Agroecology: a new research and development paradigm for world agriculture

Altieri, M.A., 1989. Agroecology: a new research and development paradigm for world agriculture. Agric. Ecosystems Environ., 27: 37-46. In its several conceptions, agroecology has emerged as a scientific approach used to study, di-agnose and propose alternative low-input management of agroecosystems. Solving the sustaina-bility problem of agriculture is the primary aim of agroecology. It is maintained here, however, that simply focusing on the technological spects of the problem, even though promoted technol-ogies are low-input, obscures the fundamental problems that lie behind the technology-induced environmental crisis and rural poverty affecting the agricultural regions of the world. Agroecology can provide the ecological guidelines to point technological development in the right direction, but in the process, technological issues must assume their corresponding role within a strategy of rural development that incorporates social and economic problems