Food Sovereignty and Agroecology in Conflict Zones: Building Resilience Amidst Crisis

ABSTRACT

Armed conflict disrupts agricultural production, displaces farming communities, degrades natural resources, and weakens local institutions, thereby intensifying food insecurity and dependence on humanitarian assistance. This review examined how food sovereignty and agroecology can jointly strengthen food‐system resilience, community self‐reliance, and peacebuilding in conflict‐affected settings. A qualitative narrative review was conducted using peer‐reviewed articles, institutional reports, and case studies published between 2012 and 2025 and retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Evidence was synthesized thematically around conflict‐related food‐system disruption, local control of food resources, agroecological practices, implementation barriers, and recovery strategies. Findings from Colombia, Palestine, Syria, and Somalia indicate that community‐led agroecology, including crop diversification, seed saving, agroforestry, water conservation, organic soil management, and local market development, can improve food availability, restore ecological functions, preserve traditional knowledge, strengthen livelihoods, and rebuild social cohesion. However, insecurity, displacement, contested land tenure, weak governance, inadequate financing, damaged infrastructure, and limited technical capacity constrain implementation and scale‐up. The review concludes that integrating food sovereignty with agroecology offers a context‐sensitive pathway for addressing immediate food needs while supporting long‐term ecological recovery, economic autonomy, and conflict‐sensitive development. Governments, humanitarian agencies, and development partners should embed agroecology in post‐conflict recovery policies, secure equitable land and resource rights, strengthen farmer cooperatives and extension systems, finance locally led initiatives, rebuild markets and rural infrastructure, and establish participatory monitoring frameworks that prioritize women, displaced people, indigenous groups, and smallholder farmers across affected regions.