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Local Initiatives of Agroecological Transition for the Territorialization of Food...
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Local Initiatives of Agroecological Transition for the Territorialization of Food Systems

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Energy, Land and Food (WELF) Nexus".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 September 2023) | Viewed by 5393

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Santiago Peredo Parada

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Group of Agroecology and Environment (GAMA), University of Santiago de Chile, Santiago 7501015, Chile
Interests: agroecology; socioecological resilience; rural development
Dr. Heitor Mancini Teixeira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
Interests: agroecology; ecosystem services; biodiversity; functional ecology; soil functioning
Dr. Sara Burbi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, 56127 Pisa, Italy
Interests: agroecology; rural development; climate change impact; livestock farming
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agroecology is being increasingly recognized as an efficient alternative for developing resilient farming systems that can contribute to food sovereignty and the configuration of fair and sustainable food systems. Agroecological transition processes are taking place across the globe, and efforts are needed to systematize, monitor, and give visibility to these experiences, enabling knowledge exchange and dissemination. Knowledge sharing and co-creation are key to identifying and overcoming obstacles that hamper the development of agroecology. These challenges should serve as a motivation to design new transition pathways and to expand the cooperation among multiple social actors. Bottom-up processes involving multiple actors can lead to complementary intervention strategies without hindering the main objective of agroecology: to meet the needs of rural and urban communities through the transformation of their livelihoods mediated by collective action for the socioecological management of their territory.

The aim of the Special Issue is to show how agroecological transition processes are developed under different local contexts and how they can contribute to the sustainability and resilience of food systems, with a specific focus on soils, the impact of land use, and the dynamics between the different actors in the system. The outcomes are expected to inform practice and policies that can facilitate agroecological transition processes. This objective is in line with the journal scope, since agroecological transitions are associated with sustainable soil management and changes in land use.

For this Special Issue, we invite submissions that explore processes of agroecological transition to inform practices and policies and, ultimately, contribute to out/upscaling agroecological experiences.

  • Collective experiences of farm management, system design, and use of natural resources developed with farmers.
  • Assessment of unknown or undervalued agroecosystem services.
  • Interaction strategies between producers and consumers for the exchange of environmental goods and services.
  • Social and/or technological agroecological innovations in rural–urban contexts.
  • Multi-stakeholder participatory initiatives (production, consumption, food, health).
  • Transdisciplinary analysis of resilience and sustainability of agroecological systems.

Prof. Dr. Santiago Peredo Parada
Dr. Heitor Mancini Teixeira
Dr. Sara Burbi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • agroecology
  • socioecological resilience
  • rural development, smallholders
  • local ecological knowledge
  • ecosystem services, biodiversity, and health nexus
  • urban–rural interactions, producer–consumer interactions
  • political ecology
  • social movements, collective action, governance

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 1601 KiB  
Article
Multifunctional Plants: Ecosystem Services and Undervalued Knowledge of Biocultural Diversity in Rural Communities—Local Initiatives for Agroecological Transition in Chile
by Santiago Peredo Parada and Claudia Barrera Salas
Land 2024, 13(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010039 - 29 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1088
Abstract
With the aim of contributing to the understanding of plants’ multifunctionality for sustainable agroecosystem management, the first part of this paper addresses the importance of functional biodiversity in the design of agroecological systems, including the local context in the generation of situated knowledge. [...] Read more.
With the aim of contributing to the understanding of plants’ multifunctionality for sustainable agroecosystem management, the first part of this paper addresses the importance of functional biodiversity in the design of agroecological systems, including the local context in the generation of situated knowledge. The second part describes three participatory research experiences with local farmers across three locations in Chile. The first experience reports on the use of Dasyphyllum diacanthoides (endemic tree) as fodder. A second experience focuses on the establishment of Rosa spp. (invasive species) as an agroforestry system integrated into the landscape. Both experiences were collaborative efforts with farmer communities of the Andean Mountains in southern Chile. The final experience describes the use of different spontaneous aromatic and medicinal plants through biological corridors to encourage beneficial insects as natural controllers. All three research experiences reveal a lack of knowledge, decontextualization, and undervaluation of the biocultural diversity present in some traditional Chilean agroecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Initiatives of Agroecological Transition for the Territorialization of Food Systems)
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25 pages, 389 KiB  
Article
Territorialising Local Food Systems for an Agroecological Transition in Latin America
by Les Levidow, Davis Sansolo and Mônica Schiavinatto
Land 2023, 12(8), 1577; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12081577 - 10 Aug 2023
Viewed by 1071
Abstract
An agroecological transition can enhance resilience by several means, e.g., managing ecological relationships through agroecosystems, enhancing farmers’ knowledge of natural resources, recycling those resources, maintaining biodiversity, and thus, flexibly adapting to environmental stresses. However, the hegemonic agri-food system has been continuing its capitalist [...] Read more.
An agroecological transition can enhance resilience by several means, e.g., managing ecological relationships through agroecosystems, enhancing farmers’ knowledge of natural resources, recycling those resources, maintaining biodiversity, and thus, flexibly adapting to environmental stresses. However, the hegemonic agri-food system has been continuing its capitalist transition, thereby undermining agroecological methods and deterritorialising social bonds. Facing this pervasive threat, an agroecological transition needs a greater convergence between agroecological production and a solidarity economy (economia solidaria or EcoSol in Latin America). Their convergence can be called EcoSol-agroecology, based on short food supply chains (called circuitos cortos there). These efforts develop territorial markets, generate more stable livelihoods, and thus keep producers on the land. In our study, each research team collaborated with an EcoSol-agroecology network to develop Participatory Action Research methods. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their circuitos cortos, stimulating creative adaptations or alternatives, alongside demands for policy support measures. These networks have regionally territorialised local initiatives, while also confronting obstacles from the hegemonic system. Although socioecological resilience often means a system’s capacity to bounce back, here it has meant bouncing forwards through new opportunities for solidaristic livelihoods and bonds. EcoSol-agroecology networks, agri-extensionists, and researchers have jointly developed such counter-hegemonic strategies, as illustrated by the case studies here. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Initiatives of Agroecological Transition for the Territorialization of Food Systems)
22 pages, 688 KiB  
Article
Reflecting on the Concept of Local Agroecological Food Systems
by Javier Sanz-Cañada, José Luis Sánchez-Hernández and Daniel López-García
Land 2023, 12(6), 1147; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12061147 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2590
Abstract
Despite the extensive literature on Local Agro-food Systems (LAFS), which involves research on local food identity and organisational proximity, the environmental sustainability of these systems has rarely been addressed. This paper develops a new concept called Local Agroecological Food Systems (LAEFS), which focuses [...] Read more.
Despite the extensive literature on Local Agro-food Systems (LAFS), which involves research on local food identity and organisational proximity, the environmental sustainability of these systems has rarely been addressed. This paper develops a new concept called Local Agroecological Food Systems (LAEFS), which focuses the research not only on local food identity, but also on agroecological principles. We aim to conduct a reflexive review of the literature on the conceptual factors attempting to describe the particular characteristics of LAEFS (distinguishing these from LAFS). We explore five axes of analysis: (a) to establish a compromise at the local level between agro-food sectoral specialisation on the one hand and greater cultivated biodiversity and a more diversified economic structure on the other; (b) to geographically and commercially shorten food channels to the fullest extent; (c) to construct new institutional formulae in the fields of logistics, distribution and public procurement for the scaling up of sustainable food; (d) to develop a participatory, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder and multi-level territorial governance; and (e) to reduce the metabolic profile of food systems by reorganising rural-urban linkages. One of the principal objectives of LAEFS should involve redesigning agricultural and food systems at a scale greater than that of the farm (territory or landscape). This requires both a major public policy push and sustainable territorial governance that incorporate an approach based on territory, food systems and agroecology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Local Initiatives of Agroecological Transition for the Territorialization of Food Systems)
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