Alternative Paths to Food Security - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 201

practices, as discussed below, mobilize biological processes that elicit beneficial inter-
species interactions and enhance plants' expression of their existing genetic potentials.
This approach, broadly characterized as “agroecological,” can be undertaken either
as an alternative or as a complement to what is called “modern agriculture.” From an
ecosystem perspective, crops are not regarded as isolated species, with other organisms
seen mostly as competitors or adversaries (weeds, pests, or pathogens). Nor is the soil
treated as an essentially inert medium, in which the plants being grown are primarily
dependent upon farmers' inputs. Rather, agroecological approaches aim to capitalize on
symbiotic relationships among the huge number of complementary species, both flora
and fauna, that cohabit agroecosystems. This strategy is not some kind of backward or
atavistic version of agriculture. In fact, it derives support from contemporary knowl-
edge in disciplines such as microbiology, soil ecology, plant genomics and proteomics,
and epigenetics.
Most agricultural research and practice in the latter half of the twentieth century paid
little attention to the effects of the soil biota, for example. Closer connections between
soil science and crop science are now emerging, however, with the realization that soil
microorganisms that reside in plants “above-ground canopies can enhance crops”
expression of their genetic potentials (Uphoff et al. 2012). In this century, much is being
learned about the contributions and management of soil organisms in their symbiotic
relationships with plants (e.g., Selosse and Rousset 2011; Kiers et al. 2011). Possibly this
will enable us to improve world agricultural production in the next several decades
as much as (or possibly even more than) was achieved with the Green Revolution in
preceding decades. Even though this chapter focuses primarily on rice, the single most
important food crop worldwide, it is about more than rice cropping. It considers a para-
digm shift taking shape within agriculture that is already improving the productivity of
a wide variety of crops, from millet and mustard to turmeric and teff.
This shift could enable farmers in the future to meet society's food needs with reduced
economic costs and with fewer adverse environmental impacts than now result from the
practices of “modern agriculture.” Whether this will occur, and how fast, will be deter-
mined in the decades ahead. However, even the prospect of many desirable benefits will
not assure that the changes are easy, or welcomed by all. Technical and paradigmatic
changes get introduced and advanced within a context of contending political interests
and of institutional leverages and resistance. The experience reported here from recent
innovation in the rice sector shows how technical change is connected with and some-
times impeded by the processes and frictions of politics and society.
Agroecological Approaches
Agroecology is based on understanding and engaging with the genetic potentials that
already exist in plants (and animals) and within the soil and its resident biota (Altieri
1995, 2002; Gliessman 2007; Uphoff 2002). Agroecological applications seek to raise