This factsheet introduces the ecological approach to organic farming, changes that are necessary to implement the approach, expected benefits, and provides a few examples of recommended systems for the tropics. The information is based on long-term experiments and on-farm research conducted in the scope of three projects across different countries in Africa, as well as Bolivia and India.
The products are intended for use by African farmers, advisors, teachers and students.

The research is published in Science Advanced. Enhancing biodiversity in cropping systems is suggested to promote ecosystem services, thereby reducing dependency on agronomic inputs while maintaining high crop yields. We assess the impact of several diversification practices in cropping systems on above- and belowground biodiversity and ecosystem services by reviewing 98 meta-analyses and performing a second-order meta-analysis based on 5160 original studies comprising 41,946 comparisons between diversified and simplified practices.

Although hemp cultivation is increasingly perceived as a promising option in terms of crop diversification, especially in semi-arid conditions such as in the Mediterranean region, its adoption remains limited thus constraining the development of hemp value chains at a larger scale. Our objective was to explore suitable conditions, at farm and downstream levels, for organic hempseed oil production in Sicily, taking on an action-research perspective that involves local actors.