New paper about agroecology
It is a joint work over more than 2 years together with researchers and students from Cornell University and Isara researchers and students from the MSc Agroecology at Isara.
The work is based on a work initiated by the expertise HLPE on agroecology for the FAO and the World Committee for Food Security.
It is an enormous literature review work carried out by screening more than 10 000 papers and publications to find evidence that agroecological practices can have positive, neutral or negative effects on food security and nutrition.
The result is that the papers showing evidence show in 78% of the cases positive effects of agroecological practices supporting food Security and improved nutrition for local people.
Abstract
Agroecology increasingly has gained scientific and policy recognition as having potential to address environmental and social issues within food production, but concerns have been raised about its implications for food security and nutrition, particularly in low-income countries. This review paper examines recent evidence (1998–2019) for whether agroecological practices can improve human food security and nutrition.
A total of 11,771 articles were screened by abstract and title, 275 articles included for full review, with 56 articles (55 cases) selected.
A majority of studies (78%) found evidence of positive outcomes in the use of agroecological practices on food security and nutrition of households in low and middle-income countries. Agroecological practices included crop diversification, intercropping, agroforestry, integrating crop and livestock, and soil management measures.
More complex agroecological systems, that included multiple components (e.g., crop diversification, mixed crop-livestock systems and farmer-to-farmer networks) were more likely to have positive food security and nutrition outcomes.
Graphical abstract
Can agroecology improve food security and nutrition? Review
