Agroecology: Principles for the Conversion and Redesign of Farming Systems

By C. Nicholls, M. Altieri, L. Vázquez. 2016

178 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Modern agroecosystems require systemic change, but new redesigned farming systems will not emerge from simply implementing a set of practices (rotations, composting, cover cropping, etc.) but rather from the application of already well defined agroecological principles. These principles can be applied using various practices and strategies, each having different effects on productivity, stability and resiliency of the target farming system. By breaking the monoculture nature of farming systems, agroecological diversification aims at mimicking ecological processes leading to optimal nutrient cycling and organic matter turnover, soil biological activation, closed energy flows, water and soil conservation and balanced pest-natural enemy populations. All these processes are key maintaining the agroecosystem’s health, productivity and its self-sustaining capacity. By enhancing functional biodiversity, a major goal of the conversion process is achieved: strengthening the weak ecological functions in the agroecosystem, allowing farmers to gradually eliminate inputs altogether by relying instead on ecological processes and interactions.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9a75eb56a0fef1c5c35e684ec98f196911663c29

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In General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

1. M. Altieri
2. Manuel González de Molina
3. Raj Patel

Citations in the corpus

• Technological Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture at a Crossroads: An Agroecological Perspective (2017, background): “Maintenance costs during the transition towards farming systems redesigned using agroecological principles [30].”