This document provides an overview of agroecology as it relates to sensitizing higher education institutions in Kenya. It defines agroecology in multiple ways and outlines its three dimensions. Agroecology is presented as an integrated science with principles that contribute to sustainable food and nutrition security. Achieving food and nutrition security is described as a "wicked problem" that requires a systems approach. The document discusses various perspectives on agriculture and the need for an interdisciplinary approach like agroecology. It also covers political agroecology and principles of agroecology in more depth.

1. AGROECOLOGICAL
TRANSFORMATIONS: BACKGROUND
AND RATIONALE
SENSITIZATION ON AGROECOLOGY AND AGROBIODIVERSITY INTEGRATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN
KENYA.
December 1st and 2nd , 2021
Jacaranda Hotel, Westlands, Nairobi
Martin Oulu, Ph.D.,
ISFAA Coordinator
ochiengmoulu@gmail.com
Dept. of Agricultural Economics, UoN
ochiengmoulu@uonbi.ac.ke

2. AGROECOLOGY DEFINED!
There are multiple definitions of agroecology:Agroecology is…
• The application of ecological concepts and principles to farming systems, focusing on the interactions between plants,
animals, humans and the environment, to foster sustainable agricultural development in order to ensure food and nutrition
security for all, now and in the future
(HLPE 2019)
• The application of ecological sciences to the study, design and management of sustainable agriculture
(Altieri 1995)
• An integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and
management of food and agricultural systems
(FAO 2018)

3. 3 DIMENSIONS OF AGROECOLOGY
CIDSE 2018

4. AGROECOLOGY AS AN INTEGRATED
SCIENCE

5. SUSTAINABLE FOOD & NUTRITION
SECURITY IS A “WICKED PROBLEM”
• Sustainable development is intended to address
modern societal challenges and problems
which are complex or “wicked” (Rittel &
Webber 1973)
• The term “wicked” denotes resistance to
resolution, rather than evil.
• Wicked problems have 10 important characteristics
(see image)
• Wicked problems can be solved, but their solution
requires systems thinking

6. THE “BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT”
1. Agronomists want to feed the world: But the remarkable gains in yields of the past were accompanied by degradation
of natural resources and pollution of water, air and food by chemical agricultural inputs.
2. Environmentalists want to save the planet: Conservation (e.g through protected areas) defeats its own purpose when
the connectivity with people, agriculture and the broader landscape mosaic is not considered
3. Sociologists want to develop rural areas and equity: Yet agribusiness that dominates global input markets has little
incentives to develop technologies for resource poor smallholder farmers
4. Economists want efficient markets: Farming sacrifices food quality and externalizes ecological and social impacts that
perpetuate inequalities and contribute to the rise of food and agriculture-related diseases.
5. Health specialists want healthy diets: Dietary guidelines refer to diets in terms of calories and nutrient quantities,
foregoing concerns about food production and and environmental quality, along with the implications of matching dietary
trends patterns with changes implied for the food system.
Reductionist disciplinary approaches are unable to fully address challenges of achieving food and nutrition security,
environmental integrity and social equity as they are interlinked. This calls for a (food) systems approach offered by
agroecology
TEEB 2018

7. PRINCIPLES OF AGROECOLOGY (1)
FAO 2018
FAO’s 10 Elements of Agroecology

8. PRINCIPLES OF AGROECOLOGY (2)
Principle Linkage to FAO’s 10 elements
1. Recycling. Preferentially use local renewable resources and close as far as possible resource cycles of nutrients and biomass. Recycling
2. Input reduction. Reduce or eliminate dependency on purchased inputs and increase self-sufficiency. Efficiency
3. Soil health. Secure and enhance soil health and functioning for improved plant growth, particularly by managing organic matter and
enhancing soil biological activity.
4. Animal health. Ensure animal health and welfare.
5. Biodiversity. Maintain and enhance diversity of species, functional diversity and genetic resources and thereby maintain overall
agroecosystem biodiversity in time and space at field, farm and landscape scales.
Part of diversity
6. Synergy. Enhance positive ecological interaction, synergy, integration and complementarity amongst the elements of
agroecosystems (animals, crops, trees, soil and water).
Synergies
7. Economic diversification. Diversify on-farm incomes by ensuring that small-scale farmers have greater financial independence and
value addition opportunities while enabling them to respond to demand from consumers.
Part of diversity
8. Co-creation of knowledge. Enhance co-creation and horizontal sharing of knowledge including local and scientific innovation,
especially through farmer-to-farmer exchange.
Co-creation and sharing of
knowledge
9. Social values and diets. Build food systems based on the culture, identity, tradition, social and gender equity of local communities
that provide healthy, diversified, seasonally and culturally appropriate diets
Parts of human and social values
and culture and food traditions
10. Fairness. Support dignified and robust livelihoods for all actors engaged in food systems, especially small-scale food producers,
based on fair trade, fair employment and fair treatment of intellectual property rights.
11. Connectivity. Ensure proximity and confidence between producers and consumers through promotion of fair and short
distribution networks and by re-embedding food systems into local economies.
Circular and solidarity economy
12. Land and natural resource governance. Strengthen institutional arrangements to improve, including the recognition and support
of family farmers, smallholders and peasant food producers as sustainable managers of natural and genetic resources.
Responsible governance
13. Participation. Encourage social organisation and greater participation in decision-making by food producers and consumers to
support decentralised governance and local adaptive management of agricultural and food systems.
Secure
social
equity/responsibility
Strengthen
resilience
Improve
resource
efficiency
HLPE 2019

9. https://www.agroecology-pool.org/historical-perspective/
Evolution of Agroecology

10. AGROECOLOGY AS PRACTICE

11. AGROECOLOGICAL PRACTICES
• Agroecological practices are…
“Agricultural practices aiming to produce significant amounts of food, which valorise in the best way ecological processes and ecosystem services in integrating
them as fundamental elements in the development of the practices, and not simply relying on ordinary techniques, such as chemical fertiliser and synthetic
pesticide application or technological solutions, such as genetically modified organisms”
Wezel et al. 2014
“Those ecologically sound methods which can balance and enhance all ecosystem services provided by agroecosystems and hence benefit to the sustainable
development of agriculture”.
Shiming and Gliessman 2016
• Agricultural practices can be classified along a spectrum and qualified as more or less “agroecological”, depending on the extent to
which (HLPE 2019):
 They rely on ecological processes as opposed to the use of agrochemical inputs;
 They are equitable, environmentally friendly, locally adapted and controlled; and
 They adopt a systemic approach, rather than focusing only on specific technical measures.

12. AGROECOLOGY AS A SOCIO-POLITICAL
MOVEMENT

13. AGROECOLOGY AS A SOCIO-POLITICAL MOVEMENT
• Agriculture is a social activity and agricultural systems are the result of the co-evolution of
ecosystems and human communities across many generations – the co-production of nature (Neil
Smith 1987).
• Therefore, agroecosystems cannot be separated from the human communities living in them.
Social and political dynamics are therefore at the heart of agroecology
• Agroecological approaches often arise in response to agrarian crises along with broader efforts of
social movements to initiate widespread changes
• Agroecology has thus become the political framework under which many social movements and
peasant organizations around the world defend their collective rights
• To understand agroecology as a socio-political movement requires an understanding of power,
politics, contestations, and antagonism.

14. POLITICAL AGRO-ECOLOGY
• Political ecology seeks to unravel the political forces at work in environmental access, management, and transformation by
highlighting how politics is inevitably ecological, and ecology inherently political
• It addresses the condition and change of socio-ecological systems (e.g., agriculture), with explicit considerations of relations of
power
• Political ecology explores the social and environmental changes with an understanding that there are better, less coercive, less
exploitative, and more sustainable ways of doing things.
• It is directed at finding causes rather than symptoms of problems e.g., starvation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, human health crises,
and the conditions where some social actors exploit other people and environments for limited gain at collective cost
Robbins 2012
• Political agroecology is the application of the methods and concepts of political ecology to agroecology
• It exposes the power dynamics that prop up agri-food systems that are environmentally destructive, focus predominantly on
increasing yields and profits and are implicated in ongoing undernourishment and rural poverty.
• Political agroecology emphasizes the important role of social movements in achieving dignified agrarian sustainability and food
sovereignty.
Anderson et al. 2021

15. THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF AGROECOLOGY
CIDSE 2018

16. WHY AGROECOLOGY?

17. AGROECOLOGY CHALLENGES CONVENTIONAL/GREEN
REVOLUTION AGRICULTURE
“The current industrial agro-food system, including
the many aspects of production and distribution, is
highly unsustainable, both for environmental
and for human health reasons. Furthermore, it
fails to feed the world as was promised decades
ago”
(Hilbeck and Oehen 2018).
“Today’s food and farming systems have succeeded
in supplying large volumes of foods to global
markets, but are generating negative outcomes
on multiple fronts: widespread degradation of
land, water and ecosystems; high GHG
emissions; biodiversity losses; persistent hunger
and micro-nutrient deficiencies alongside the
rapid rise of obesity and diet-related diseases;
and livelihood stresses for farmers around the
world”
(IPES Food 2016).

18. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries are the largest
drivers of biodiversity loss (60%), putting genetic
resources for food and agriculture at risk, causing
80% of deforestation, using 70% of all withdrawals
of freshwater, coral reefs collapse, and 21% of
anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
(FAO 2016)

19. AGRICULTURE ISA
MAJOR DRIVER OF
THE EARTH SYSTEM
EXCEEDING
PLANETARY
BOUNDARIES
Campbell et al. 2017

20. WHY AGROECOLOGY?
• Agroecology is gaining traction as a potential answer to
climate change and the interrelated challenges
facing food systems. Agroecological approaches have
been shown to improve farmers’ income up to 30%
through strategies such as diversification, external input
reduction and alternative marketing channels.They can
preserve and increase wild and domesticated
biodiversity by up to 30% compared with conventional
farming, restore and improve soil fertility and health.
Importantly, it can accelerate achievement of the
SDGs, is a win-win for people, planet and livelihoods, and
can help the transition to a sustainable agri-food
system.
FAO (Undated)
• Agroecology Is one way of dealing with global crises
such as the COVID-19 pandemic due to its resilience
building qualities.
IPES-Food 2020

21. AGROECOLOGY CONSERVES AGROBIODIVERSITY
• Biodiversity is the basis of agriculture. Biodiversity and
agriculture are strongly interrelated because while
biodiversity is critical for agriculture,
agriculture can also contribute to conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity. Sustainable
agriculture both promotes and is enhanced by
biodiversity.
• Experience and research have shown that
agrobiodiversity can:
 Increase productivity, food security, and economic
returns
 Reduce the pressure of agriculture on fragile
areas, forests and endangered species
 Make farming systems more stable, robust, and
sustainable
Contribute to sound pest and disease management
Conserve soil and increase natural soil fertility and
health
 Contribute to sustainable intensification
 Diversify products and income opportunities
 Reduce or spread risks to individuals and nations
 Help maximize effective use of resources and the
environment
 Reduce dependency on external inputs
 Improve human nutrition and provide sources of
medicines and vitamins, and
 Conserve ecosystem structure and stability of
species diversity.
http://www.fao.org/3/y5609e/y5609e01.htm

22. https://www.slideshare.net/muskokee/ecosystem-services

23. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 40, NO. 4, 2006. P 1114 - 1119
“Here we show the extent to which 286 recent interventions in 57 poor countries
covering 37 M ha (3% of the cultivated area in developing countries) have increased
productivity on 12.6 M farms while improving the supply of critical environmental services.
The average crop yield increase was 79% (geometric mean 64%). All crops showed water
use efficiency gains, with the highest improvement in rainfed crops. Potential carbon
sequestered amounted to an average of 0.35 t C ha-1 y-1. If a quarter of the total area
under these farming systems adopted sustainability enhancing practices, we estimate
global sequestration could be 0.1 Gt C y-1. Of projects with pesticide data, 77% resulted in
a decline in pesticide use by 71% while yields grew by 42%.”
Pretty et al. 2006

24. SDGS AND AGROECOLOGY
•Agroecology principles contribute to a number of the SGDs, ie:
1. SGD 1 - Poverty reduction
2. SDG 2 - aims to end hunger, achieve food security for all
3. SDG 3 - Good health and well being
4. SGD 5 – Gender equality
5. SGD 12 – Responsible consumption and production
6. SGD 11 – Sustainable cities and communities
7. SGD 13 – Climate action
8. SGD 15 – Life on land

25. CONVENTIONALVS.AGROECOLOGICALLY-BASED AGRI-FOOD
SYSTEMS
Hilbeck and Oehen 2018

26. FOOD SECURITY!
“Food security is a situation that exists when all
people, at all times, have physical, social and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious
food that meets their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life”
(FAO 2002)
What’s
missing
here?

27. FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
• “Food Sovereignty is the right of individuals, peoples, communities, and
countries to define their own agricultural, labor, fishing, food and land policies
which are ecologically, socially, economically and culturally appropriate to their
unique circumstances. It includes the true right to food and to produce food,
which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally
appropriate food and to food-producing resources and the ability to sustain
themselves and their societies.”
• IPC – International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty

28. PRINCIPLES OF FOOD SOVEREIGNTY:THE NYÉLÉNI
DECLARATION
• In February 2007 the IPC Secretariat coordinated the International Nyéléni Forum for Food Sovereignty in Mali.The delegates
to the forum produced the most comprehensive definition of food sovereignty to date, the Nyéléni Declaration
• The principles include (Anderson et al. 2021);
1. A focus on food for people, with rights to sufficient, healthy and culturally appropriate food at the centre of food policies
rejecting the treatment of food as just another commodity produced for the purpose of profit and the concomitant
immorality of access to food depending on economic resources
2. Valuing food providers, particularly with regard to securing rights and respect for those who grow, harvest and process
most of the world’s food: farmers and workers within small-scale, family, traditional and indigenous food systems
3. The localization of food systems, inter alia, in contrast to the currents of capital favouring large corporations
4. Local control of food providers and consumers over territory, land, grazing, water, seeds, livestock and fisheries based on
the rights of local food producers and inhabitants in territory—food sovereignty rejects the privatization of such resources,
for example through intellectual property rights regimes or commercial contracts
5. Working with nature by respecting and supporting the integrity and contributions of ecosystems and
communities’ ecological knowledge,particularly the use of diversified agricultural methods reliant on few external
inputs

29. FOOD SOVEREIGNTYVS. FOOD SECURITY
• The concept of ‘food security’ (see Lesson 4) does not make much distinction on who produces food, where it is produced and how
it is produced, but cares mainly on whether there is food available in the market and whether people have access to it.
• Therefore, the concept of food security does not correlate with sustainable food production, but rather puts more focus on
availability and access through trade and income generation for purchasing food
• The concept of ‘food sovereignty’ goes beyond food security as it seeks to achieve food security through local sustainable production
Adhikari 2014
• Food Sovereignty is a concept linked to the right to food and the strategies put forward in order to grant such right in a
multifaceted context, characterized by a strong interdependence of biological, environmental, technical, economic, social and cultural
factors.
• The notion of Food Security is still focused on general, individual and family access to food by means of purchasing it, hence by means
of access to market, food production and availability, imports and food aid. Consequently, it is still focused on dependency.
• Food Sovereignty focuses on access and control over resources, and particularly defends the importance of family farming and
peasant production to satisfy food needs beyond markets.
VSF Italia 2009

30. SEED SOVEREIGNTY!
• Seed sovereignty means farmers’ control over the seeds (germplasm) they use and they have
developed in addition to community and public provisioning of seeds in their diversity and
quality to maintain the culturally, economically and ecologically sustainable farming system.
• Seed sovereignty includes the farmer’s rights to save, breed and exchange seeds,
to access diverse open source seeds which can be saved and which are not
patented, genetically modified, owned or controlled by emerging seed giants
• The seed is the first link in the food chain and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food
sovereignty.
• If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that they can
save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty and consequently no food
sovereignty.
Adhikari 2014

31. INTRODUCTION:TRANSITIONS
• A transition is a change in a system, occurring over a period of time, in a specific location. It is a gradual, pervasive shift from
one state or condition to another different state
• It includes political, socio-cultural, economic, environmental and technological shifts in values, norms and rules, institutions and
practices
• Transitions can begin at a small, niche scale, referred to as a ‘seed of transition’, a space in which stakeholders and other actors design
and experiment with innovative approaches and practices,
• providing possible alternatives to the dominant paradigm (in this case conventional agriculture/green revolution/neoliberalism,etc.)
• Such transitions may then foster alternative models of food production, processing, distribution and consumption that can challenge
the dominant socio-technological regime (e.g. agroecology), get absorbed by the dominant regime, or marginalized by it
• During a transition period, the dominant economic, environmental, political and technological paradigm, rules, institutions and
practices become increasingly incompatible with new expectations.
• External pressures at different scales, from global (e.g. climate change), to local (e.g. soil erosion), as well as political institutions,
private companies, social movements or consumer expectations can push the dominant regime towards transition or create “lock-
ins” that reinforce the status quo
HPLE 2019

32. INTRODUCTION:TRANSFORMATION
• Transformation entail shifts in power and governance that are central to a political agroecology (Anderson et al.
2021)
• Many transitions occurring in particular production practices and across the food value chain are required to achieve a
transformation of food systems – a profound change in what is produced and how it is produced, processed, transported and
consumed.
• More sustainable production and consumption patterns can be reached over time through a dynamic interaction between
innovations in food production enterprises,social movement advocacy,policy and cultural change at different
scales.
• A multi-level perspective is needed to examine sustainability transitions due to the unpredictable and dynamic processes
and interactions across scales
• Both incremental transitions at small scales and more structural changes to institutions and norms at larger
scales need to happen in a coordinated and integrated way in order to achieve the transformation of food systems required
to achieve agroecological transformation that achieve truly sustainable food and nutrition security
HPLE 2019

33. CONCEPTUALIZING AGROECOLOGICAL
TRANSFORMATIONS
• Three dimensions to scaling agroecology:
1. Horizontal scaling out: Where “ever-greater numbers of families…practice agroecology
over ever-larger territories”, engaging “more people in the processing, distribution, and
consumption of agroecologically produced food”
Mier yTerán Giménez Cacho et al. 2018, p. 3.
2. Scaling up: Where changes that enable agroecology percolate through institutions, policies
and law.
3. Deepening: Involves seeking ever more synergies and improvements to the agroecological
system itself.
Anderson et al. 2021

34. FAO and Biovision 2020 (Based on Gliessman 2016)

35. Reconceptualization of the 5 Levels ofTransformation
Anderson et al. 2021

36. DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE
• While shifts in production practices continue to be the most documented (Gliesman’s Levels
1-3), the importance of change in multiple dimensions is nonetheless highlighted across the
literature.
• In particular, four different dimensions of change emerge as key components of
agroecological transition:
1) Changes in production practices,
2) Changes in knowledge generation and dissemination,
3) Changes in social and economic relations, and
4) Changes in institutional framework.
IPES-Food, 2018

37. COMBINING DIFFERENTTYPES OF CHANGETO DRIVETRANSITION FORWARD
IPES-Food, 2018

38. The Six Domains ofTransformation
• These six domains of
transformation are critical sites of
intervention in pursuit of
agroecology transformations.
• The extent and depth of
agroecological practices on farms
and in territories are shaped by
processes of governance, power and
control as they manifest in and
across these domains
Anderson et al. 2021

39. SOME CHALLENGES TO UPSCALING AGROECOLOGY
• The following challenges have been identified as barriers to upscaling agroecology (Scherf 2018):
a) There is a lack of awareness of agroecology among policy-makers.
b) Agroecological transitions require an enabling environment providing positive incentives and buffers for food
producers while they transform their systems, which takes time to realise the full benefit.
c) Political and economic support needs to prioritise sustainable approaches, including research priorities taking into
consideration externalities of food systems.
d) Research, education and extension systems do not sufficiently respond to the needs of agroecology as an
approach to effectively transform food and agricultural systems
e) Current market systems are not responding to agroecological approaches and the needs of diversified
agroecological production systems or the needs of consumers for diversified and healthy diets, particularly those
of small-scale food producers and poor urban consumers
f) There is a lack of co-ordinated action and collaboration in policy and governance. Policies need to be integrated
across scales (local, national and international) and sectors (from agriculture, fisheries and forestry to economic,
social and environmental sectors) to achieve coherence through a territorial approach.

40. isfaakenya@gmail.com or isfaa@kilimo.go.ke
Thank You!