Agroecology for Organic Vegetable Systems Redesign

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted, like never before, the close linkage between environmental and human health. In this fragile equilibrium, agriculture plays a crucial role. Modern agriculture, after the Green Revolution, moved towards intensification and simplification, causing a remarkable loss of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems, which have become highly vulnerable. In this context, a massive use of external inputs is pursued, exposing people, the ecosystem, and its biocomponents to severe health risks.

There is a growing awareness of the healthy and nutritional value of vegetables consumption in both developing and developed countries. However, vegetable cropping systems are particularly intensive. Organic management, if relied only on the compliance to organic regulation (input substitution approach), is not far from conventional management, aiming to high yield per unit area without a real attention to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Therefore, re-designing organic vegetable systems through agroecological principles represents a valuable strategy to face future challenges in agriculture, by promoting high levels of diversity and ecosystem services provision, restoring land and landscape while maintaining yields. As “participatory science”, agroecology also relies on the farmers’ engagement in co-research/innovation activities, promoting a change of governance towards new sustainable local-centered food systems.

This Special Issue will be dedicated to recent experiences in re-designing organic vegetable systems through agroecological practices as far as stakeholders’ involvement in the research/innovation. We seek contributions focusing on diversification strategies, soil conservation management, and waste and by-products recycling. We will consider multidisciplinary assessments on the effects of the agroecological and participatory approach on the systems’ economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

Dr. Elena Testani
Guest Editor

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