Making Agricology Viable for Small Farmers

The search for paradigms to underpin new agricultural intensification models that are able to feed the country now and in the future, while maintaining and enhancing the health of ecosystem functions, is an important challenge for policymakers. Alteiri MA, Funes-Monzote FR, Peterson P (2012) present case studies from Cuba, Brazil, Philippines, and Africa to demonstrate how agroecologically efficient agricultural systems of smallholders can develop into robust pathways towards productive and resilient agroecosystems. Case studies presented from Indio in this booklet are evidently of the farmers who are middle peasants with landholdings under 5-8 acres. They work on their own form with their families and do not hire any outside labour. They take help only at certain points of time from fellow farmers, mostly for harvesting. Further the stories of these farmers signify the emergence of the pathway under formation in Indio in favour of a move away from conventional towards non-conventional agroecological farming. lt is also significant that among the farmers who have shifted there are two to three tribal farmers who have never practiced non- conventional farming. The shift to agroecological approaches represent the tendency of middle peasants looking for how to reduce risk in production.