Context

European farming systems are dominated by crop monocultures and animal systems that rely on an intensive use of synthetic chemical inputs. These mainstream farming systems have led to a rapid degradation of biodiversity and crucial ecosystem services and functions (such as carbon sequestration, water quality regulation and pest control), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and growing vulnerability to extreme weather conditions. Technical itineraries have been simplified and rely on an increased mechanization and use of inputs, i.e. are based on nature control rather than on the valorization of ecosystem services. At food system scale, agricultural specialization has also increased geographical concentration, the segmentation of actors with unequal relationships, and inequality in market access tightly linked to employment losses and lack of generational renewal. These trends are still favored by public policies, and this even more in the current context where there is an increasing pressure to contest the obligatory environmental standards of the CAP. Transformations toward sustainability are therefore urgent. An important solution lies in agroecosystems that embrace the principles of agroecology, by maintaining and promoting diversity and multifunctionality, and by building on natural processes, ecological principles and the socio-ecological feedbacks that foster these principles. Over time, the notion of agroecology has come to comprise practices, science, and social movements at farm to food system levels, agroecology encompassing the whole food system from the soil to the organization of human societies. On this basis, agroecology appears a key lever for a sustainable transformation of European agriculture, as part of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy leading to a fair, healthy and resilient EU agriculture.

Objectives

The overall objective of Agroecology-TRANSECT is to contribute to unfolding the full potential of agroecology for European agriculture by strengthening the knowledge base for farmers, advisors, and supporting decision makers, and by developing robust evidence of the positive effects of agroecology on climate change mitigation, biodiversity and farm socio-economic resilience. Along with this objective, Agroecology-TRANSECT will provide these actors with knowledge on the key enablers and innovations as well as the barriers to actual uptake at farm and territory levels, contributing to a dependable knowledge base for EU policy design and implementation. This objective will be achieved by: i) fostering local co-created knowledge by engaging in real-life agroecological contexts (Innovation Hubs : IHs); ii) providing locally relevant tools and indicator frameworks that allow monitoring progress toward the Green Deal’s objectives; and iii) demonstrating the opportunities and constraints of local unfolding of agroecology from individual to policy levels.

Activities

Agroecology-TRANSECT project aims to release the full potential of agroecology for annual and perennial cropping, grassland-based and integrated crop-livestock systems across Europe. A challenge, however, is that the term “agroecology” is interpreted differently in scientific, social and political arenas, which can lead to false equivalencies and confusion. We therefore first reviewed the definitions of agroecology in relation to other sustainability concepts, and characterized the narratives that frame agroecological social movements in Europe. Using a meta-analysis approach we are synthetizing scientific evidence on the effects of agroecological interventions on biodiversity and climate change mitigation. This meta-analysis reveals a general positive effect of agroecological interventions on biodiversity and climate-change mitigation metrics. Agroecological interventions increased diversity of all functional groups of organisms considered as well as promoting soil carbon storage and reducing nitroux oxide emissions. However, agroecological interventions had limited effects on the mitigation of carbon dioxide and methane emissions. A total of 63 social movements in Europe provide a clear definition of agroecology. While the principles proposed by the High Level Panel of Experts of the UN is a common reference for scientists, 78% of European social movements rather refer to the Nyéléni declaration or other grassroot agroecology definitions. 

Taking a place-based approach the project aims to learn from and support the transition to agroecology in 11 multi-actor IHs through a co-innovation approach. In our network of 11 IHs, we are successfully sharing and valorizing past, ongoing and future experiences of agroecology in order to increase awareness and knowledge exchanges between local stakeholders. To systematically record this knowledge, we are proposing methodologies (causal analysis, network analysis), defining indicators for success, and formulating action plans through reflexive learning cycles. Co-creation of knowledge between researchers and IH multi-actor networks will deliver a science-supported toolbox to better quantify the benefits of agroecology for climate, biodiversity and farm resilience. From this dialogue, we are continually identifying drivers, barriers – including social norms, opportunities and solutions to enhance the adoption of agroecology both as a concept and a set of practices. 

Project members are acting to further ensure that the knowledge generated in the project serves for decision-making from regional to the EU levels.  On policy dimensions, we have built a database of 235 publications for analysing current CAP performance on biodiversity and support the development of recommendations for CAP post-2027, Green Deal and Biodiversity strategy. We have also analysed the claims and counterclaims around the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), demonstrating based on scientific evidence that its benefits, especially with regards to agricultural lands, outweigh the costs. Ultimately we will provide a comprehensive set of scale-specific policy recommendations for unfolding the potential of agroecology in Europe, underpinned scientifically and by the practical experiences of the IHs.