A feminist economics perspective on the agroecology-food and nutrition security nexus

Abstract

This paper investigates how research documented and framed the agroecology-food and nutrition security (FNS)-nexus in Africa. Our first objective is to reveal the links research in Africa has established between agroecology and FNS. Our literature review of empirical studies located in African countries, published between 1996 to 2020, consolidates evidence that agroecology has contributed to food and nutrition security. Second, we question which pathways of influence of agroecology on FNS the selected papers chose to investigate. While neo-classical economics concentrates on production and on the level of embeddedness of the agricultural activity in the capitalist markets to solve the problem of FNS, feminist economics offers new perspectives by addressing both production and the reproduction processes necessary to support production. Our analysis of literature is structured around the feminist economics concepts of physical, household, and social reproduction, as well as agency. We show that activities of reproduction linked to agroecology at the level of households and territories are scarcely documented in the investigated papers, while the documentation of the contribution of agroecology to FNS via physical reproduction activities (e.g. soil fertility) dominates. We then propose a conceptual framework linking agroecology, reproduction activities, and FNS based and also illustrate the postulate that sustainable production practices such as agroecological practices are intrinsically linked to the social activities of farmers and cultural contexts in which farmers are embedded. Viewing agroecology both as a social and ecological process concomitantly will reveal numerous pathways between agroecology and food security and nutrition and agroecology's full value. • Rural households in Africa maintain themselves with alternative systems such as agroecology. • Research linking agroecology to food security focuses mainly on physical reproduction at the landscape. • Agroecology improves food security status through social and household reproduction. • Research analyzing social and household reproduction as part of households' socio-economic decisions is scarce.