Highlights:

This knowledge brief aims to provide a set of evidence regarding the outcomes and impacts of agroecology. There is a strong theoretical basis and empirical evidence that food security outcomes are as good or sometimes even better for agroecological systems than conventional alternatives.

Four levers for agroecology supporting the positive impacts of agroecology on food security are analysed: crop diversification, legume-based systems, agroforestry and mixed crop-livestock systems. In addition,  A set of evidence is analysed for integrated soil health management and agroecological pest management.

The main findings:

• Agroecological systems lead to increased yields in comparison with conventional systems, especially in low-input systems. Without external inputs, agroecological organic systems could maintain yields or experience a modest yield decrease but with positive externalities.
• Crop diversification is an effective strategy to improve food security. The mechanisms to explain these results are diverse with crop diversification effects on plant nutrition, water access, pest control and mitigation.
• Due to their biological characteristics, legumes are one of the most important levers for improving food security (both food availability and food utilisation/nutrition) based on agroecological principles.
• Agroforestry contributes to food availability by recycling nutrients, to food stability by increasing the resilience of the farming systems but also to food utilisation through better diets (fruits, leaves). However, the impacts vary depending on the type of agroforestry systems (composition, management, climate, etc.).
• Mixed crop-livestock systems contribute to food availability by recycling nutrients and to food utilisation through meat and milk consumption.