RE: Evaluating agroecology: what is your experience? | Eval Forward

Thank you very much Seda for interesting subject and for sharing the TAPE guideline.

I find the guideline very thorough and detailed. The tool does also give a definition of agroecology. I did appreciate that bees and pollinators were considered. 

From a technical point of view, I would have some personal addings:

1. I would combine the scored 0 and 1 cells for crops (page 17). If the crop covers 80% of land, it is "monoculture";

2. For exposure to pesticides, I think the evaluator should look into the pesticides in stock on farm or territory. Both quantities and storage methods impact environment and health. Therefore waste management should be included;

3. Soil micro-fauna is indicator of healthy soil and should be considered .

From my experience, farmers and technicians consider mostly water use efficiency, pesticide and fertilizers application (type and quantity), crop diversity and soil management.

I contributed to a proposal for a project evaluation where we added women empowerment (decision making) and youth employment as well as traditional knowledge. TAPE can be used as a reference for separating areas/farms in transition to agroecology from areas/farms where agroecology is fully implemented.

With my best regards

Malika