Long-term experiments on agroecology and organic farming: the Italian long-term experiment network

Understanding and managing organic agroecosystems require long-term monitoring and assessment. Long-term experiments (LTEs) can be considered patrimonial research facilities enabling the long-term study of the complex biological and ecological processes on which cropping system functioning is based on. As the questions addressed in organic agriculture research have broadened–ncluding the aspects of food security in the context of resilience to and mitigation of climate change–the engagement of a diversity of stakeholders into the development of research objectives should also be promoted. Thus, LTEs can be field laboratories in participatory research and in the activity of checking innovations, allowing the continuous comparison and exchange of information among the operators of the organic value chains and the national and international scientific communities. In this sense, the development of organic LTEs is sharing the trajectories with agroecological approach, which takes into account, in a broader view, the food system scale. In this chapter, the experience carried out in Italy for organic LTEs networking is presented as a scaling-up strategy from the local to the national scale. A network of organic LTEs designed in accordance with the agroecological principles can represent, indeed, a powerful research infrastructure to contribute to the joint development of interdisciplinary research in organic farming and agroecology.