Agroécologie : innover pour des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires durables

The document advocates for agroecology—defined as a science, a set of practices, and a social movement—as the essential approach to eradicating hunger and combating climate change. It contrasts this holistic model with 'false solutions' promoted by agribusiness, such as Climate-Smart Agriculture and sustainable intensification, which it claims maintain the industrial status quo. The report provides a comprehensive set of 13 criteria for evaluating sustainable innovations and offers policy recommendations centered on food sovereignty, gender justice, and the protection of small-scale producers' rights to land and seeds.

• Agroecology is presented as a holistic approach that integrates scientific discipline, practical application, and social movement, relying on ancestral and customary knowledge of small-scale producers to create sustainable food systems.
• Evidence suggests that agroecological systems can achieve more stable total yields per unit area than high-productivity industrial systems, with some studies showing yield increases of 50% to 113% for rain-fed crops like maize when using low-cost, locally available practices.
• Small-scale producers are the primary innovators in agriculture, preserving 75% of the world's seed diversity for staple crops such as maize, rice, wheat, and potatoes.
• The report identifies 'Climate-Smart Agriculture' (CSA) and 'sustainable intensification' as 'false solutions' that co-opt agroecological practices to serve agribusiness interests without challenging the structural power imbalances of industrial agriculture.
• Digitalization in agriculture is criticized for facilitating the commodification of genetic information and the concentration of power among actors removed from food production, potentially undermining food sovereignty.
• Agroecology enhances climate resilience; for example, following Hurricane Mitch in 1998 in Nicaragua, agroecological plots showed more topsoil, higher moisture, and fewer economic losses compared to traditional plots.
• Gender inequality in resource access is a significant barrier; the report notes that if female farmers had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields by 20% to 30% and reduce the number of undernourished people globally by 12% to 17%.
• The report proposes a framework of 13 criteria to evaluate sustainable innovations, covering social, economic, institutional, environmental, and implementation dimensions, including participatory governance and climate justice.
• Food sovereignty is advocated as the necessary political paradigm to allow peoples to define their own food and agriculture systems, placing small-scale producers at the center of policy decisions.

APA

Ortega-Espès, D. (2018). Agroécologie : innover pour des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires durables. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecologie-innovation-FR.pdf

Chicago

Ortega-Espès, Delphine. Agroécologie : innover pour des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires durables. Friends of the Earth International, 2018. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecologie-innovation-FR.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ortega-Espès |first1=Delphine |title=Agroécologie : innover pour des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires durables |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=November 2018 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecologie-innovation-FR.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ortegaesps2018agrocologie, author = {Ortega-Espès, Delphine}, title = {{Agroécologie : innover pour des systèmes agricoles et alimentaires durables}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2018}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Agroecologie-innovation-FR.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }