Intensification agroécologique : oxymore ou réconciliation ?

How can we address demographic, climate, and geopolitical challenges by 2030 and provide quality, affordable food to the entire population? Participants in the "Intensify" session of the FARM International Conference attempted to answer these questions, notably by exploring agroecological intensification as a solution.

Agriculture and the environment: necessarily in opposition?

Agriculture is often considered as " enemy » of the environment. The clearing of forests and the expansion of cultivated land alter natural spaces, compromising the regulation of greenhouse effects through carbon storage. As for the green revolution, it has allowed a significant intensification in terms of agricultural yields through the use of improved seeds, fertilizers and plant protection products, irrigation and the introduction of mechanized techniques. But it has also largely contributed to soil erosion and impoverishment, the spread of pollution in the environment and the decline of biodiversity.

As a result, a transformation of agricultural systems is necessary and urgent to combine the need for production with the need to conserve, or even restore, our ecosystems. Moreover, while it is one of the main victims, agriculture also represents a significant lever of struggle against global warming and environmental degradation, both in mitigating its negative effects and in production of beneficial effects through adaptation.

Agroecology as a factor of reconciliation

Agroecology “promotes agricultural production systems that value biological diversity and natural processes”. It constitutes a set of agricultural practices that maximize ecosystem services and interactions, while enhancing the economic, social and cultural potential of a territory.[1].

It also relies on the limited use of external inputs, working more to enhance the value of resources already present within the agricultural system. According to Nadine Andrieu, a researcher based in the Antilles and specializing in agroecology at Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), agroecology consists of " strengthen biodiversity in agricultural systems, […] better use of productive resources, water, soil, nutrients via complementarity between species". It also allows to increase the resilience of the farm focusing on the creation of agricultural landscapes diverse and complex in which the establishment of is privileged multiple ecosystem interactions beneficial to agricultural production.

“Ten times fewer inputs in the countries of the South than in those of the North”

While it is a set of practices and a scientific discipline, agroecology is also a social movement. Indeed, by promoting local knowledge and practices while promoting a systems approach, the transition to this alternative is a process of resistance political and cultural response to the negative effects of the green revolution on the health of the population, soils and biodiversity.

It is a tool that reduces producers' dependency on external inputs caused by the internationalization of food markets. It allows them to strengthen their autonomy in a context of cooperation and openness. political mobilizations around peasant agroecology and the protection of producers are thus particularly marked in the South.

However, as mentioned by Bernard Lehmann, President of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE), we use in the South " ten times fewer inputs than in the North " In these contexts, calls for an agroecological transition, sometimes considered injunctions from the countries of the North, are met with misunderstanding. While it avoids the environmental degradation caused in the long term by the tools of the green revolution, it would not allow for the significant and rapid productivity gains generated by them.

Furthermore, the transition to agroecology in the North and in the countries of the South which have adopted the technological package of the Green Revolution would be more of a transformation of their agricultural and food systems. The established operating logics must be questioned and re-evaluated. In other countries of the South, which practice agriculture by default that uses less inputs or mechanization, it is a question of allowing a transition towards agroecological intensification. But it is hampered by a lack of support, coherent public policies and financial resources.

Co-innovation as a condition for intensification in agroecology

Agroecological intensification in the Global South must aim to increase yields. Nadine Andrieu explains that it does not consist of maintaining traditional, low-productivity systems, but of " combine the endogenous knowledge of producers with scientific knowledge, to respond to new challenges facing these systems”. It therefore unfolds in co-innovation.

In this sense, it is not expressed in the same way everywhere and depends on the local constraints and needs. Intensive in knowledge but also often greedy in workforce, it requires the local availability of training and agricultural workers[2]. Hence the importance of mobilizing “all stakeholders, farmers, researchers but also technicians, agricultural advisors, etc.”, according to Nadine Andrieu, in line with this desire to co-produce knowledge. This co-innovation must also, and above all, be translated on the ground into concrete investment initiatives in which private sector players, particularly financial players, play a key role.

Scaling  

According to Bernard Lehmann, agroecological intensification is essentially deployed with a view to systems transformation, towards models more centered around “fairness in the sectors, with less market power”, and where the “interactions between actors”. In this respect, it is necessary to move away from the silo-based operation of public policies.[3]. Agricultural and environmental policies, but also sectoral policies must " go in the same direction and be able to complement each other » according to Nadine Andrieu.

Supporting these transitions in the countries of the South must also be part of a broader context so that all the conditions necessary for its strengthening are met. Kolyang Palebele, President of the Pan African Farmers Organization (PAFO) and agropastoralist in Chad described during the FARM Conference how farmers have to deal with forced displacement caused by shocks linked to the " climate change, [to] insecurity " He also mentions the need for infrastructure to combat the landlocked peasantsKolyang Palebele rightly points out that access to markets is not a rival objective of agroecology; on the contrary, these issues must be connected to facilitate access to financing.

Moreover, systems exist to enable this market access and the promotion of products to consumers. Nadine Andrieu mentions, for example, mechanisms such as Participatory guarantee systems (SPG) which play the role of "market incentives ». Based on local networks between farmers and consumers collaborating to certify the quality of agricultural products and processes, they also allow the dissemination of information while improving access to training.[4]. The SPGs take up the principles of negotiations in bottom-up and collective cooperation defended by agroecology through its consideration holistic agricultural systems.

Agroecological intensification represents an alternative form of intensification. Agriculture is the guarantor. of complex ecosystems and sees its beneficial relationships with the environment maximized. The valorization of local knowledge, to be developed in co-innovation with scientific knowledge, encourages cooperation between private and public actors, from the North and the South, in the construction of resilient and sustainable agricultural systems. However, it involves a profound transformation of food systems all over the planet which cannot be confined to the fields but concerns the entire sector, from seed to consumers.

[1] Francis, C., Lieblein, G., Gliessman, S., Breland, TA, Creamer, N., Harwood, R., et al., 2003. Agroecology: the ecology of food systems. J. Sustain. Agric. 22(3), 99–118.

[2] Mockshell, Jonathan & Villarino, Ma. Eliza. (2019). Agroecological Intensification: Potential and Limitations to Achieving Food Security and Sustainability.

[3] Quet-Viéville, Alexandra. (2022). “Salvation will necessarily come from agroecological intensification.” Grain de Sel. No. 82-83.

[4] Sylvaine Lemeilleur and Gilles Allaire. (2016). Standardization and guarantee systems: what can participatory certification offer?