Agri-food systems are increasingly exposed to environmental, economic, and social challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and growing territorial inequalities. In this context, agroecology is increasingly recognised as a transformative paradigm integrating ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions within broader processes of food-system transition. Within the PRIMA AgrEcoMed project, 24 Italian agroecological initiatives led by women and young farmers were analysed to explore their contribution to agroecological transition processes in Mediterranean rural areas. The study adopts a qualitative multiple-case study approach and evaluates the selected initiatives through the framework of the 13 Principles of Agroecology proposed by the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, organised into three operational axes: improving resource efficiency, strengthening resilience, and ensuring social responsibility and fairness. The results show that the analysed initiatives combine ecological farming practices with processes of multifunctionality, territorial networking, knowledge co-creation, short supply chains, and community engagement. The findings suggest that several initiatives move beyond input-reduction strategies associated with “weak agroecology” and display characteristics consistent with stronger agroecological pathways based on territorial embeddedness, collective learning, and the reorganisation of relationships between production, consumption, and local communities. The paper highlights the relevance of agroecology not only as an environmentally sustainable farming approach, but also as a broader socio-ecological and territorial transition process, as well as the importance of policy frameworks to support territorial agroecological systems.

The agroecological transition represents a key challenge for Mediterranean agricultural systems affected by demographic decline, agricultural contraction, land abandonment, and production reorganisation. This study analyses rural-landscape transformations in the Lucanian sector of the Murge-Alto Bradano Agroecological District through the lens of socio-ecological systems and landscape agroecology. A convergent mixed-methods case-study design was adopted, integrating agricultural census, land-use and livestock data, institutional information on organic farming, GIS analysis of historical rural infrastructures, and a survey of farms belonging to the district. The results show that agricultural contraction is accompanied by selective land-use reorganisation and changing relationships between crop and livestock systems. The diffusion of organic farming and specific production dynamics may support agroecological pathways, although they cannot be considered direct evidence of transition. Historical rural infrastructures highlight the persistence of agro-pastoral territorial patterns, while farmers’ perceptions reveal the dynamic and multidimensional nature of landscape change. The study provides an integrated framework for analysing Mediterranean rural landscapes by distinguishing observed transformations, signals compatible with agroecological pathways, enabling conditions, and evidence that remains insufficient to demonstrate transition outcomes.