AGROECOLOGY FARMING

Highlights

• Addressing food security
• Providing sustainable food systems
• Merging ecology and agriculture

Agroecology farming is an approach that simultaneously integrates ecology and sustainable agriculture and food systems. This integrates plants, humans, and the environment while also emphasizing sustainable food systems. Agroecology is concurrently a field that includes the ecological, socio-cultural, technological, economic, and political dimensions of food systems, from production to consumption. There is a close interconnection between health, nutrition, and social dimensions. Embracing this holistic approach helps address food security issues that have existed for decades. Agroecology has emerged as one of the most robust options to meet present and future food needs.

Agroecological systems are more resilient – they have a greater capacity to recover from disturbances including extreme weather conditions such as drought, floods, or hurricanes, and to resist pest and disease attacks. Two major international reports stated that in order to feed nine billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient sustainable farming systems and recommend a significant transformation, and move towards agroecology as a way to boost food production and improve the situation of the poorest people in rural communities.

What started as localized efforts in several isolated rural areas promoted by NGO personnel and community leaders has now expanded to hundreds of agricultural-based communities. Success in scaling up has not only depended on the use of a variety of agroecological improvements that in addition to farm diversification favoring a better use of local resources, but also on human capital enhancement and community empowerment through training and participatory methods as well as higher access to local–regional markets, government support such as credit, seeds, and agroecological technologies. Agroecological enhancements are a true breakthrough for achieving food security among farmers isolated from mainstream agricultural institutions, as well as non-farmers living in rural communities who want to increase their food security. Therefore, Agroecological farming serves as a sustainable solution for rural communities that still struggles for an adequate, nutritious food supply. And TSGN recommends this type of farming as one of the solutions to eradicate food insecurity in rural communities in South Africa.