Re-assessing agroecology’s role in sustainable agriculture. Integrating agroecology and climate-smart agriculture in CCAFS activities.

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is committed to tackling humankind’s greatest challenges in the 21st century: food security, adaptation to climate change, and mitigation of climate change. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a foundational thread woven throughout the CCAFS program.

However, it is not the only framework for the future of agriculture. Agroecological approaches to land management provide a related but different set of principles.

In a recent study, Agroecology and Climate Change: A case study of the CCAFS Research Program, Nadine Andrieu (CIRAD–CIAT) and Yodit Kebede (WUR & UMR Eco&Sols) assessed CCAFS’s alignment with principles of agroecology using the  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) 10 Elements of Agroecology as a framework. The authors reviewed documents and conducted interviews with CCAFS Flagship leaders and a keyword study of CCAFS research.

They concluded that agroecology was not a key concept in the design of CCAFS activities. However, many promoted practices were agroecological in nature and correlated with several of the FAO’s 10 Elements of Agroecology.

Read the working paper here.

Read the full research highlight here.

Written by Sadie Shelton (CCAFS)

Photo: G. Vuillermoz (Trocaire)