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 is a farming approach that is inspired by natural ecosystems, combines local and scientific knowledge, and focuses on the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment. Given the outsize contributions of conventional agriculture to climate change and biodiversity loss, there is a growing recognition that the global food...
Video
2021
The first newsletter of the project “The European Agroecology Living Lab and Research Infrastructure Network: Preparation phase'' (All-Ready).
Newsletter
2021
Schola Campesina is a training and participatory research centre seeking to strengthen producers’ organizations in their struggle for food sovereignty through knowledge valorization and sharing. Based on the Nyéléni International Forum for Agroecology (2015), and on the principles of Dialogo de saberes, Schola Campesina seeks to boost the sharing of...
Italy
Case study
2018
Dieses Dokument ist ein Versuch, klarzustellen, was Agrarökologie wirklich bedeutet und wie sie aussieht, sowie aufzuzeigen, dass Agrarökologie und die zugrundliegenden Prinzipien zusammengenommen enorm positive Auswirkungen auf die Menschenrechte und das Recht auf Nahrung haben können. Gleichzeitig ist Agrarökologie ein Beitrag, um die Hauptursachen der Probleme zu bekämpfen, denen unsere...
Manual
2018
Sustainable small farmers should be put at the core of EU agricultural policy, according to a new paper released today by the Nyeleni Europe and Central Asia Platform for Food Sovereignty. The strongly documented publication comes ahead of a key vote in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee in early April,...
Report
2019