Agroecology: Our Roots of Change

Agroecology is far more than a set of sustainable agricultural practices. Agroecology puts peasants and indigenous voices at the center. It seeks to preserve biocultural diversity and strengthen resilience while challenging existing power structures in the food system.

This dossier is a collaborative effort of Heinrich Böll Foundation offices and our partner organizations worldwide to highlight the diversity of agroecological initiatives within our global network. From community-led digital innovations to public policy strategies, it explores how agroecology redefines food systems and promotes people’s agency.

Photo: A person holding a dried plant and carefully extracting onion seeds into their palm. Crops, possibly cabbage, are visible in the background. — Image credits

Agroecology is a transformative approach rooted in traditions and knowledge of local communities in dialogue with scientific knowledge and grounded in a human rights framework.

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Why Agroecology is the Only Systemic Solution to Our Food Crisis

Podcast Episode

In this episode of the Ecologia Podcast, Émile Frison and Lena Luig explore in depth the conditions and levers of an agroecological transition capable of driving lasting change. Hosted by Arafet Ben Marzo.

Africa

Person spraying crops with liquid from a backpack tank in a green field, wearing a hoodie and shorts.

Kenya: Pathways for Reform of Pesticide Regulation Are Emerging

The 2025 announcement on the withdrawal of 77 pesticides in Kenya followed years of pressure from scientists, activists, and concerned citizens. But the pesticide reform remains incomplete and must go beyond banning products.

Harun Warui, Lena Luig

Unripe dates hang in multiple clusters from long yellow stems at sunset.

Tunisia: Building a Just Agroecological Transition on Traditions of Solidarity

As soil and water in Tunisia reach their limits, agroecology emerges as the most robust pathway leading out of the failing system. To succeed, it must leverage a mechanism already embedded in Tunisia's history: community-based economy.

A new agricultural and rural paradigm is no longer an option but a national urgency.

Emna Fourati

Photo: A sign reading "COLD COMPOST" stands on a mound of composting material in a garden.

“Green” Fertilizer in Africa Is No Substitute for an Agroecological Transition

Instead of replacing chemical fertilizers with “green” nitrogen fertilizers, African countries should reform their fertilizer policies. Dependence on fossil nitrogen fertilizers should be reduced and the transition to agroecology strengthened.

Lena Luig, Ikenna Donald Ofoegbu, Harun Warui, Keren Ben-Zeev

Asia

Four people crouch at the edge of a green rice field, looking inside.

Rainbow Fields: Korean Farmers Reviving Native Rice

For thousands of years, rice has been more than food. It has been culture, memory, and survival. In South Korea, a few farmers are bringing back native rice varieties lost to history. Their rainbow-colored fields tell a story of a future rooted in the past.

Mekong Riverbank Gardeners Face Uncertainties

The Mekong riverbank gardening is a critical part of local livelihoods. It supports riverine communities through vital food production and additional income generation. However, changes to the river’s ecosystems threaten these ways of life.

Tipakson Manpati, Daniel Abunales

A black-blue fly with antennae sits on a large green leaf among dense foliage.

Cambodia: Black Soldier Fly Turns Waste Into Agricultural Resources

Over-reliance on chemical inputs has left Cambodia’s agriculture vulnerable to environmental and economic pressures. The company Evola Cambodia illustrates how black soldier fly (BSF) technology can convert organic waste into sustainable fertilizer and feed.

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Seeds of Tradition: The Food Security of the Baduy People in Indonesia

In the mountains of West Java, Indonesia, the Baduy people live by ancient traditions centered on food, land, and nature. This documentary captures the everyday lives of Baduy families and shows how they protect their culture, land, and knowledge in the face of modern challenges.

Developing Regenerative Aquaculture in Southeast Asia

Regenerative aquaculture is emerging as a promising solution to address the sustainability challenges faced by the aquaculture industry. Integrating Gracilaria seaweed and brackish water tilapia in pond systems in Johor, Malaysia, has shown great potential.

Photo: A bee covered in pollen inside a bright pink flower.

Southeast Asia: How Sustainable Honey Benefits Communities and Ecosystems

Small-scale beekeeping with native species is a resourceful way of tapping into local honey production alongside increasing household incomes in Southeast Asia. Finding honey bee species most suitable to the native landscape will result in more resilience.

Orawan Duangphakdee, Preecha Rod-im

Beekeeping of native species appears to contribute to a better livelihood in rural areas.

Orawan Duangphakdee and Preecha Rod-im

Europe

Several harvesters are bent over in a hillside vineyard, with a village, church, and fields in the background.

Greening French Agriculture: Can Agroecology Boost Rural Employment?

Does the future of French agriculture lie in agroecology? Long shaped by a productivist model that has eroded jobs and destroyed biodiversity and the climate, farming must now preserve the environment while creating rewarding, sustainable employment.

Sarah Champagne

Several cows stand in shallow water, a dog runs along the shore, and an old wooden boat lies in front.

On Nature That Benefits From Humans and Farming in Poland

An agroecological approach should draw on both scientific and local traditional knowledge.This article focuses on ethnoecological research into changes in the hay management regime in the extensive wetlands of Biebrza National Park in Poland.

Joanna Sucholas

A wooden walkway with rope railings leads through a green meadow toward a line of trees and distant hills.

Agroecology in Turkey: Narratives Compete in a Changing Rural Landscape

Agroecology in Turkey is more than a set of farming techniques; it is a battleground of ideas. Competing narratives are shaping who controls food systems, how communities thrive, and what the countryside will look like tomorrow.

İpek Ronay Gündüz

Photo: A group of people stand in a circle in a meadow. Fields, trees and a clear sky can be seen in the background.

Towards a Paradigm Shift: How Women Create Agroecology in Central and Eastern Europe

The number of farmers in Poland is declining, but fortunately there is one group in rural areas that is trying to build farms based on new principles. These are young women who embody the ideas of agroecology: diversification of production, rural cooperation and care for the environment.

Ruta Śpiewak, Klaudia Kryńska

Coworking Space Makerspace Griechenland

Agroecology as an Open-Source Technology: Progress Conceived Collectively

A research project in the Greek mountains shows what open source technologies and agroecology have in common. And why combining the two approaches could mean a better future for isolated rural regions around the world.

Photo: A person working in a field, tending to plants. Green corn stalks in the foreground, with hills and trees in the background.

Western Anatolia: Agroecological Knowledge Systems in Practice

Knowledge about how to farm is never static, it shifts with changing realities. In the Anatolian village of Karagömlek, rural depopulation and industrial inputs reshape local farming. This article explores, why Agroecology offers a critical perspective for the future.

Vorstellung der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette des VORWERTS Projektes bei einer Bildungsveranstaltung im Rahmen des Großraumentdeckerfestes 2024, im Bild die Mühle mit der Weizen mit Brucherbsen sowie reine Erbsen vermahlen wurde.

Sustainable Food Systems in Germany: Combining Organic Agriculture and Agroecology

While organic farming has a long-standing tradition in Germany, agroecology remains less known. How could a combination of the two approaches drive the urgently needed transformation of food systems?

Tina Marie Jahn, Anke Kähler

Informal cooperation, self-organization, and learning from each other are important aspects of the social dimension of agroecology.

Latin America

Corn plants grow in rows behind a wire fence, with trees and two tall palm trees in front of a misty green mountain.

What to Learn From Colombia’s Public Policy on Agroecology?

Adopted in 2024, Colombia's first Public Policy on Agroecology marks a national milestone and a historic achievement for the social movements that have long advanced agroecology. The article explores its key outcomes and remaining challenges.

Luis Jerónimo Pulido Arredondo

Eine Hand hält eine runde Fruchtschale mit Blättern und Paranüssen.

Agroecology in Amazonia Strengthens Sustainable Food Systems

In the Amazon, scientific agroecological knowledge is combined with the ancestral knowledge of traditional peoples and communities in forest management. This fusion results in several initiatives that stand as resistance to the advance of agribusiness.

Romier da Paixão Sousa, Tatiana Deane de Abreu Sá

everal people stand in a grain field; one takes a photo while others listen to a man speaking.

Argentina: How an Agroecological Food System Solved a Local Conflict

Since 2019, the conflict in the peri-urban area of Zavalla (Santa Fe, Argentina) has been transformed into a local agroecological food system. Local governance was key to getting those involved in the problem to work towards a healthy environment.

Griselda Muñoz, Sergio Montico

Photo: A discussion during an event on agroecology and public policies. People are seated at a table with banners in the background.

Steps and Missteps of Agroecology in Public Policies in Brazil

Brazil's pioneering National Agroecology and Organic Production Policy offers valuable lessons, highlighting both achievements and challenges in advancing agroecology. Despite setbacks, its progress remains essential for systemic transformation.

Photo: Two people walk along a narrow path in a lush, tropical landscape with tall palm trees. The sky is partly cloudy.

Brazil: Agroecology as a Climate Solution Based on Territory

The concept of land liberation through agroecology includes, in turn, the freedom of forests, in opposition to forms of privatization, commodification, and financialization of nature that reduce forests to mere credits.

Ariana Gomes, Diogo Cabral, Pedro Martins

Zwei Frauen auf dem brasilianischen Agrarökologie-Kongress, Rio de Janeiro November 2023.

Without Feminism, There is no Agroecology

It is impossible to imagine a just, sustainable, and diverse future that does not include women, and especially rural women, as they are the ones leading the transformation of the agrifood system in Latin America.

Feminist agriculturalists in Latin America call for greater access to quality land, as well as technical assistance and fair trade networks, as well as social and economic recognition of their everyday work.

Agroecological Practices in Argentina

El Camino es la Agroecología - RENAMA Agroecología

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“The Agroecology Path” (El Camino es la Agroecología), directed by Elías Saez, is a documentary that raises fundamental questions: Are we farming to produce food or money? Is it profitable to produce without poisons? How do we want to feed ourselves? Through real stories, producers, marketers and consumers open their farm gates and home doors to show that a different agricultural model is not only possible, but necessary.

The film examines the transition towards agroecological practices in various locations across Argentina.

Middle East

Photo: A cityscape with multiple residential buildings along a hill and a road. Green hills and trees in the background.

Untold Revolution: Food Sovereignty in Palestine

The pursuit of food sovereignty in Palestine is a profound act of agency and a demand for food justice. It is rooted in agroecology and the control of local natural resources to achieve self-sufficiency.

View over the Valleys near Baanoub

Agroecology in the Context of Lebanon’s Economic, Destructive Wars, and Neoliberal Policies

Under the hurdles of neoliberal policies, violent economic collapse, and for the past year and more, an extremely destructive war, where does agroecology fit in Lebanon’s landscape? The NGO JIBAL attempts to answer this question.

HBS Beirut Enviromental Justice Programme

Untold Revolution: Food Sovereignty in Palestine الثورة غير المحكية- السيادة الغذائية في فلسطين - Heinrich Boll Foundation - Palestine & Jordan

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Food sovereignty means having the right to produce the food you need, rather than simply having the ability to buy it.

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