What is agroecology?
Learn more about agroecology, its principles and definitions and concrete showcases.
How do you assess agroecology?
Use our agroecology assessment-tools for initiatives, farms and enterprises.
Related Themes
Deep dive into diverse entry points to scale agroecology, such as climate, biodiversity or research funding.
Explore Agroecology
Agroecology is more than just a simple definition. Explore the concept and underlying principles by clicking on the pies in the chart!
Recycling
Preferentially use local renewable resources and close as far as possible resource cycles of nutrients and biomass.
Input reduction
Reduce or eliminate dependency on purchased inputs and increase self-sufficiency.
Soil health
Secure and enhance soil health and functioning for improved plant growth, particularly by managing organic matter and enhancing soil biological activity.
Animal health
Ensure animal health and welfare.
Biodiversity
Maintain and enhance diversity of species, functional diversity and genetic resources and thereby maintain overall agroecosystem biodiversity in time and space at field, farm and landscape scales.
Synergy
Enhance positive ecological interaction, synergy, integration and complementarity among the elements of agroecosystems (animals, crops, trees, soil and water).
Economic diversification
Diversify on-farm incomes by ensuring that small-scale farmers have greater financial independence and value addition opportunities while enabling them to respond to demand from consumers.
Co-creation of knowledge
Enhance co-creation and horizontal sharing of knowledge including local and scientific innovation, especially through farmer-to-farmer exchange.
Social values and diets
Build food systems based on the culture, identity, tradition, social and gender equity of local communities that provide healthy, diversified, seasonally and culturally appropriate diets.
Fairness
Support dignified and robust livelihoods for all actors engaged in food systems, especially small-scale food producers, based on fair trade, fair employment and fair treatment of intellectual property rights.
Connectivity
Ensure proximity and confidence between producers and consumers through promotion of fair and short distribution networks and by re-embedding food systems into local economies.
Land and natural resource governance
Strengthen institutional arrangements to improve, including the recognition and support of family farmers, smallholders and peasant food producers as sustainable managers of natural and genetic resources.
Participation
Encourage social organization and greater participation in decision-making by food producers and consumers to support decentralized governance and local adaptive management of agricultural and food systems.
