Greater focus on agroecological research is the way forward for AGRO

A series of events with a focus on agriculture and food production have been held in connection with the ongoing EXPO 2015 in Milan in Italy, which has the motto ”Feeding the world, Energy for life”. One of these events was a meeting organised by EU’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra in Italy. The subject of the meeting was “Agroecology and ecological intensification for a sustainable food future”.  The aim of the meeting was to discuss how agroecology and ecological intensification can contribute to fulfilling the long-term goals of EU’s agricultural policy.      

The meeting began with a lecture by Professor Miguel Altieri from University of California in Berkeley. He fathered the concept of agroecology and authored the book “Agroecology – The Science of Sustainable Agriculture”, which has been translated into many languages and is regarded by many people as a kind of bible for agroecological research.  

He started by saying that ecological intensification (which has also been called “more for less”) is not the answer to the global challenges regarding food production. Unsurprisingly, agroecology is. He illustrated his point with a picture of a tanker heading towards an iceberg. Ecological intensification would defer the time of the collision but not avoid it while implementing agroecological principles would change the direction of the tanker so it would avoid the iceberg.

Organics and agroecology – principles versus rules

There are many definitions of the concept agroecology. One of the more simple ones is that it is the study of the ecological processes in the agroecosystem. Agroecology is therefore not the same as organic production, even though they are often equated.  

In his lecture Miguel Altieri emphasized this by pointing out that agroecology is a set of principles while organic farming is a set of rules that are easy to control but are often at odds with the agroecological principles. Agriculture based on agroecological principles must both ensure sufficient food production and protect natural resources, which is the overarching goal in EU’s agricultural policy.   

What, then, is agroecology and what are agroecological principles? There is no description that all agree upon but if you want to try and convert the principles to hands-on actions then they are all about conserving/improving soil fertility (e.g. year round plant cover, conservation tillage), minimising the direct and indirect environmental effects by, among other things, using renewable resources (e.g. nitrogen fixation instead of commercial fertiliser) and minimising pesticide use by preventing pest problems and promoting the natural processes that can control pests, crop diversification, preserving genetic resources, minimising energy and water consumption and climate gas emission,  and adapting production to local conditions.    

Real life agroecology must be supported by policy

Does it work in real life? A series of examples were presented at the meeting. They showed that by converting the production and implementing the agroecological principles, there were – over and above the environmental improvements – not only the same yields but increased yields. Almost all the examples are from places (especially Latin America), where climate and ways of production are significantly different from those we are familiar with in Europe.

In Latin America the agroecological mind set is also supported politically. Almost all Latin American countries have legislation requiring that agriculture “thinks agroecologically” and there are farmer organisations that actively promote the agroecological mind set. One of Miguel Altieri’s points was that if you want to succeed with agroecology then it must be supported by a political movement. 

If we look at our part of the world it is more difficult to find good examples of successful implementation of the agroecological principles. This is due to many factors, where the high degree of specialisation is one of the most important. More varied crop rotation and crop choice is therefore crucial with regard to implementing the agroecological principles in Europe.

The French case

The idea of steering farming in a more agroecological direction has nevertheless been taken up in France, where seven action plans have been combined. They cover everything from nitrogen, pesticides, promotion of organic farming to reduction of antibiotics consumption in an action plan which has as its aim that the majority of French farmers in 2025 will follow the agroecological principles.

To achieve this goal an action plan that comprises 70 concrete actions has been prepared. For each of these actions there is a pilot project, a schedule, milestones and indicators for measuring the degree of implementation. The action plan covers everything from legislation to consultancy and financial incentives for research initiatives. 

The situation in France is not comparable to that in Denmark, neither from an agronomic nor a cultural point of view. Personally, I see a great danger that this shift in focus will pose a risk that farmers fall by the way, such as has partially been the case in connection with the French pesticide action plan.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that what agroecology can contribute is precisely what is being demanded globally, on a European level and nationally, as for example in the report from the Nature and Agricultural Commission.

Agroecology is the way to go

The Department of Agroecology has the research competences that are required for realising the agroecological principles in Danish agriculture. With our new strategy this will become even more obvious than before.  

I therefore believe that it is time to get up on the horse and promote agroecology as a third way or alternative to conventional agriculture and organic agriculture for addressing the challenges that Danish food production faces.  

We must do this in relation to the public, the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark as part of our obligation to be proactive, and our foreign research colleagues. The recently publicized Horizon 2020 call contains a range of topics that focus on subjects that agroecology comprises. It would also be a good idea if the domestic research agenda could reflect that agroecology is on the agenda.