Agroecology and Ecological Intensification. A Discussion from a Metabolic Point of View

Abstract

This paper documents the origin and conceptual ambiguity of the terms Sustainable, Ecological and Agroecological Intensification. It defines the concept of Ecological Intensification from an agroecological perspective, and examines in energy terms whether it may be sustainable. To illustrate the theory, we apply Land Cost of Sustainable Agriculture (LACAS) methodology to Spanish agriculture, which is representative of Mediterranean agroclimatic conditions. As a result, we demonstrate the impossibility of generalizing an extensive Organic Farming (OF) scenario under the techniques currently used by organic farmers. This is due to the fact that it would bring about a reduction of 13% in agricultural production. Which necessarily means that OF has to be intensified under agroecological criteria. This option is also explored in two scenarios. As a result, we show that it is possible to compensate the yield gap between OF and conventional agriculture by implementing low-entropy internal loop strategies which reduce the land cost of generating the necessary nitrogen flows. However, these cannot exceed the limits established by the structure of Spanish territory. That is, agroecological intensification cannot be prolonged indefinitely over time since it is limited by the land available.

The political economy of agroecology

“…It seeks to regain control over the labour process and addresses the appropriation of value by external capital groups in novel, and increasingly successful, ways. In this respect, agroecology is transforming agricultural production, making it more sustainable, more productive, more remunerative, more attractive and more variegated (Sevilla Guzman 2007;Wezel et al 2009;Gonzalez de Molina and Guzman-Casado 2017). This shows that peasant struggles are not just reactive.…”

Beyond Chayanov: A sustainable agroecological farm reproductive analysis of peasant domestic units and rural communities (Sentmenat; Catalonia, 1860)

“…Modelling the functioning of agroecosystems from a reproductive standpoint opens the door for a deeper analysis of the joint functioning of organic farming and agricultural communities, either in past times or at present. We present here a Sustainable Agro-ecological Farm Reproduction Analysis (SAFRA) aimed at devising and planning more sustainable farms and agroecological territories (Wezel et al, 2016;González de Molina and Guzmán, 2017;Stoate et al, 2009;Tilman and Clark, 2014). This linear programming model allows the optimization of land-use distributions based on the need to reproduce three agroecosystem funds (the peasant community, livestock and farmland), by always keeping a set of interactions among them that take into account their biophysical and technological limits.…”

Еколого-Агрономічні Складові Експортного Потенціалу Тепличного Комплексу Республіки Білорусь

“…Для Беларуси обеспечение продовольственной безопасности одна из самых актуальных проблем, так как страна выходит на новый уровень решения задач продовольственной безопасности, когда требуется обеспечить высокое качество питания для населения, востребованность белорусской продукции на внешних рынках, интеграцию в мировой продовольственный рынок [4,8,15,18].…”