Agroecology emphasizes the use of ecological principles to design and manage sustainable and resilient farming systems. In a drylands context, agroecology addresses many challenges such as irrigation load, biodiversity loss and soil degradation by conserving resources and improving the well-being of farmers and rural communities.

In an agroforestry context, landowners might, for example, plant trees alongside crops, integrate trees into pastures, or create forest gardens (food forests). Agroforestry on the small farm is useful because it can increase productivity, soil health and erosion control, and typically reduces the amount of chemical/fossil inputs needed for farming, reducing costs. Agroforestry can also provide the small producer with additional income streams while improving their resilience to changing weather patterns and market fluctuations.

Keyline design is a land-management technique that utilizes the shape of the land to optimize the flow and distribution of water on a property. The main goal of keyline design is to increase the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil and to decrease it's transit time through the soil. This is achieved by using specific techniques like subsoiling patterns and water catchment structures. 

Keyline design is particularly useful on small farms because it can improve the efficiency of water use and increase productivity in dryland regions with low rainfall.

Nature wastes nothing but heat. An integrated farm system can and should be a sustainable and regenerative system that mimics local patterns of nutrient and energy flows, reduces the use of external inputs and lessens reliance on an external supply web such as fossil fuels.

We center closed-loop integrated farm systems in our designs, where the waste byproducts from one process can be used as inputs for another process. This approach can an be applied to various types of production, but it always attempts to mimic natural ecosystems.