Agroecology is a polysemic concept whose contours have evolved over almost a century. There is not a single definition but a large number that reflect the concerns and commitments of the different authors and practitioners. Thus, the scientific and technical perspective adopted by the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) in 2016 when it described agroecology as ‘the application of ecological concepts and principles to agricultural systems, focusing on the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment, to foster sustainable agricultural development in order to ensure food and nutrition security for all today and tomorrow’ has become too restrictive. Indeed, the concept has become more complex as it addresses agri-food systems as a whole, and not just agricultural systems, by overcoming the divide between the scientific and technical dimensions of agroecology and its social and political dimensions, and by adopting a holistic perspective. The resulting concept of agroecology, which is widely shared today, is that of a transdisciplinary, participatory and action-oriented approach, relating at the same time to a transdisciplinary science, a set of practices and a social movement.

Food systems provide a wider lens, addressing the connections between food, health, employment, incomes, environment and the well-being of human communities.

Led by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, CIRAD and FAO, AgroEco2050 is a collective future-building exercise engaging scientists, farmers, policymakers and institutions.
It unveils hidden realities, processes, actors and parameters to explore broader visions for sustainable food systems by 2050.
It builds on a huge diversity of data and knowledge to help democratic societies shape the futures they desire, rather than predicting or prescribing it.

AgroEco2050 aimed to clarify and quantify two different visions of what agriculture, food, nature, jobs and welfare in Andhra Pradesh might look like in 2050. One vision was based on the intensification of conventional industrial farming, while the other was based on taking natural farming (agroecology) to scale. The goal was to compare and understand the implications of these two different pathways and verify their coherence.

The farmer field school (FFS) approach, based on group experimentation of innovative practices and/or farming systems, is in line with participatory farm advisory efforts. This approach has an ambitious goal: strengthening farmers’ skills so that they can adapt their practices, or even invent new ones, and move towards more agroecological farming systems. Assessing such an advisory intervention poses significant challenges. The purpose of this document is to propose fresh ways to update FFS assessment methods, notably the study of changes in farming practices and the detailed analysis of FFS outcomes. Project designers, managers, and evaluators are the target audience for this document, which may also interest teachers, researchers, students, and policymakers. The elements of the FFS assessment methodology presented here stem from the collaboration between three institutions, CIRAD, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), and the NGO AVSF (Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders), and fieldwork carried out in cotton-growing areas of Burkina Faso and Togo between 2018 and 2019.

This document is divided into four parts. We first define FSS and the principles of the approach, then we detail the methods commonly used to assess FSS and the challenges involved. We then present a comprehensive assessment method using a case study in northern Togo. The final part of the report provides a basis for placing the proposed method within the process of designing an assessment for a project involving FSS.

Agroecology applies ecological principles to agriculture and ensures a regenerative use of natural resources and ecosystem services, while addressing the need for socially equitable food systems in which people can choose what they eat and how it is produced.

project focuses on climate-smart landscape restoration and the promotion of livelihood strategies that foster resilience. The landscape graduation model combines a biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional assessment of landscape and community status with an intervention strategy to help communities and landscapes graduate from highly degraded and impoverished to more sustainable levels.

informed IFAD’s ROLL project in Lesotho. It provided a baseline for analysing and comparing the performance of different types of agricultural systems across multiple dimensions of sustainability.

The key to implementing farmer field schools (FFS) is to trigger an experimentation process based on collaboration between a group of farmers and a facilitator. The purpose of this document is to provide project managers, technicians and designers with practical information on how to use the FFS approach and adapt it to their context of intervention to support the agroecological transition (AET). It also will be useful for research staff, leaders of farmers’ organizations (FOs), teachers and students interested in using the FFS approach or better understand its benefits.

The findings and recommendations proposed in this document are the result of a partnership between three institutions working to support AET in the Global South: CIRAD, FAO and the NGO AVSF (Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders).

Why should extension and advisory services promote agroecology?
The global impacts of the climate crisis are becoming ever clearer, and natural resources and ecosystems are being depleted. Despite some progress, hunger and poverty persist, and inequalities are deepening. The world is realizing that unsustainable high external inputs and resource-intensive industrialized systems pose a real danger of biodiversity loss, increased greenhouse gas emissions, shortages of healthy food, and the impoverishment of dispossessed peasants around the world. There is global consensus on the urgent need for a transition to agri-food systems that ensure food and nutrition security, social and economic equity, and sustain the ecosystem on which all these elements depend. Agroecology provides a crucial pathway towards this objective. Making extension and advisory services (EAS) demand-driven is not an end in itself but a means to improving their relevance and impact.

The Global Alliance for the Future of Food commissioned this compendium to gather and uplift the knowledge and evidence on agroecological and regenerative approaches and Indigenous foodways, recognizing that different forms of evidence, knowledge, and expertise are fundamental to shifting mindsets and the basis for action. It brings together the commonly held perspectives, narratives, questions, and gaps in these approaches, and explores ways to mobilize and elevate them to donors, researchers, and policymakers. Through this initiative, the Global Alliance, its members, and the contributing authors seek to better understand, synthesize, and mobilize the evidence base to create enabling environments for agroecology, regenerative approaches, and Indigenous foodways where supportive research, policy, and investments can flourish and benefit all.