The Transformative Partnership Platform (TPP) on Agroecology

The TPP on agroecological transitions addresses key evidence and implementation gaps in priority domains: socio-economic viability; pest, disease and weed control; Inclusive performance metrics; enabling policies; better nutrition; water resources; soil health; resilience.

Handbook for the Evaluation of Agroecology - A method to evaluate its effects and the conditions for its development

This handbook of the Groupe de travail sur les Transitions Agroecologiques (GTAE’s) has developed a methodological tool for the evaluation of agroecology making it possible to:

• on the one hand, evaluate the agronomic, socio-economic and environmental effects of these practices and systems
• on the other hand, evaluate the conditions for development of agroecological practices and systems, i.e. favourable factors and obstacles for their development.

Boost-AE: Collaborative Platform for Agroecological Transition

BoosT-AE aims to facilitate the production and sharing of knowledge and methodologies required to carry out the Agro-ecological Transition (AET) in the tropical areas by:

• identifying, listing, delivering knowledge on the diversity of solutions, the effects and impacts of these agro-ecological solutions according to the contexts.
• producing additional knowledge from research and cross-cutting analysis of existing experiences
• facilitating consultation and reflection on agro-ecology among the actors involved in its promotion
• facilitating the appropriation of agroecological practices through knowledge on the most appropriate support methods.

Tool for agroecology performance evaluation (TAPE) − Process of development and guidelines for application

This FAO knowledge product consists of tools to support evidence-based decision-making: a global analytical framework and a supporting database to assess the multi-dimensional performance of agroecology.

While the analytical framework provides the theory, background, and proposed approach to measure performance and assess agroecology in terms of metrics and methods, the global database will be the repository of data populated from the application of the framework in case studies in a diversity of production systems and regions.

The analytical framework aims at providing a diagnostic of agricultural performance across many dimensions to move beyond standard measures of productivity (e.g. yield/ha) and better represent the benefits and tradeoffs of different agricultural systems.

Agroecology Criteria Tool (ACT)

The Agroecology Criteria Tool (ACT) methodology by Biovision (V 1.0.0, 2020) is based on the analytical framework by Gliessman (2916) on the 5 levels of food system change and is embedded within the 10 Elements of Agroecology by FAO (2018). Each element of the transition includes a list of relevant topics (inclusion criteria), which were based on past work by DeLonge et al. (2016). The underlying interpretation of agroecology is a set of agricultural principles by FAO focused on optimizing biological synergies and diversity in the agro-ecosystems and reducing negative trade-offs. Those farming systems should clearly identify and key ecological functions and aim to integrate these various elements carefully into the farming systems creating multiple levels of positive interactions and not just substituting external inputs and engaging in isolated, singular interventions.

Limits to Sustainability

Unsustainable human activities put the land resource at risk. If we wish to arrest or reverse the decline of our natural resource base, we must first understand and monitor the land status as well as understand the various change processes that can result in land degradation.

This will allow us to understand, or establish, “planetary boundaries,” or the limits of the biophysical envelope that sustains life on Earth. By comprehending the environmental thresholds within which human actions can be maintained we can avoid severe or catastrophic disruption in the future.

Climate constraints such as changing aridity and drought, the global distribution and change of surface and groundwater resources, the status of soils, dynamics of vegetation and the appropriation of it, as well as dynamics in biodiversity are covered in this section.

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