Agroecology is a powerful strategy that reduces the trade-offs between productivity and sustainability. It promotes the diversity of crops and livestock, fields, farms and landscapes that together are key to improve sustainability of food and farming systems in terms of long-term productivity, food actors' empowerment and inclusion and environmental health. Agroecology is a bundle of measures taken by farmers, which individually or combined, mobilize biodiversity and ecosystem services for productivity. Ideally, it leads to economically and ecologically resilient production systems that are high-yielding.

The transformation and upscaling of agroecological practices requires changes that affect not only the management of farms, or production and consumption patterns at the food system level, but also the institutional framework conditions and the way the performance of agricultural and food systems are measured. In this Brief, four domains of transformation are described - knowledge systems, markets, collaborations and policy coherence.

Strengthening knowledge (research, education and innovation) on agroecology

The knowledge and advisory systems required to support agroecology and build the capacity of actors are insufficient. A systems-oriented, transdisciplinary, and long-term field research approach is lacking. The recommendations are:

• Provide adequate funding for agroecological research - public investment in agroecological approaches is estimated to range between 1 and 1.5 % of total agricultural and aid budgets;
• Breakdown institutional silos and enhance systems thinking in research and training;
• Provide public support to further develop agroecological curricula at colleges and universities and facilitate;
• Establish a network of decentralized centres of excellence in agroecology to reinforce system thinking and enhance exchanges between different knowledge holders;
• Develop new methodologies at universities and research centres such as co-creation of knowledge and citizen science using digital tools to enhance participation and transdisciplinarity;
• Develop publicly funded extension services on agroecology with much greater emphasis on participation and social learning;
• Expand the use of low-cost information and communication technology (ICT);

Working with markets

The recommendations are:

• Supporting short supply chains and alternative retail infrastructures with stronger participation of food system actors such as farmers’ markets, fairs, food policy councils, and local exchange and trading systems;
• Enhancing local authorities’ (e.g. municipalities) capacity to design favourable local policies to strengthen local food systems;
• Developing alternative credit and investment platforms with low capital costs for farmers, producer organizations, input providers and businesses transforming their operations based on agroecological principles;
• Food prices should be “right”, meaning that both the nutritional value of a food item as well as its production-and consumption-associated costs along the entire food value chain should be taken into account;

Enhancing collaboration

There is growing evidence from literature highlighting the need for collective action and coordination at the local level to create favourable socio-technical conditions for agroecological transition.  Supporting the emergence of long-term partnerships and coalitions with a focus on agroecology, local ownership, and the meaningful involvement of social movements and farmers’ organizations is important.

Ensuring policy coherence to create a conducive policy context for agroecology

The recommendations are:

• Develop a coherent policy framework based on an holistic performance accounting system covering nutritional aspects, environmental impact and long-term stability of the system;
• Re-direct government support measures (direct payments, investment subsidies, contributions to research, education and advisory services towards agroecology;
• Making use of existing public purchasing obligations to support sustainably produced food.