The Importance Of Agroecology

Practices are defined as “a routinized type of behavior which consists of several elements, interconnected to one other [...] and forms so to speak a ‘block’ whose existence necessarily depends on the existence and specific interconnectedness of these elements, and which cannot be reduced to any one of these single elements.” It is a social mechanism since a certain type of behaving or understanding a situation will differ from one place to the next, and in different period of time (Reckwitz, 2002, p.249). This definition is inscribed within the cultural theory model, which gives more importance to the ‘shared knowledge’ as a way to assign meaning to the world. A practice is thus a social mechanism since a certain type of behaving or understanding

They indeed promote biodiversity, avoiding the use of any chemicals, while producing year-round yields. Agroecology recognizes the successfulness, proven over centuries, of community-based local agriculture, and thus serves as a bridge between modern scientific agricultural knowledge and local ones. The local management of resources and knowledge systems is elaborated upon social institutions. It is then of primal importance to identify and assess this local knowledge framework through agroecological and ethno ecological methodologies. This will help determine the factors upon which the famers perceive and modify their environment to finally translate into practical management schemes promoting the dynamic conservation of local agroecosystems. The combination of western science and ethno science provides then the principles to design and manage sustainable farming systems. Participation of farmers in testing, evaluating and disseminating the best agroecological practices is needed to ensure that the specific technologies put into places are really relevant to their needs and situation (Altieri,