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 Common Agricultural Policy shapes how Europe produces food, but in many ways its no longer fit for purpose. In this video, Arc2020 and Friends of the Earth Europe spotlight the options and opportunities in the CAP for choosing farming methods which are good for people and the planet -...
Video
2014
Ecosystem restoration has the potential to significantly contribute to reversing biodiversity loss, supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation, and increasing societal well-being, including gender equality. This policy brief provides the lessons learned from an analysis of ecosystem restoration benefits. The work draws on the experiences of five successful restoration initiatives within...
Policy brief/paper
2022
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, is a significant concern for urban, recreational, and environmental stakeholders. The entire community needed a mechanism through which land management...
United States of America
Innovation
2018
This publication aims to provide an overview of actions and initiatives on Agroecology in Europe and Central Asia countries. There is enough evidence that agroecology contributes to more sustainable food systems, in particular to delivering food production while respecting natural resources, ecosystem services and social processes. However, to assure agroecology can...
Report
2020
This video describes an agroecology experiment in a Dakar suburb in Senegal. After taking the agroecology courses, some growers are trying new farming techniques to reduce the use of man-made chemicals and improve crop yields. 
Senegal
Video
2021