Why Agroecosystems? An ‘agroecosystem’ is simply described in the Oxford English Dictionary as an ecosystem on agricultural land. More comprehensively an agroecosystem is a spatially and functionally complete unit of agricultural activity, including both living and non-living components as well as their interactions. This may be at the scale of a whole farm or a acre of barley. Each ‘unit’ of agriculture will involve an intricate mix of soil, water, air, plants and animals, people, inputs, climate, habits and culture, including policy. Human activity lies at the very core of agroecosystems which encompass the area influenced by that activity affected by changes to plant and animal species assemblages, changes to energy flows, and/or the net nutrient balance. This means any farming system is not only complex and variable but potentially extremely dynamic and highly interesting! Agroecosystems Ltd understands that no one part can be treated completely in isolation from the rest of the unit and offers support to farms, estates, crofts or small-holdings on sustainable agriculture from a whole farm approach. This is what is also known as Agroecosystems Analysis which considers economic, ecological, political and social/cultural influence with equal weight. This can mean fighting your corner in policy to undertaking survey & monitoring, form filling or offering farm labour relief services to let you fight your own corner (…or take a well deserved break) and just about everything in between. Contact Agroecosystems Ltd for more info or to make an enquiry. |