UNISECO - Understanding and Improving the Sustainability of Agro-ecological Farming Systems in the EU

Background and Objective

Agroecological approaches are increasingly discussed as an alternative to farming based on chemical inputs to address the challenges of viably producing enough food and biomass while preserving soil, water and biodiversity necessary for ecosystem services. While it is widely acknowledged that farming systems implementing such approaches generally require more knowledge and labour per hectare in comparison to conventional farming, there is a need for a better understanding of the socio-economic and policy factors that hinder or enhance the development and implementation of such systems.

The UNISECO project enhanced the understanding of the socio-economic and policy factors that hinder or enhance the development and implementation of agroecological approaches in EU farming systems by identifying the trends and drivers encouraging the involvement of farmers, actors in the value chain, consumers, educators and policy makers. The ambition and overarching objective was to strengthen the sustainability of European farming systems, through co-constructing improved and practice-validated strategies and incentives for the promotion of improved agroecological approaches.

Approach

The UNISECO project achieved these objectives through a work programme of:

• reviewing drivers and barriers to agro-ecological approaches and participatory scenario development;
• empirical data collection in participatory case studies, co-learning and co-construction of innovative knowledge and management strategies and incentives;
• cutting edge biophysical and socio-economic modelling and development of robust indicators for assessing sustainability and innovative strategies of AEFS;
• development of a methodological toolkit to assess impacts of management strategies, market incentives and policy instruments promoting AEFS in Europe.

The methodological toolkit will be developed and tested in participatory case studies in 15 EU Member States with particular attention paid to different biophysical, socio-economic and socio-cultural contexts of farming systems across the EU.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 773901.

Results

Transitions to agro-ecological farming systems and farm practices offer prospects for tackling challenges of global significance, in particular climate change, reducing the loss of biodiversity and social justice. The UNISECO project aimed to improve the understanding of how barriers of drivers of agro-ecological transitions in the EU can be addressed. Bringing together complementary perspectives of actors in practice, policy, science and society in transdisciplinary Multi-Actor Platforms in case studies in 15 countries around Europe the UNISECO project co-constructed strategies for agro-ecological transitions to inform future policies at European, national and regional levels.

A first key lesson from the co-construction relates to the importance of mature social capital and improved farmer knowledge of the benefits of agro-ecological practices and economic opportunities for successful agro-ecological transitions. A second key lesson is the need for strengthened collaborative actions and collective institutions to increase negotiating power within the value chain. A third key lesson of the co-construction of the strategies is the importance of changes in consumer behaviour and diets, in particular if transformative change is the main objective of the agro-ecological transitions.

Further details of the project results and specific recommendations considering the different contexts of agro-ecological transitions in the the case studies in the 15 European countries can be found on the Agro-ecological Knowledge Hub of the project.

Links and Downloads

More details of the project are available on the project website: www.uniseco-project.eu