Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusion
Agroecology in California takes advantage of the decades of investment
in agroecologically informed research, exemplified by research into the
biology of the navel orange worm, even though ecological strategies exist
in tension within the dominant agricultural production system.
Partnerships showcase agroecological growers and scientists and their
ideas. They provide a structured social learning process that facilitates
learning about the practices and the agroecological principles that under-
lie them. The five chief partnership activities define the domain of
integrated farming systems in California.
According to Latour's model of circulating scientific knowledge,
putting agroecology into action requires humans (growers, scientists,
organizations, and agencies) to mobilize their efforts around the behav-
ior of organisms in commodity specific farming systems. Partnerships are
configured to help these participants learn together about the ecology of
crops, insects, nutrients, water, soil, and technologies.
The first of the five chief partnership strategies is to enroll growers in
an alternative agriculture project. The more successful partnerships
adopt a systems approach and persuade growers to consider a wide
range of changes.
The second strategy helps growers to value more precise readings
of the agroecological conditions in their farming systems through moni-
toring. Growers generally do not monitor, but do appreciate quality
monitoring reports, although they may not fully understand how these
reports can translate into cost savings for them.
The third strategy is to deploy agroecological approaches to pest man-
agement, building on California's IPM tradition. All partnerships
promote alternative pest-management techniques that reduce environ-
mental impacts, and most present a menu of options, allowing growers
to do their own learning about them. These alternative practices fall into
two main categories: facilitating education about strategies to integrate
farming systems so as to reduce or eliminate pesticides, and demonstrat-
ing that new “softer” pesticides can effectively and economically be
substituted for disruptive and hazardous broad-spectrum pesticides.
The fourth strategy helps growers to think about opportunities for
managing their soils using agroecological principles. A majority of part-
