Agro-ecology [fr]

What’s agro-ecology ?

Agro-ecology is a transdisciplinary science, which allows to overcome the historical divide between ecology and agriculture. Agro-ecology combines agronomy (science of agriculture) and ecology. Since the 1960s, in reaction to the green revolution and the intensification of agriculture, agro-ecology also appears as a set of agricultural practices that respect the environment. In recent years, agro-ecology has gained ground in scientific and political discourse.

By integrating the concepts of ecology into agronomy, agro-ecology seeks to better understand the consequences of agriculture, livestock, and forestry on all the services provided by ecosystems (e.g., carbon storage, conservation of natural resources, landscape quality, etc.). It reintroduces the issue of diversity in food production systems, and aims to maintain technical and economic results, while preserving the environment.

The challenge is to meet our food and non-food needs while preserving the natural resources and ecosystems on which we depend. Faced with the many challenges facing agriculture (climate change, degradation of natural resources, erosion of biodiversity, etc.) agro-ecology aims to promote a triply efficient agriculture, economically, socially and ecologically. This agriculture is highlighted for its ability to profoundly transform food systems by making them more sustainable, more accessible, and by allowing consumers to be informed about the origin and quality of products.

Agro-ecological practices are not clearly defined. There is a range of activities that are more or less agro-ecological. In practice, there are some basic definitional criteria:
 agro-ecology is based on ecological principles rather than on inputs;
 it is equitable, environmentally friendly and locally controlled;
 rather than focusing on specific techniques, it embraces the complexity of natural interactions;
Some of the most common practices include: increasing crop diversity by avoiding monocultures that are considered too energy, pesticide and fertilizer intensive; promoting biological recycling and the use of compost as green manure; using plant cover that allows for natural soil renewal in order to limit plowing; favoring tree crops in the middle of agricultural plots; or optimizing irrigation by reorganizing the land to save water consumption. All these practices combine traditional know-how and scientific innovations. It aims to redesign production systems at the scale of the agricultural plot and the territory.

The commitment of France

The agro-ecological project for France launched by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Mr. Stéphane Le Foll, on December 18, 2012 is a mobilizing public policy project for French agriculture. It aims to reconcile economic performance and environmental performance. These two aspects must now be addressed globally and in an articulated manner.

In addition, at the national level, France adopted the Future Law for Agriculture, Food and Forestry in October 2014. This allows for the concrete implementation of agro-ecology, with the goal that by 2025, 50% of French farms will be committed to agro-ecological practices.

The agro-ecological project aims to produce differently by rethinking our production systems and to make France one of the leaders of agro-ecology in the world. It is a change in agricultural practices as well as in ways of thinking that is in line with the spirit of the 2013 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy aimed at taking more account of efforts to respect the environment through the "green payment".

This project is implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and all the actors of the sector in the form of an ambitious action plan covering all the areas concerned. This action plan focuses in particular on the following subjects
• an adaptation of the training of farmers to the knowledge and practices related to agro-ecology ;
• a mobilization of research and development to strengthen research and experimentation on agro-ecological production systems and disseminate these innovations to the field;
• the creation of an agro-ecological self-diagnosis tool designed to encourage farmers to reflect on their practices and possible changes to their system;
• the renovation of public support to make it more attractive to commit to agro-ecology, particularly through agri-environmental measures;
• the implementation of a regular monitoring and evaluation of the results and impacts of the action plan, in the form of an annual public report.

At the international level, France, through its advanced research centers on this topic, notably CIRAD and IRD, cooperates with scientists and farming communities in developing countries in the field of agro-ecology. As an example, INRAE and the French Embassy in China organized in June 2015, in partnership with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), a conference on agro-ecology in Beijing.

Numerous events, working groups and symposiums have also been organized over the past six years to respond to the dual emergency of food and climate, such as the Working Group on Agroecological Transitions. It brought together in December 2017 four different NGOs to develop, understand and improve agro-ecological approaches. In addition, in December 2017, the Etats généraux de l’alimentation took stock of the state of food systems in France and led to the creation of a government roadmap for 2018-2022, which specifically recognizes the role of agro-ecology in all development assistance schemes.

In May 2021, 700 French scientists reaffirmed their commitment to agro-ecology by publishing a tribune to alert on the "catastrophic consequences of a lack of ambition in agro-ecology". It seems more necessary than ever to integrate agro-ecology in the national declinations of the CAP which "will seal the future of French agriculture by 2030". While frosts ravaged many vineyards in April 2021, scientists are warning that climate change is contributing to an increasing number of such catastrophic events for agriculture.

Indeed, France has long been committed to several fronts: in 2019, for example, it hosted the fourth International Congress on Agroforestry in Montpellier. This momentum continued during the One Planet Summit for Biodiversity in January 2021, making agro-ecology a central theme. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron thus made this promise: "I make the commitment that under the French presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2022, we will make agro-ecology a detailed topic in its African and European dimension." The health crisis and climate change that have particularly marked the year 2020 and the year 2021 have made agro-ecology a buoyant and central theme.

A webinar on agro-ecological intensification in Africa was also held in November 2020 with 180 participants.

In 2050, Africa will only be able to meet 13% of its food needs. In this context, France is particularly committed to the Sahel, with many ecological programs such as the Great Green Wall. These initiatives would make it possible to preserve biodiversity and resources while maintaining production; in other words, agro-ecology makes possible an "ecological intensification" of food production.

France’s work with the FAO

FAO organized an International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition on September 18-19, 2014, which was attended by the French Minister of Agriculture, Agri-Food and Forestry, Mr. Stéphane Le Foll.

The success of this symposium, supported by France, has opened for the first time an international exchange and dialogue on agro-ecological practices. Bringing together more than 500 participants from some thirty countries, it ended with high-level interventions, including those of several ministers of agriculture (Senegal, Algeria, Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan), in addition to Mr. Stéphane Le Foll, and the European Commissioner for Agriculture. This symposium provided an opportunity to share practical knowledge from the field in various regions of the world and to review the state of the art of scientific knowledge in agro-ecology. Following the scientific symposium organized by FAO in September 2014, France convened a Group of Friends of Agroecology (G2A) in Rome in early 2015. The G2A is an informal and open group, composed of Permanent Representations willing to support FAO’s work on this theme, to exchange on their national experiences and to develop scientific partnerships.
Regional seminars have been held to continue these exchanges:
In 2015:
• in Latin America, in Brasilia, on June 24-26, 2015.
• in Africa in Dakar, November 5-6, 2015.
• in Asia in Bangkok, on November 24, 2015.
In 2016:
• In China, in Kunming, on August 29-31, 2016
• In Europe, in Budapest, on November 24-25, 2016.
In 2018, a new symposium was organized by the FAO, which was attended by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Stéphane Travert. Its theme was "agro-ecology for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): scaling up".

Following the 2014 and 2018 symposia, the FAO also adopted in 2018 the "10 Elements for Agroecology" which aim to link this environmentally friendly agriculture to the Sustainable Development Goals. They thus offer a conceptual framework of reference to actors who wish to implement agro-ecological practices. These ten elements are diversity, efficiency, resilience, synergies, co-creation and knowledge sharing, human and social values, food culture and traditions, responsible governance, circular and solidarity economy and recycling. Combining these ten points could lead to sustainable reform of agri-food systems. These objectives are linked to the 2030 Agenda for the transition to sustainable agriculture that guarantees health and nutrition for all.

France’s commitment to the Committee on World Food Security

France is also engaged with the Committee on Food Security (CFS) to develop a set of policy recommendations to implement agro-ecology. The CFS met on October 14-18, 2019 to discuss agro-ecology, following year-long negotiations; a landmark report on "Agro-ecological and other innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture and food systems that improve food security and nutrition" was then produced.

An extraordinary session of the 48th CFS Plenary Session was also held online on Friday 4 June 2021 to approve the Policy Recommendations on Agroecology and other Innovative Approaches. This CFS product is the result of a long process of consultation and exchange between Member States, the scientific community, civil society, the private sector and UN organizations.

In 2021, while the climate situation is deteriorating and the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted food systems, agro-ecology appears as a viable and necessary response to the problems of the 21st century. France has particularly mobilized through the holistic approach "One health", to fight zoonoses and promote biodiversity and environmental preservation, objectives that can only be achieved through the development of agro-ecology and its political and economic valorization, on the markets and with consumers.