Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity into Agricultural Production and Management to Minimize the Use of Agrochemicals. Technical Guidance Document

Agriculture is central to human well-being and sustainable development. However, essentially every statement on the future of agriculture acknowledges that a transformation is needed in the way the sector is conducted. Agriculture has to achieve the dual and interrelated goals of food and environmental security while simultaneously increasing production to meet global food demands.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are at the heart of many solutions for sustainable increases in agricultural productivity that not only deliver better outcomes for food and nutrition security but also reduce externalities of production. The environment-agriculture discussion is shifting from a polarized debate of trade-offs to a discussion of mutually supporting agendas.

Conventional high-input agriculture, where yields have been increased largely by simplifying landscapes, adding more external inputs and increasing mechanization, is already struggling as a model for sustainability. But in many parts of the developing world, conventional high-input agriculture has not taken hold – and has little chance of doing so – owing to external resource input limitations.

A strategy to achieve sustainable agricultural productivity increases will have to do more than simply modify existing techniques. A successful strategy will be the outcome of novel approaches in designing agro-ecological systems where management is sensitive to the local resource base and the existing environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Fundamental to such a strategy is the better management of soils and landscapes as ecosystems.

Mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem services into agricultural production – and providing alternative options to unsustainable agricultural practices such as the overuse of external inputs (e.g. agrochemicals) – is a part of FAO ’s work to increase and improve provision of goods and services from agriculture, forestry and fisheries in a sustainable manner. 

This Technical Document provides guidance on integrating agriculture into National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) to address selected Aichi Biodiversity Targets that are integral to agriculture (e.g. Targets 7, 13 and 14) and to build synergies with measures to eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in agricultural production systems.