This meta-analysis evaluates the multi-dimensional impacts of agroecological transitions on farm economic performance across the Global South, covering Sub-Saharan Africa, South/Southeast Asia, Latin America and Australia.

By drawing from a database of over 350 primary studies, the research quantifies the effect of transitioning from more conventional, input-intensive farming to more integrated agroecological systems. The analysis compares farming systems adopting at least 2 agroecological farming practices (mean no. 6.1) with similar simpler systems, where no or less agroecological practices (mean no. 2.0) were implemented. The study measures the effects on three primary socio-economic indicators: i) crop yield, ii) gross income, and iii) production costs.

The findings show an average 14.3% increase in crop yields, a 44.5% increase in gross income, and a 36.5% reduction in production costs when applying agroecological practices.

The study also examines how local factors affect these outcomes, using a geospatial-augmented approach whereby local pedoclimatic variable, when not reported in the original study, are derived from public geospatial dataset, knowing the location of the studies. Yield performance is significantly moderated by pedoclimatic factors, with the greatest advantages observed in cooler, stable climates and soils with lower clay content. Conversely, economic benefits (income and costs) appear more consistent across different scales and irrigation regimes, suggesting they are driven more by management choices and input substitution than by biophysical constraints.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study constitutes one of the first meta-analysis that explicitly measure, at field/farm level, the socio-economic outcomes of transitioning towards more agroecological farming approaches in the Global South. While results are statistically significant, further analysis on a more extended database is needed to gain more context-specific results across different pedo-climatic conditions.

This study has been financially supported by DG INTPA under the Administrative Agreement on "Scientific and Technological Support to Regional Centres of Excellence related to Green Transition”.