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Transitions to Agroecology

The Agroecological Transitions Program for Building Resilient and Inclusive Agricultural & Food Systems

In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), agricultural investment remains a priority for economic development. Sustainability is a key challenge in LMICs, as many of the current agricultural practices reduce soil fertility and greatly depend on external inputs. Agroecological approaches are increasingly recognized as a means to improve sustainable development of food systems, ensuring the regenerative use of natural resources and ecosystem services, while also addressing the need for more socially equitable decision-making.

Climate-informed agroecological transitions require a multi-faceted support to farmers, enabling them to shift to more sustainable agriculture production systems that increase food security while minimizing negative ecological and human impacts.

Yet, supporting farmers to make the transition to agroecology globally has been constrained by a lack of:

  1. metrics to holistically assess agroecology and guide outcome-based policy and investment
  2. incentives and investments to support innovative pathways and traceable private-public sector models for agroecology
  3. tools, including digital tools, that provide technical support and performance assessments for practioners.

In addition, current guidance to agroecology has not integrated climate change adaptation and mitigation practices.

TRANSITIONS aims to enable climate-informed agroecological transitions by farmers at significant scales in LMICs through the development and adoption of:

  1. Holistic metrics for food and agricultural systems performance
  2. Inclusive digital tools
  3. Traceable private-public sector incentives and investments for food systems

For each of these 3 objectives, TRANSITIONS has a dedicated work stream (click on the links to learn more).

Expected outcomes

Expected outcomes of the Program are:

  • Decision-makers across scales (farm and landscape, to national and global scales) co-design and use holistic sustainability metrics to evaluate agricultural and food system transition options across multiple SDGs
  • Farmers, technical advisors and companies use adapted digital tools to co-create knowledge and assess outcomes for climate-informed, low-emission agroecological practices.
  • Businesses, investors, governments, farmer and consumer organizations co-develop and take up innovations in incentive structures, business models, investments and capacity building for agroecological transitions that provide transparency and traceability of agroecological metrics.
  • All three work streams will interact through the Transformative Partnership Platform for Agroecology and coordinate in relation to global partnerships such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and global initiatives, such as the World Benchmarking Alliance and the CGIAR Big Data platform.

Dashboard of outcomes

Key contacts

Metrics – Mary Crossland (CIFOR-ICRAF)

Inclusive Digital Tools – Lini Wollenberg (The Alliance, University of Vermont)

Transparent Private Sector Engagement – Jonathan Mockshell (The Alliance)

Implementing organizations

Outputs

Specific project outputs, such as briefs and publications, can be found on a dedicated page.

Location

Asia: India, Vietnam

Africa: Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Burkina Faso

Latin America: Brazil, Peru

Duration: 2022-2025

Donors

The TRANSITIONS programme is implemented by The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CIFOR-ICRAF, IRRI, IWMI, The Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology, and the University of Vermont. It is generously funded by the European Union and managed by IFAD. 

Knowledge Products

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Other projects

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SchoolFood4Cities: Nutrition for our Urban Future
Agroecology Leadership Academy – Cultivating Transformation
Agroecological Transitions for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation
Strengthening the Implementation of Kenya’s Agroecology Strategy to Accelerate Food Systems Transformation