Agroecology schools

The term 'agroecology'^[1] is used internationally to describe a science, movement and practice^[2] that aims at a socially just and environmentally sustainable transformation of agricultural and food systems.^[3] Agroecology challenges the system's inherent logics and power relations and offers an alternative to the industrial agricultural system by focusing on a peasant agriculture adapted to local ecosystems.^[4] In German-speaking countries agroecology tends to be understood as a science^[5]. In practice, the concept is based on the fundamental principles of organic farming, which primarily include the preservation of soil fertility, the cycle of soil-plant-animal and the human being as well as the independence of farms from external inputs.^[6]

Agroecology combines traditional, local knowledge and local cultures with ecological science theories, working towards an overall more sustainable agricultural system^[7]. Complex problems are solved by using local resources and involving the knowledge of local producers, artisanal processors, and consumers, who are central to the decision-making.^[8]

Within the framework of agroecology, farmers' organizations establish and run agroecology schools or training courses that continuously create and reproduce agricultural knowledge through horizontal knowledge exchange ('farmer-to-farmer', 'fisher-to-fisher', consumer-producer, etc.) within and between different generations, sectors, cultures and traditions.

The aim of the niche is to preserve local agricultural knowledge and to reproduce it through participatory research. The basic idea is that producers have acquired the best possible holistic understanding of the local context through long-term experience with local conditions such as those of their soils, climate, plant varieties, animal species and rainfall, as well as local cultural and social knowledge. They are experts in their region and are therefore ideally suited to pass on knowledge about new successful techniques and technologies to other producers and regions, which can then be adapted to the specific contexts. This knowledge of traditional farming techniques is i.e. threatened by the increasing issue of farm succession throughout Europe^[9]. Therefore, knowledge exchange is as important as the exchange of seeds of old plant varieties (→Seed banks and protection of seeds) in order to enable an agriculture that is accessible and adapted to local environmental conditions and cycles as well as resistant to the consequences of climate change^[10]. This knowledge is passed on horizontally in agroecology schools through an innovative, social methodology of popular education, which was developed to a major part by Paulo Freire^[11]. These exchanges place a particular focus on integrating women and young people, as well as other people who show a particular interest in starting a farm.

There is a risk that large-scale agricultural industry will at least partly appropriate the concept due to economic interests and that agroecology could thus be alienated from the actual purpose of the sovereignty of small producers. In addition, there is a risk that institutions may offer classical top-down agroecology trainings in order to exploit new market potentials, and thereby counteract the original key principle of horizontal knowledge exchange.