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Agroecological Crop Protection: Addressing Regional and Local Challenges

Deguine J.P.. 2021. s.l. : ESCAP, FAO, CIRAD, 1 p.. Agro-ecological and safe food transitions for green, resilient and inclusive recovery in the ASEAN region, 2021-11-08/2021-11-09, virtual congress.

There is a growing body of literature and numerous concerns on pesticides and their effects. Pesticides were an important pillar of the Green Revolution, during which the main concern was to increase production. There was less concern about the negative effects, on health, on the environment, or simply on the ecological functioning of cropping systems. Today, we can recognize that agroecosystems are not sustainable and the systematic use of pesticides is an essential reason for this. Agroecological Crop Protection (ACP) is the application of agroecology principles to crop protection. The place of pesticides in ACP is very far from that in conventional agriculture, where pesticides are the first practice implemented in the field. In ACP, it is recommended to consider using pesticides only as a last resort. ACP also contributes to tackle current and future issues all along the value chain, from the field to the food system: ecological sustainability of AES, socio-economic profitability of farms, and globally, climate change, erosion of biodiversity, soil degradation, etc. In addition, ACP contributes positively to various health issues: those of crop plants of course, but also ecosystem health, animal health and human health, with the example of viral zoonoses. As such, ACP can be considered as an orientation allowing to make links between agroecology in general and the One Health concept. The major takeaway messages are (i) the need to highly reduce or suppress pesticides, (ii) the relevance and the consistency of ACP not only to address this challenge to reduce the pesticide use, but also to address global and local challenges, (iii) the adaptation and the time needed to adopt new ways of reasoning and interacting for all actors, (iv) the need for support, on technical and socioecological levels, but also for policies during the transition period.

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