Agroecology/sustainable paradigm

To conceptualize the term agroecology with all our readers, let's start by socializing this paradigm under the conception of different researchers, according to Segovia and Ortega (2012), agroecology is a scientific discipline oriented towards agricultural, livestock, forestry and extractive practices, whose fundamental principles are the maintenance of natural resources intact, or with as little damage as possible; the use of indigenous knowledge and resources; environmental health, the diversification; energy efficiency and the use of natural cycles and do without external inputs.

On the other hand, Altieri (1999), describes agroeocology in a more concrete sense as the study of purely ecological phenomena within the agricultural field, and incorporates ideas about an approach to agriculture more linked to the environment and more socially sensitive; in which it focuses not only on production but also on the ecological sustainability of the production system; since, it implies a number of characteristics about society and production that go far beyond the limits of the agricultural estate.

The same author states that in an ecological vision, agroecology is linked to the idea that a crop field is an ecosystem within which the ecological processes that occur in other plant formations, such as nutrient cycles, competition, also occur. Agroecology focuses on ecological relationships in the field and its purpose is to illuminate the form, dynamics and functions of this relationship.

Agroecology from our point of view does not focus only one way on agroecosystems, but emphasizes the interrelationships between its components soil, animal, plant man and the complex dynamics of ecological processes. For the design of these ecological systems, some principles mentioned by Altieri can be followed, such as increasing biomass recycling and optimizing the availability and balanced flow of nutrients, ensuring favorable soil conditions for plant growth, particularly through the management of organic matter and increasing the biotic activity of the soil, to specifically and genetically diversify the agroecosystem in time and space and to increase biological interactions and synergisms between the components of biodiversity by promoting key ecological processes and services.

It is also important to highlight that these principles can be applied with different techniques and / or strategies in agricultural systems, each of them causes an effect on production, profitability, stability and resilience, which will depend on the availability of local resources and in some cases the market. To achieve the restoration of biological diversity in agricultural ecosystems, there are a variety of strategies such as cover crops, polycultures, crop-livestock mixtures and other similar strategies.

The implementation of these strategies can positively transform agroecosystems since, they maintain the vegetative cover as an effective measure of conserving water and soil, through the use of practices such as zero tillage, use of cover crops and other appropriate methods, provide a regular supply of organic matter through the addition of manure, compost and promotion of soil biological activity, increase nutrient recycling mechanisms through the use of legume-based rotation systems, integration of livestock, among others, they promote the regulation of pests through an increase in the biological activity of control agents achieved by the introduction and conservation of natural enemies and antagonists.

Dear readers, the main objective of agroecological designs is to integrate all the components in such a way that it can increase the overall biological efficiency and maintain its productive capacity, thus becoming a truly sustainable and profitable agroecosystems if generating no ecological imbalance within the systems and in the surrounding areas.