By Francesca Gugino
The 58 synthesis articles examined in my research utilize agroecology at different levels of input, ranging from low to moderate to high. This encompasses farms that implement one or two agroecology practices to farms that have undergone entire system changes, the most notable entire system changes being Organic Agriculture, Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) , Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Conservation Agriculture (CA), and Push-Pull Technology for Pest Management (PPT). Some of the most common incremental farm changes are the introduction of different types of fertilizers, intercropping, crop rotation, improved varieties and integrating crops and livestock. Different agroecological implementations and system changes have resulted in different changes in overall yield, nutritional yield, return on investment, benefit cost ratios and income change. Market data is also important to highlight when focusing on different agroecological practices.
Focusing on overall system change often accounts for a greater initial investment; however, provide greater revenue in the following years, while incremental change is better for farmers who cannot afford large investments but still want to improve the ecology of the farm while also increasing yield and revenue. It is important to note that different systems and incremental changes have different impacts based on region and crop types, couple with other factors including weather shocks, farm gate prices, and growing seasons.
The following articles are useful when conceptualizing different levels of agroecology:
http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I9037EN/
https://agritrop.cirad.fr/593027/1/ID593027.pdf
https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/69018/CCAFSpbSoil.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21683565.2015.1130765?needAccess=true