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

Agroecology Newsletter of August 2022
Newsletter
2022
During the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition, held at FAO headquarters in Rome on 18 and 19 September 2014, stakeholders representing governments, civil society, science and academia, the private sector, and the UN system gathered to discuss the contribution of agroecology to sustainable food systems. The...
Conference proceedings
2015
This video was developed by the Coalition on Agroecology for the United Nations Food Systems Summit. It highlighted the essential role of adopting agroecological practices to ensure global food security. The video also stressed the importance of the government's role in creating and adopting bold policies that will support agroecological...
Video
2021
During the last decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) attracted the attention of a much wider array of specialists beyond agriculture and soil science, as it was proven to be one of the most crucial components of the earth’s climate system, which has a great potential to be managed by humans....
Manual
2021
The Animal Production and Health Division (NSA) and the Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) are piloting the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) in various countries to support the transition towards more sustainable food systems. In this context, 2 virtual trainings have taken place in Mali and China. TAPE is an...
China - Mali
Article
2020