustainable, diverse, just food system that applies ecological principles and methods to farming, while addressing wider environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions in order to transform the industrialised food system.
South Africa
Book
2016
Pollinators are essential for fruit, vegetable, oilseed, and forage production, as well as for the production of seed for many root and fibre crops. In addition to being essential to food security and quality, pollinators contribute to the production of medicines, biofuels (e.g. canola and palm oil), fibres (e.g. cotton...
Policy brief/paper
2022
This article reviews the main initiatives underlying ecologically intensive agroecosystems, analyses basic concepts, and proposes a framework for action. The rainforest model, the dry forest model, and the American Prairie are exemplified as three main natural systems at the basis of the mimicry concept. The link between biodiversity and the...
Journal article
2012