Eco-restructuring in general, and more so in the case of tropical agriculture, will have to involve much more than marginal improvements and mitigating measures recognized by many orthodox economists and politicians. Eco-restructuring is, or should be, about the deep changes required to advance towards sustainable development. Besides, efficiency gains can be offset by increases in the total volume of the activity if it grows faster than efficiency. Substitution changes can increase sustainability by replacing limited or environmentally damaging inputs with healthier, or less limited, alternatives. Substitution changes may involve replacing herbicides with mechanical weed control, or using legumes to replace fertilization with inorganic nitrogen.
Redesign changes are more fundamental and involve whole production systems.
In agriculture, the emphasis would be on cropping systems and farming systems as a whole. In some cases, even whole landscape systems should be redesigned. Redesign changes are likely also to incorporate efficiency and substitution changes. For example, changing from a mono-cultural grain production system to a multi year crop rotation system can involve numerous substitution and efficiency effects. The general approaches of efficiency, substitution, and redesign changes apply to agriculture as well as to industry and services.