Mr. Ernest Aubee, Head of Agriculture Division, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission presented agroecology as one of the ways to ensure food security, sustenance of the people’s health and the environment. In a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria, he described agroecology as the application of the science of ecology to agricultural systems that seeks to develop an ecological structure that does not need external inputs.

 “Poor agricultural productivity, poor management of agro-ecological resources for agricultural production, over-reliance on non-renewable resources for agricultural production lead to a shortage of food.’’

“Other limitations include, poor funding of the agricultural sector, inadequate knowledge on agroecological management, poor institutional capacity, coordination and networking and linkage between farmers and research institutions as well as climate change effects’’, he said.

Aubee called for the right policies and the implementation of strategies that would promote the development of Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) in the West African Region: “These policies must be backed by the right investments, regulatory framework, institutional arrangements and capacity development. Research on EOA is also lacking, so we must have a critical mass of researchers in our countries and include EOA in the curriculum of our tertiary educational institutions.’’, added the expert.