Agroecology – Reconciling biodiversity and production in farming systems.
Farming systems are input-dependent production systems (Schiere, Lyklema, Schakel & Rickert, 1999), aiming at a maximization of yield and product quality, ideally with minimal environmental impact. However, focusing on yield or product quality alone can lead to unstable systems (Marten, 1988) prone to being severely affected by climatic extremes (Altieri, Nicholls, Henao & Lana, 2015) or pest outbreaks (Altieri & Nicholls, 2012; Urruty, Tailliez-Lefebvre & Huyghe, 2016).