Innovation in agroecological and organic farming systems

Summary

In light of major ongoing environmental damage and the destruction of natural resources, developing a truly sustainable mode of agricultural production is of great importance. Among different ways to reduce trade-offs between ecological sustainability and productivity, we present the approaches taken by agro-ecological and organic farmers. Both fall within the narrative of ecological intensification. According to finding of many previous scientific meta-analyses, both have a great potential to reduce environmental pollution. However, these very positive effects unfortunately result in lower yields. These could be compensated for by changing people's eating habits (e.g. less food waste, less meat consumption from concentrate-fed livestock). However, since global developments and trends are moving in exactly the opposite direction, this paper examines the possibilities of improving the yields of low-input farming systems through scientific research and the outlook for finding new productive solutions. Here we outline the significant potential in the redesign and differentiation of farms and fields including landscapes, in digitalization, the promotion of low-input breeding programs, high quality recycling of organic matter, and non-chemical crop protection.