Yellow Pages
Agro-Ecology
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Colofon: Published February 2016, Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Š Jelleke de Nooy van Tol. You are free to use and copy text from this book as long as you refer to this document and the author. First published in Dutch, November 2013, titled HEEL DE WERELD, by Jan van Arkel Publishing House, in collaboration with the Netwerk for Vital Agriculture and Food, NVLV, Netherlands. This book is part of a series by the same author: 1. Transition to AgrpEcology, for a food secure world 2. Yellow Pages for AgroEcology, worldwide 3. Transition to Argoeecology- how can we do it, how to support it? 3. Twentyfive examples of frontrunners in the New Normal agriculture Contact: Issuu.com/jellekeforagroecology www.jellekedenooy.nl info@jellekedenooy.nl
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Contents 1 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14
A soiled reputation ......................................................................................... 9 Effective micro-organisms (EM).................................................................... 10 The Global Soil Forum/IASS .......................................................................... 10 IFPRI .............................................................................................................. 10 ISRIC .............................................................................................................. 10 Save our Soils ................................................................................................ 11 Summer of Soil, August 2013........................................................................ 11 SoCo .............................................................................................................. 11 The Fertile Grounds Initiative ....................................................................... 11 The Global Soil Partnership........................................................................... 12 The Soil Association ...................................................................................... 12 The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) .................................................. 12 The Soil Resolution........................................................................................ 12 The No Till Association .................................................................................. 12
3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA............................................. 18
Buen Vivir ...................................................................................................... 18 CLADES .......................................................................................................... 18 Costa Rica ...................................................................................................... 18 Community Agro-ecology Network (CAN) .................................................... 18 Seeds of Passion............................................................................................ 19
5 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11
ASIA ......................................................................................... 15
Angoc ............................................................................................................ 15 Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes ......................... 15 APNAN........................................................................................................... 15 MSSRF ........................................................................................................... 15 The Peoples’ Science Institute. ..................................................................... 16 Seeds for Change .......................................................................................... 16 SWI - System for Wheat Intensification ........................................................ 16
4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5
Emerging movements towards agro-ecology........................... 6 Emerging initiatives for a healthy soil ...................................... 9
AFRICA ..................................................................................... 20
CAADP ........................................................................................................... 20 Grow Africa ................................................................................................... 20 Heifer ............................................................................................................ 20 Farming systems in Africa - mitigation the old new way .............................. 21 Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), Ethiopia ................................. 21 Maputo Earth Market ................................................................................... 22 MERET ........................................................................................................... 22 PELUM ........................................................................................................... 23 SRI, System of Rice Intensification ................................................................ 23 Songhai.......................................................................................................... 24 Thousand Kitchen Gardens in Africa ............................................................. 24
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6 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5
Green Planet ................................................................................................. 25 Holistic Management International .............................................................. 25 Organic Consumers Organisation ................................................................. 25 Sustainable-Food-Systems Real Estate Foundation ..................................... 26 Wild Farm Alliance ........................................................................................ 26
7 7.1 7.2
EUROPE ................................................................................... 28
Platform ABC ................................................................................................. 28 British Ecological Society, Agricultural Ecology Group ................................. 28 (The) European Food Declaration ................................................................. 28 Friends of the Earth Europe .......................................................................... 29 Food Otherwise............................................................................................. 30 The Network Vital Agriculture and Food ...................................................... 30 PAN Europe ................................................................................................... 30 The province of Drenthe ............................................................................... 31 Wervel ........................................................................................................... 31
9 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 9.18 9.19 9.20 9.21 9.22 9.23 9.24 9.25 9.26 9.27
AUSTRALIA .............................................................................. 27
Natural Sequence Farming ........................................................................... 27 Regenerative Farming ................................................................................... 27
8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9
NORTH AMERICA .................................................................... 25
WORLDWIDE ........................................................................... 32
The Biodiversity Fund ................................................................................... 32 IFOAM ........................................................................................................... 32 Biodiversity International ............................................................................. 32 CAAANZ ......................................................................................................... 32 Canadian Foodgrains Bank ............................................................................ 32 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) ................................................................... 33 Conservation agriculture .............................................................................. 33 EcoAgriculture Partners (2004)..................................................................... 34 Fairfood International ................................................................................... 34 Forum for Indigenous People ....................................................................... 34 The Future We Want .................................................................................... 34 GIAHS ............................................................................................................ 35 Groundswell International ............................................................................ 35 International Society of Tropical Foresters .................................................. 36 International Sustainable Seed Development (ISSD).................................... 36 La Via Campesina (LVC) ................................................................................. 36 Landscapes for People, Food and Nature ..................................................... 36 EcoAgriculture Partners ................................................................................ 37 Palm Oil Platform .......................................................................................... 37 Permaculture ................................................................................................ 38 Prolinnova ..................................................................................................... 39 Slow Food ...................................................................................................... 39 The Sustainable Landscapes Partnership (SLP)............................................. 40 The Terra Madre Network ............................................................................ 40 UN: Rethinking is necessary! ........................................................................ 40 United Nations in 2013 ................................................................................. 41 The Zero Hunger Challenge .......................................................................... 41 4|Page
10 Emerging Knowledge & Technologies for Agro-Ecology ........ 43 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 10.9 10.10 10.11 10.12 10.13 10.14 10.15 10.16 10.17 10.18 10.19 10.20 10.21 10.22 10.23 10.24 10.25 10.26 10.27 10.28 10.29 10.30 10.31 10.32
Communicating ecology: Improving the traditional journal model ............. 44 Cattle husbandry, cause or solution for the climate crisis? ......................... 44 Carbon sequestration ................................................................................... 44 CGIAR Challenge Programme ....................................................................... 45 Conference October 2012 - UNEP ................................................................ 45 Conference on Agro-Ecology September 15, 2015 in Cuba ......................... 45 Cuba-U.S. Agro-Ecology Network (CUSAN)................................................... 46 Enhancing Agricultural Biodiversity .............................................................. 46 FAO Symposium 2014 ................................................................................... 46 Food Otherwise ........................................................................................... 47 Heterogeneous farms are an advantage in rural development ................. 48 ‘Holistic Science’ study ................................................................................ 48 How to feed and not to eat our world? ...................................................... 48 IASS / GIZ/ German Cooperation & Development ...................................... 49 IIED, International Institute for Environment and Development ............... 49 ISIS ............................................................................................................... 50 A workshop in Mozambique in May 2015 .................................................. 50 Rodale Institute ........................................................................................... 51 The annual international course on Agro-Ecology...................................... 51 Sustainable Inclusive Investments in Agriculture ....................................... 51 System of Rice Intensification (SRI)............................................................. 52 The Scientific Council for Integrated Sustainable Food and Agriculture .... 52 Sustainable International Agriculture ......................................................... 52 Shaping the Future of Agriculture............................................................... 52 The potential to prevent a world food crisis exists! ................................... 53 The current system must be overhauled .................................................... 53 Transformation of research approaches .................................................... 53 The protein transition ................................................................................. 54 The Trews .................................................................................................... 54 Climate-resilient agriculture by smallholder farmers ................................. 54 Urban food policy ........................................................................................ 55 Revitalisation of smallholder farms ............................................................ 55
11 Emerging books, movies and debates on agro-ecology ......... 56 11.1 11.2
BOOKS ........................................................................................................... 56 MOVIES ......................................................................................................... 61
12 Debate and Fora ..................................................................... 64 13 References .............................................................................. 66
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1
Emerging movements towards agro-ecology
“Agro-ecology is the structural answer for future agriculture.” This statement was made by the IAASTDi, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, in its report Agriculture at a Crossroads, 20071, based on all the investigations carried out all over the world by this group of well-known scientists. Subsequently the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter,ii stated in 2010 that agro-ecological agriculture can generate an increase in agricultural production and food security, as well as an increase in income for small farmers, while providing a barrier against genetic erosion, resulting from industrial agriculture. In Europe in 2012, Andrea Ferrante2 gave a passionate speech on small agro-ecological farmers: “It is impossible to see Europe without small farmers and entrepreneurs! Their essential function in guaranteeing food security is finally recognised. On top of this they play a central role in the dynamic development of all the European landscapes and regions. Furthermore they put a low claim on the Commons, the communal natural resources of this world. They are essential. But we still lack a coherent policy to support these small farmers and their function.” Through research, Prof. Jan Douwe van der Ploeg (Wageningen University) and Prof. Jules Pretty (London) show us that at least smallholder farmers are producing 75% of the world’s food. Supporting those smallholder farmers to grow food more sustainably and to double their harvests by better access to inputs like compost, seed, tools, and agro-ecology practices, will solve the food problem. For the February 2016 conference in Wageningen, Netherlands, the organising team states that, “Agro-ecology is becoming the new normal.” In my book Transition to Agriculture, for a food secure world’3 you can read how, all over the world, the change to agro-ecology is taking place and how each of us can support this transition, be it as an agricultural professional, a consumer, a donor agency, a researcher, a policy maker, a decision maker, an investor, a food processor, a student. You can download the book from: issuu.com/jellekeforagroecology Worldwide emergence of agro-ecology. From around 2005 onwards, in increasing tempo and all over the world, initiatives come up. These yellow pages present a large selection of all those 1
http://www.unep.org/dewa/Assessments/Ecosystems/IAASTD/tabid/105853/Defa 2 by ECVC, European Coordination Via Campesina 3 You can download the book from issuu.com/jellekeforagroecology
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positive initiatives promoting agro-ecology. All of them have emerged between 2000 and 2016. Discover how surprising they are and how they aim to strengthen regional self-sufficiency and social justice all over the world! Join! All movements need support and strengthening, if they have not been accepted as the ‘New Normal’. Do not hesitate to join them, or to act as a catalyst for these movements. Underground movements materialising. It is impressive how many emerging initiatives have already materialised! Both long-standing, traditional and new organisations have started working in an integrated way; they now become visible on a world-wide scale. We see them popping up at local, regional and national level, in books, movies and on the web. There are organisations involved in the restoration of the soil; dissemination of knowledge on agro-ecological agriculture; restoration of closed-loop cycles in agriculture, regionalisation and food sovereignty. They are organised as NGO’s; societal initiatives; businesses; in government policies; and at centres of knowledge. Acceleration Some innovative movements for more sustainable living and working started already in the 1980s. At that time, transition had not yet been defined as such, yet some early starts for real change were made. Between 2000 and 2010 many sustainability initiatives started. However, during this period most of these innovative movements remained underground; it is only since 2010-2012 that they have become visible. I here refer to the quadrant of Ken Wilber, in which he explains how change starts in the invisible ‘I’ and ‘We’, and only becomes visible after a while, when the changed attitude materialises in the personal actions and the physical world, showing other ways of decision making, organising, dealing with our natural resource and doing agriculture.4 It looks as if acceleration is taking place between 2012 and 2016. Notably in the period between 2012 and 2016, the discussions and agendas directed towards the New Normal way of living and working, including the transition to AgroEcology, became visible; people and organisations are making the change from ‘I’ to ‘We’, they make the change to context-awareness, to social responsible entrepreneurship and to working along new economic and integrated principles. In 2013, food and its sustainable production became the centre of the public debate. Also in 2013, seemingly all of a sudden, attention for healthy soil, urban agriculture and permaculture increases everywhere in the world.
4
See the book Transition to Agro-ecology, chapter 8. Transition
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It is encouraging to see how many people and organisations are involved. Suddenly they have become visible as the main stream of the New Normal. We need only a little more to arrive at the Tipping Point. This Yellow Pages document starts with movements for a healthy soil. Then it continues with initiatives and organisations for agro-ecology by continent: Asia; South & Central America; Africa; North America; Australia; Europe; and worldwide. It concludes with a section about interesting knowledge institutes, courses and technologies on agro-ecology, including books, films and debates. Of course you can find all in alphabetical order as well. Am I missing someone? Do you find an organisation missing? That is quite possible, as this document shows the organisations that I have come across, but I could not possibly capture them all. So I would like us to make this a living, dynamic document, accessible for all who want to find out more about the movements to agro-ecology. I plan to update these Yellow Pages on a monthly basis, so do send me the name and website of your organisation, or an important book or conference result, and possibly some text to explain the purpose and activities. Please send your info to info@jellekedenooy.nl
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2
Emerging initiatives for a healthy soil
From 2010 onwards, a rapidly increasing number of people and organisations started to work on the restoration of soils and soil fertility; departments for soil that had disappeared were reinstalled, and new movements started. All those organisations aim for a healthy soil, improved carbon content (C/N ratio) and the rehabilitation of the coherence of agroecological agricultural landscapes. Often they are not aware of each other’s existence or activities. Yet they contribute to an ever-stronger movement for fertile soils and agro-ecological agriculture. According to the FAO (2013)5, 90% of our food is grown in soils, and 25% of our soils have been so severely damaged that it no longer contributes towards food production. Ten million hectares of fertile soil are lost every year, approximately 30 soccer fields per minute. Agricultural practices are responsible for 75% of this soil erosion. The FAO, the European Union and others acknowledge the crucial function of the soil and sounded the alarm bell (in 2013) on the negative impact of unsustainable agriculture and soil exploitation on our health and food security.6
2.1 A soiled reputation A soiled reputation; adverse impacts of mineral fertilizers in tropical agriculture.7 The idea that more fertilizer will produce higher yields is far too simplistic. On the contrary, industrial agricultural production is a major cause of lower soil fertility and rising soil degradation worldwide. The improper and disproportionate use of chemical fertilizers drives this trend. This study opposes the African Development Bank’s recommendations and offers a critical analysis of fertilizer subsidies. Instead, it focuses on various aspects of soil fertility. This is because the nature of soils in the tropics and subtropics present enormous challenges that must be faced when including fertilizer in a comprehensive soil management strategy. That is the only way to improve soil fertility and, ultimately, to rise yields. Fertile soils are amongst our most important resources worldwide. Healthy soils store water, are home to a large share of biodiversity, and store carbon. Fertilizer subsidy programmes ignore the challenges and potentials of agriculture that conserves the resources on which it depends. Only healthy soils will be able to meet the food requirements of the nine billion people in the future.8
5
http://www.summerofsoil.se/
6
FAO news 2013
7
Johannes Kotschi/AGRECOL – Association for AgriCulture and Ecology. Published by The Heinrich Böll Foundation and WWF Germany, Berlin, April 2013 8 http://www.boell.de/en/content/soiled-reputation-adverse-impacts-mineralfertilizers-tropical-agriculture
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2.2 Effective micro-organisms (EM) EMs were introduced in the 1980s by Prof. Dr. Teruo Higa. He developed a food production method in Japan without using harmful substances. He cultivates and uses a mix of micro-organisms to improve soil fertility, to suppress pathogenic microbes and increase the efficiency of organic matter. The technology has proven to be very effective, and has many followers all over the world.9
2.3 The Global Soil Forum/IASS Founded in 2009, IASS10 is an international interdisciplinary hybrid between a research institute and a Think Tank, located in Potsdam, Germany. The publicly funded institute promotes research and dialogue between science, politics, and society on developing pathways to global sustainability. The Global Soil Forum is dedicated to achieving responsible land governance and sustainable soil management worldwide. IASS provides the secretariat. There is an active forum for discussion and a debate among various stakeholders. The Global Soil Forum organised the first Global Soil Week in Berlin in 2013, which was so successful that it has since become an annual conference.
2.4 IFPRI In 2000 the International Food Policy Research Institute started a serious action to promote integrated nutrient management, to improve soil fertility and to increase sustainable agro-eco agriculture.iii The institute’s justification for this action is based on its analysis of the serious degradation of soils world-wide: 45 million hectares in Africa, 15 million hectares in Asia and 60 million hectares in South America are degraded in various degrees and have thus become unsuitable for agriculture. These soils, however, can still be restored, and erosion and degradation of still productive soils can be prevented, which is the main aim of this action.
2.5 ISRIC World Soil Information is an independent international scientific institute, based in Wageningen, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1964 by the International Soil Science Society (ISSS) and UNESCO. Their mission is to supply information on soils to the international community in order to tackle crucial questions and problems. ISRIC is also the World Data Centre for Soils (WDC-Soils). ISRIC works in three priority areas: soil data and soil mapping; application of soil data in global development issues; and training and education. Apart from tailor made trainings, ISRIC organises a ‘Spring School’ once a year for both new and experienced soil scientists who wish 9
Effective Microorganisms- http://www.emearth.com/NewFiles/CropsSoil.html IASS, www.iass-potsdam.de/en; info@iass-potsdam.de
10
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to increase or refresh their knowledge about diverse soil science related topics, including advances in soil geo-informatics. The 5-days ‘Spring School’ is organised in Wageningen and includes a visit to the World Soil Museum. Topics may vary year by year and are chosen from the list of training modules.
2.6
Save our Soils
On 29 May 2013, a launching conference for the Save Our Soils movement was organised in Berlin, Germany. To counter the industrial agriculture movement, Save Our Soils recommends sustainable agricultural practices, efficient water use and conservation agriculture: restorative agriculture, recycling agriculture or agro-ecology.
2.7 Summer of Soil, August 2013 Motivated by the urgency of the statement of the FAO (earlier in this chapter), Imagineers Sweden organised ‘The Summer of Soil’ in August, 2013 in Järna, Sweden. ‘Summer of Soil’ is a 5-week, multidisciplinary accelerator programme aiming at waking up and inspiring a movement to restore and guard the living soil. The programme comprises of a series of practical courses, an exhibition of regenerative methods and the ‘Living Soil Forum’, a five-day conference to turn collective decisions into action. The exhibition presented the crucial processes in Soil biology, which agricultural practices are beneficial to the soil and soil regeneration, both in rural and urban areas. There was a pavilion presenting small-scale solutions, a walk along examples of sustainable agriculture and the ‘2000 Square Meter Project’, which presented the ecological footprint of a human being.
2.8 SoCo The Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation project (SoCo) carried out an inventory on which approaches could be followed in Agriculture to restore soil fertility.iv Conservation Agriculture or restorative agriculture (no or less tillage, continuous soil cover, crop rotation) and organic agriculture (no chemical herbicides and insecticides, closed nutrient cycles) are the recommended approaches.
2.9 The Fertile Grounds Initiative This initiative started in 2014 by some inspired soil professionals in the Netherlands, from ZOA (NGO), Soil&More (company) and Alterra (research Institute Wageningen UR Netherlands). Their concept is to bring balance in demand and supply of various nutrients within a region11.
11
https://www.wageningenur.nl/en/article/fertile-grounds-initiative.htm
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2.10 The Global Soil Partnership While the availability of soil is such a natural phenomenon, the fact that it is a finite natural resource is often ignored. For this reason the FAO, together with a number of other organisations established the Global Soil Partnershipv (GSP) in 2012. This worldwide soil partnership wants to improve soil management at a global scale. The United Nations have declared December 5th as International Soil Day, while 2015 will be the International Year of Soils.vi
2.11 The Soil Association The Soil Association in the United Kingdom is a well-known nationwide organisation that advocates for a healthy ecological (especially organic) approach to agriculture. They focus on a healthy soil. This is realised by Low Carbon Farming: a reduction of carbon dioxide, storage of carbon dioxide in the soil and an increase of the sustainability of the farming enterprise.
2.12 The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)vii This is a progressive international scientific movement, with 6000 members, which wants to disseminate (practical) knowledge on soils in order to maintain and protect our soils worldwide. In 2012 they launched a campaign “I
2.13 The Soil Resolution “An international resolution on soil is required as a basis for legislation on the utilisation of agricultural land.” This statement was made by Boris Boincean and David Dent, scientists and co-authors of The Black Earth (2009). They argue that agro-ecological practices, such as crop rotation, contribute considerably to a way of crop production ,which is less exhaustive and maintains soil productivity. Boris Boincean is professor ecological agricultural systems and director of the research centre, Selectia, in Balti, Moldova. He supports his statements with the results of 30 years of integrated research, different crops, different crop rotations and irrigated and rain-fed agriculture. He concluded that crop rotation and organic management give the best results.
2.14 The No Till Association The worldwide ‘No Till Association’ is a federation of organisations promoting a no tillage approach. During the GCARD2 conference of 2012, the Brazilian Ivo Mello presented a review of the activities of this federation. The main conclusion was that an increase in food production 12 | P a g e
could be attributed to an increase of carbon fixation and a reduction of eutrophication of the soil.
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Movements for Agro-Ecology
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3
ASIA
3.1 Angoc ANGOC is a coalition of Asian NGO’s, located in Quezon City, the Philippines, aiming to reform landscape and rural development. This coalition was founded in 1979 and consists of 20 national and regional networks, working for food security, transformation of existing agricultural practices into sustainable agro-ecological agriculture, participatory management and rural development.
3.2 Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) in the Asia-Pacific region is effectively promoted and facilitated through novel partnerships among NARS and other related organizations so that it contributes to sustainable improvements in the productivity of agricultural systems and to the quality of the natural resource base that underpins agriculture, thereby enhancing food and nutrition security, economic and social well being of communities and the integrity of the environment and services it provides.
3.3 APNAN The Asia Pacific Natural Agriculture Network (APNAN) in Bangkok, Thailand, was founded to promote scientific research into Effective microorganisms (EM) and Kyusei Nature Farming in Asia. The network also develops training programmes for education and technology. APNAN has a wide network on other continents, as well.
3.4 MSSRF The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) is a non profit, NGO trust based in Chennai, India. It develops and promotes strategies for economic growth that directly target increased employment of poor women in rural areas. Their methods maximize the use of science and technology for equitable and sustainable social development and environmental stability. The MSSRF logo signifies continuity and change, invoking the DNA model of open-ended, many-sided, and continuous evolution. MSSRF was founded in 1988 by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, who is also the chairman of the foundation. In 1970, C.V. Raman, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, urged Swaminathan to start an autonomous research centre to realize his goals of sustainable development, which he now terms the ‘Evergreen Revolution’. In 1988, after receiving the World Food Prize, Swaminathan used the US$200,000 prize to start the MSSRF. Swaminathan also currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology and is chairman of 15 | P a g e
the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security of India.
3.5 The Peoples’ Science Institute. The world record yield for paddy rice production is not held by an agricultural research station or by a large-scale farmer from the United States, but by Sumant Kumar who has a farm of just two hectares in Darveshpura village in the state of Bihar in Northern India. His record yield of 22.4 tons per hectare, from a one-acre plot, was achieved with what is known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI). To put his achievement in perspective, the average paddy yield worldwide is about 4 tons per hectare. Even with the use of fertilizer, average yields are usually not more than 8 tons.
3.6
Seeds for Change
While the government of Nepal is promoting improved and hybrid seeds, in 1998 the Nepalese NGO Local Initiatives for Biodiversity Research and Development (LI-BIRD) developed a method called ‘Participatory Four Cell analysis’, which enables communities to assess the status of their agricultural biodiversity. It visualises the amount of crop diversity available in a community and the varieties that might be at risk of being lost. The ‘Four Cell analysis’ consists of a matrix, with one axis mapping the number of farmers planting a specified variety and the other the size of the area in which the crop is grown. This method has gained worldwide recognition. It provides a basis for communities to manage their biodiversity, including seed production, expansion of areas planted with local varieties, breed purification, and processing and marketing of traditional and local food items. LI-BIRD has worked with over 11,000 farming households across Nepal, who are now managing their agrobiodiversity better as a result. This generates social, economic and environmental benefits. For example, local aromatic rice varieties such as Tilki and Kalonuniya were about to disappear, but thanks to community seed selection and enhancement, they have become commonly grown 12 varieties and people are now selling them at premium prices.
3.7 SWI - System for Wheat Intensification The extension of SRI practices to wheat, the next most important cereal crop after rice, was quickly seized upon by farmers and researchers in India, 12
For more information contact Pitambar Shrestha or Sajal Sthapit at Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD). Visit www.libird.org or e-mail: pitambar@libird.org or ssthapit@libird.org
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Ethiopia, Mali and Nepal. SWI was first tested in 2008 by the People’s Science Institute13 which works with farmers in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states of India. Yield estimates showed a 91% increase for unirrigated SWI plots over usual methods in rain fed areas, and an 82% increase for irrigated SWI. This has encouraged an expansion of SWI in these two states. The most rapid growth and most dramatic results have been in Bihar state of India, where 415 farmers, mostly women, tried SWI methods in 2008/09, with yields averaging 3.6 tons/ha, compared with 1.6 tons/ha using usual practices. The next year, 15,808 farmers used SWI with average yields of 4.6 tons/ha. In the past year, 2011/12, the SWI area in Bihar was reported to be 183,063 hectares, with average yields of 5.1 tons/ha. With SWI management, net income per acre from wheat has been calculated by the NGO PRADAN (www.pradan.net) to rise from Rs. 6,984 to Rs. 17,581, with costs reduced while yields increased. This expansion has been done under the auspices of the Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society, supported by the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.
13
(PSI, http://peoplesscienceinstitute.org),
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4
SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
4.1 Buen Vivir Buen Vivir (living well) is an age-old principle of the endemic peoples ofthe Andes and the Amazon area, like the Quechuas and the Aymaras. It involves the harmonious co-existence of mankind and nature. The farmer is the link between man and nature and meets the demands of society in a sustainable way.viii This has become a leading principle in various countries in Latin America. The Government of Ecuador, for instance, cooperates with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in a projectix whereby Buen Vivir principles have been included in the integrated landscape approach.
4.2 CLADES In 1989, twelve South American NGO’s founded CLADES14, convinced of the need for a new institutional arrangement for the intensification, strengthening and promotion of agro-ecological agriculture. Countries involved a.o. are Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. At the same time, CLADES aims to preserve traditional agricultural practices of smallscale farmers by merging small unproductive holdings into larger more sustainable and productive enterprises.x
4.3 Costa Rica In the Talamanca region of Costa Rica a cooperative of small organic farmers, in cooperation with the local community, has set up a system to monitor biodiversity, developed farmer training courses and an exchange of knowledge communication. At the same time they are trading in cocoa, an internationally important commodity. Crop diversification and preservation of bio-diversity contribute towards maintaining the traditional food production systems, the improvement of the living conditions of the farmers and the strengthening of their position in the world market.xi
4.4 Community Agro-ecology Network (CAN) CAN supports rural communities in Mexico and Central America with sustainable agricultural methods 14
Consorcio Latino Americano sobre AgroecologĂa y Desarrollo, the Latin American consortium for Agro-ecology and development.
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and integrated approaches with the aim to become self-sufficient. Targets of the CAN are (1) Action research –extend activities for food security to other regions (2) establish a multinational, intercultural network of young people in North and Central America to promote food security and food sovereignty and (3) empowerment15 of youth leaders to find a solution for the malnourishment and migration amongst young people. The last target is achieved by preservation and restoration of sustainable food cultures.
4.5 Seeds of Passion So-called ‘Seeds of Passion’ secures farmers’ access to environmentally and culturally appropriate seeds. Synergies between collective action, politics and science were put to work in Paraíba, Brazil. The establishment of a Seeds Network supported knowledge exchange, the conservation of agrobiodiversity and a growing political voice of farmers.
15
Empowerment means self strengthening, personal development and self realisation
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5
AFRICA
5.1 CAADP ‘Towards Enhancing Innovation Systems Performance in Smallholder African Agriculture’. Within the “New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a programme of the African Union, the ‘Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme’ (CAADP) was created that is entirely African-led and African-owned and represents African leaders' collective vision for agriculture in Africa. For example, agricultural reform in Africa aims for an annual growth rate of 6% in agriculture by 2015. CAADP has four pillars: 1) Sustainable land and reliable water control systems; 2) Private sector development, rural infrastructure, improved trade & market access; 3) Increasing food supply and reducing hunger; and 4) Agricultural research and dissemination of agricultural technology. Within this last pillar, CoS-SIS focuses on research on the impact of agricultural innovation systems approaches.
5.2
Grow Africa
In Africa in 2011, a ‘New Green Revolution’ came into existence, promoted by public and private investors; a revolution which respects community structures and small farmers. Grow Africa.16 Mention is made of leapfrogging: Africa has the advantage of a delayed development; because of that, harmful practices that were developed in the USA and Europe can be skipped and more beneficial approaches can be implemented immediately. “The earlier we start, the better” is the opinion of the Grow Africa Initiative of the World Economic Forum.xii
5.3 Heifer Heifer17 trains poor African families to become farmers. Donors fund a cow, sheep or chicken and the receiving families pass on the first-born calve or lamb to another family. In this way the receivers are transformed into donors and start developing an independent future. An important aspect of this project is that the vicious circle (no money no food no school no work no money) is broken and replaced by a sustainable local cycle. Some have reservations on this approach as the feeding needs of the animals are not always considered and the subsequent overgrazing leads to unwanted erosion.
16 17
https://www.growafrica.com/ Heifer, a Non Governemt Organisation. http://www.heifer.nl/
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5.4 Farming systems in Africa - mitigation the old new way Frederic Mousseau, policy director of the Oakland Institute, California, coordinated the research for the institute’s agro-ecology programme. His findings are based on 33 case studies in sub Saharan Africa 18: “Millions of farmers don’t need to adapt to climate change; they have done that already!” One example comes from Kenya (smallholder farmers switched to bio intensive agriculture, using 90% less water and 50-100% less purchased chemical fertilizers), another from Southern Africa (farmers switching from expensive and harmful maize mono cropping to conservation and regenerative farming practises), the next one from Ethiopia. The high biodiversity in the Gamo highlands of Ethiopia, which forms the basis of the local farmers’ traditional Enset (false banana) based agricultural system, allows them to easily adjust their farming practises to climate adaptations. Although African indigenous system are often perceived as backwards by central governments, they have a lot of learning to offer to the rest of the world when contemplating the challenges of climate change and food insecurity. Farmers in the drivers’ seat. This, and other success stories, are just a sample of what Africans are already doing to adapt to climate variations while preserving their natural resources, improving their livelihoods and food supply. What they have in common is that the farmers, including women farmers, are in the driver’s seat of their own development. Millions of farmers are local innovators who experiment to find the best solutions in relation to water availability, oil characteristics, landscapes, cultures, food habits and biodiversity. From high external to low external inputs. That is another common feature. Those farmers have switched from reliance on commercial seeds, synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides, the so-called conventional agriculture, to agro-ecological practises, the New Normal. The main inputs required here are people’s own energy and common sense, shared knowledge and of course respect for a sound use of natural resources.
5.5 Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), Ethiopia ISD’s mission (since 1990) is to raise the importance of using sustainable knowledge, practices and innovations in order to support and improve the livelihoods of local communities in Ethiopia. They work to incorporate the best of both traditional and modern knowledge through sharing experiences, open dialogue, research and training, based on genuine 18
http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/01agroecology-in-africa-mitigation-the-old-newway
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participation. One of the four topics they focus on is the advancement of agro-ecology and agro-ecological practises. They aim to help raise crop yields for local food security and train farmers how to take good care of their soils.19
5.6 Maputo Earth Market The Maputo Earth Market proves that markets and agro-biodiversity can support each other. Like its counterparts in Austria, India and the United States, Africa’s first Earth Market taps into the rich, but often hidden, potential of local ecosystems and cultures. Traditional leafy vegetables, fruits, street food, fresh vegetables, liquors, jams and more are on display. In contrast to other urban market places, all the products are local, seasonal, organic or artisanal, and small scale family farmers man all of the stalls. Farmers appreciate the market as it enables them to by-pass intermediaries and sell their produce directly to consumers. Having a diverse range of seasonal and traditional vegetables and other foods is also valued by consumers. This encourages family farmers to plant a diversity of crops on their farm and maintain local varieties. The market is not merely a purchase point. It is also a meeting place for farmers and consumers. Farmers eagerly talk about how they cultivate their crops. They explain how traditional foods are prepared or delve into the nutritious value of certain foods. In this way local food cultures are shared and maintained. The Maputo Earth Market is a collective effort for food sovereignty, introduced by Slow Food, its local chapter Muteko Waho, Gruppo di Volontariato Civile, and the National Union of Mozambican Farmers.20
5.7 MERET Of the many projects for the improvement of food security and agriculture in Ethiopia, the participatory development of a watershed for food security, MERET, is a successful example. This watershed approach21 was a new concept in 2009. Water and food production have a strong interrelationship. In the MERET22 project local communities construct small retention dams, hand-dug wells, build water storage reservoirs, implement soil conservation measures and build terraces and irrigation networks. In less than ten years over 85,000 hectares of grass and farmland have been made productive again. This successful approach has improved food security and living conditions and contributes to a better functioning of ecosystems and biodiversity. 19
http://www.isd.org.et/
20
For more information contact Velia Lucidi at Slow Food International. E-mail: lucuiedi@slowfood.it 21 Implemented by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) 22 Meret means ‘the Earth’.
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5.8 PELUM Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Association (PELUM)23 is a network of civil society organisations and NGOs working with smallholder farmers in east, central and southern Africa. This regional network facilitates learning, networking, advocacy and lobbying for ecological land use and agriculture in Sub Saharan Africa. The association membership has grown from 25 pioneer members (in 1995) to over 250 memberorganisations in 2014. PELUM’s Kenyan chapter has 44 members. PELUM operates in 10 countries of East, central and southern Africa (South of the Sahara). In east Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia. In Central Africa: Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. In Southern Africa: South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana. What is PELUM doing? It promotes participatory ecological land use management practises. It builds the capacity of members and partners to respond appropriately to community needs as they work to empower the communities they work with It increases the visibility of small-scale farmers. It promotes sharing of information of development experiences, innovations and best practises. It strengthens linkages and collaboration through action learning among partners and members. It lobbies directly for change and formulation of policies in favour of smallholder farmers. It promotes seed security and hence food security among smallholder farmers. It promotes the use of indigenous food (programmes). It focuses on mainstreaming of gender and HIV/Aids campaigns in agriculture programmes. It offers consultancies.
5.9 SRI, System of Rice Intensification See also http://sri.ciifad.cornell.educ. The ideas and practices that constitute SRI were developed in Madagascar some 30 years ago, for rice. They are now being adapted to improve the productivity of a wide variety of other crops, like wheat, finger millet, tef and sugarcane. Producing more output with fewer external inputs may sound improbable, but it derives from a shift in emphasis from improving plant genetic potential via plant breeding, to providing optimal environments for crop growth. Using SRI methods, smallholding farmers in many countries are starting to get higher yields and greater productivity from their land, labor, seeds, water and
23
http://pelum.net/
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capital, with their crops showing more resilience to the hazards of climate change.24 Philosophically, SRI can be understood as an integrated system of plantcentered agriculture. Fr. Laulanié, who developed SRI thinking and practice during his 34 years in Madagascar, in one of his last papers, commented that he did this by learning from the rice plant; “the rice plant is my teacher”, he wrote. Each of the component activities of SRI has the goal of maximally providing whatever a plant is likely to need in terms of space, light, air, water, and nutrients. It also creates favorable conditions for the growth and prosperity of beneficial soil organisms in, on and around the plant. SRI thus presents us with the question: if one can provide, in every way, the best possible environment for plants to grow, what benefits and synergies will we see? Already approximately 4-5 million farmers around the world are using SRI methods with rice. The success of SRI methods can be attributed to many factors. They are low risk, they don’t require farmers to have access to any unfamiliar technologies, they save money on multiple inputs, while higher yields earn them more. Most important is that farmers can readily see the benefits for themselves.
5.10 Songhai An example of how local and regional agriculture in Africa can improve without changes in scale can be found at www.songhai.org. Here we see how sustainable small-scale agriculture has been developed while remaining innovative and resilient; they have their own strategy for sales, marketing and mechanisation. The movement was started in the 1980s by father, Godrey Nzamujo, and developed into a centre of activities. There are now five such centres in Benin and a couple in neighbouring countries.25
5.11 Thousand Kitchen Gardens in Africa Terra Madre26 communities have created Thousand Kitchen Gardens in schools, villages and urban fringes in 25 different African countries in the past 10 years. Meanwhile the international Slow Food networkxiii is collecting money in the rest of the world to establish more kitchen gardens.
24
Thakur et al 2009; Zhao et al 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCiUFzNfI5k 26 See also lower down in this chapter. Terra Madre is a world-wide network of food communities, CSA’s or other cooperations of producers and consumers. They aim for sustainable production of healthy food (generally agro-ecological or organic). Terra Madre is coordinated by Slow Food. 25
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6
NORTH AMERICA
6.1 Green Planet A non-profit consulting organization focused on sustainable agriculture, conservation and environmental stewardship. Their team of consultants, agriculturalists and business experts provide support and solutions to agricultural focused small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), NGOs and community based initiatives. They recently started the Green Seeds Initiatives. Through small seed grants, they encourage grass-root agriculture on a grand scale.
6.2 Holistic Management International This is an organisation27 in the USA that trains people to work their land in a holistic manner and become a more sustainable farmer. The mission is to educate people to manage land for a sustainable future. They accomplish this by motivating, connecting, supporting and training farmers, ranchers, and land stewards through the practise of holistic management, a whole farm/ranch planning system, that addresses and improves environmental health, sustains economic viability and enhances the quality of life of farm and ranch communities, (A new) Grazing 28 Philosophy What do grazers do in nature? Under natural conditions, grazers are nature's gardeners: their hooves create seed-to-soil contact, helping dormant seeds to germinate and establish; they break soil crusts that keep seeds from growing; they trample standing vegetation into mulch that protects the soil and keeps it moist; their guts act like living compost piles, turning vegetation into high-quality fertilizer; by pruning stale growth, they keep forage plants at peak production. Pruning a plant's top causes its roots to self-prune. These dead roots become new soil. It's an exquisitely balanced interplay of biological processes that let an estimated 60,000,000 bison build prairie soils up to 3 meters (9 feet) deep across the vast plains of North America. Today it supports millions of wildebeest, zebra, impala, and other game in East Africa.
6.3 Organic Consumers Organisation The organic29 consumers organisation (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit, campaigning for health, justice and sustainability. The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children’s health, corporate accountability, fair trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics. We are the only organisation in the US 27
http://holisticmanagement.org/ Thomas J. Elpel; http://managingwholes.com/grazing-soils.htm 29 https://www.organicconsumers.org/ 28
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focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation’s estimated 50 million organic and socially responsible consumers.
6.4 Sustainable-Food-Systems Real Estate Foundation In Canada, British Columbia, the Sustainable-Food-Systems Real Estate Foundation30 has expressed a particular interest in land use initiatives that remove barriers and/or contribute to new approaches and practices for sustainable food systems in BC. This includes projects involving land use planning, policy, regulation, design, mapping and feasibility studies that seek to advance more resilient food systems. Why? Sustainable food systems are a vital part of vibrant, healthy communities. In recent years, there has been rising concern about the resiliency of local food systems. Mounting oil prices, awareness of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and urban growth pressures on agricultural land have increased public concern. In response, there are a growing number of initiatives across British Columbia that address these challenges by helping create more sustainable food systems. A sustainable food system integrates production, processing, distribution, and consumption of food, and waste diversion, in ways that enhance community well-being at the local level. BC communities are facing challenges – such as climate change, rising oil prices, and development pressure on agricultural land – which affect food security. We fund initiatives that contribute to innovative approaches in land use policy and planning to support sustainable food systems. Community-based urban farming, like Integration of local food systems into community planning and urban design; strengthening the interrelationships between food systems, ecosystems and the built environment. Land access: Tools, policies and legal mechanisms to support access to land for all activities required in a sustainable food system. Regional food systems planning: Planning approaches that integrate production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste diversion of food in a region
6.5 Wild Farm Alliance The Wild farm Alliance is an alliance of nature farmers. “We envision a world in which community-based, ecologically managed farms and ranches gracefully meld into landscapes that accommodate the full range of native species and ecological processes.” Wild farms can be found in all shapes and sizes. They range from small wild gardens to 30
http://www.refbc.com/grants/sustainable-food-systems
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farms that are well integrated in the larger surrounding landscape. Their common element is the cooperation in the field of nature management and the responsiveness to nature. Some 90 organisations in North America have joined this alliance and thus combine food supply and nature management. www.wildfarmalliance.org.
7
AUSTRALIA
7.1 Natural Sequence Farming ‘Save our farmers and the world with natural cycle agriculture’, is the message of this approach. On 26 January 2011, Peter Andrews was awarded Australia’s highest distinction for the development of the Natural Sequence Farming approach. He was also appointed Honorary Member of the Carbon Farmers Hall of Fame, because of his activities for carbon fixation through agricultural practices; this is actually an element of the entire cycle approach. This award could become the turning point for a wider application of Natural Sequence Farming throughout Australia. More information at www.nsfarming.com.
7.2 Regenerative Farming Soils for Life is a movement in Australiaxiv that wants to promote integrated landscape management through sustainable agriculture. They call their approach regenerative farming. They are officially registered as environmental organisation. The Soils for Life programme31 is implemented in three stages: 1. Inventory, documentation, and promotion of the regenerative farming experiences already in existence. 2. Remove the largest obstructions for further development of regenerative farming. This also includes encouraging and initiate change in education and training. 3. Promote acceptation of the New Normal throughout Australia by setting the right example in combination with effective training for farmers, a change in government policy, support by agribusiness and consumers and creation of awareness with citizens.
31
http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/
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8
EUROPE
8.1 Platform ABC For Aarde (Earth), Boer (Farmer) and Consument (Consumer), was founded in July 2000. They are critical of the existing agricultural policy and lobby for sustainable and socially responsible food production and food sovereignty. At the European level they work through the European Platform for Food sovereignty.32 www.aardeboerconsument.nl.
8.2
British Ecological Society, Agricultural Ecology Group
Its mission: To be a forum for exchange of information between ecologists, conservationists, agricultural researchers, land managers and policy makers. To consider conservation in the farmed landscape, using ecological theory to address agricultural problems, economic and ecological sustainability of current farming systems, and the implications of agricultural policies. To do this, a) through meetings, workshops, field visits, an email bulletin board and a website; and b) through contact with other societies.33 See more at:
8.3 (The) European Food Declaration In 2010 a group of 21 eminent scientists from various European countries formulated a proposal for a new European Agricultural and Food Policy.xv The final report and the related budget can be found at 32
See also www.europeanfooddeclaration.org and www.nyelenieurope.net http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/getting-involved/special-interestgroups/agricultural-ecology/#sthash.Sip31tom.dpuf 33
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www.europeanfooddeclaration.org under ‘documents’. The internal European market was selected as a starting point, while the impact of the policy on consumers’ behaviour was assessed as well. It turned out that the income percentage spent on food would increase from 14 to 14.6% only. The new policy, including more emphasis on a greener environment, would cost the EU around 30 billion Euros instead of the current 55 billion Euros.
8.4 Friends of the Earth Europe34 Friends of the Earth, for the people for the planet, for the future. Over the past 50 years, our food system has become more globalised and more heavily dependent on cheap raw materials, chemical inputs and mechanisation. Big business has moved in, with control of our food increasingly concentrated in a handful of multinational corporations operating throughout the food chain. The social and environmental impacts of this system are devastating: small-scale farmers and food companies worldwide are driven out of business; obesity and food poverty are rife; while taxpayers and citizens foot the bill as one food crisis follows another. Meanwhile, as consumers, we find it more and more difficult to know what we are buying, who has made it and where it comes from. Yet there are alternatives. Innovative projects seeking to re-connect producers and consumers by promoting short food supply chains and food produced in a sustainable way can be found in most European countries. These include short supply chains, alternative food networks, local farming systems and urban gardening. Friends of the Earth Europe and other movements and organisations believe that control of food and farming needs to be put in the hands of local people and farmers, shifting to agro-ecological systems that work within environmental and equitable limits to achieve food sovereignty in Europe and the rest of the world. Published February 2015: Transitioning Towards Agro-Ecology: using the CAP to build local food systems. Published May 2015: Eating from the farm: the social, environmental and economic benefits of local food systems.
34
https://www.foeeurope.org/
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Citizens demand more local food!
8.5 Food Otherwise This organisation came up in the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium, originally as a team to organise the Food Otherwise35 conference on AgroEcology in Wageningen in 2013. The team is a coalition of farmers, farmers organisations and civil society which also organises the February 2016 Conference. They point out that industrialisation and globalisation of agriculture in the last decade has led to a lot of mishap. We face deterioration of soils, unsecure future for smallholder farmers, public health problems, environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity, and loss of influence of consumers on how their food is being produced. In a manifest they suggest radical transition in agriculture - through agro-ecological practices and other rules of the game’- to a more conscientious, sustainable and fairer agriculture.
8.6 The Network Vital Agriculture and Food This network of farmers, researchers and other professionals, started in 2008 in the Netherlands. It promotes and exchanges knowledge and experiences on closed loop agriculture, as a compromise between regular and organic agriculture. Principles derived from organic farming are: a healthy soil is the base, respect for natural cycles and manage your enterprise in line with the animals’ natural behaviour. www.netwerkvlv.nl/en/
8.7 PAN Europe The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) was founded in 1982. The network comprises of over 600 NGO’s, institutions and individuals in over 35
www.voedselanders.nl
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60 countries. Their goal is to minimise the negative impact of harmful pesticides and their replacement by ecological alternatives.xvi PAN Europe envisages a world where increased agricultural production will be achieved through sustainable small scale practices, in which chemical inputs and ecological and environmental damage will be reduced to a minimum, where local people have an impact on food production and where local crop varieties and cattle breeds are part of the production cycle.
8.8 The province of Drenthe The province of Drenthe in the Netherlands will develop an agricultural policy based on closed-loop agriculture for the coming seven years. This is the result of the large potential of the ‘Farming Sustainably’ project. In cooperation with two other provinces and water boards they will further develop closed-loop agriculture and promote this approach with farmers, extension agents and researchers.
8.9 Wervel Wervel is the working group for Righteous and Responsible Agriculture in Flanders with HQ in Brussels. Through networking activities they help farmers, environmental groups, consumers and third world farmers and movements to cooperate. Their slogan is ‘Think global – Eat local’. Their basic principle is the unbreakable link between agriculture and culture.
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9
WORLDWIDE
9.1 The Biodiversity Fund Founded 2000 by Oxfam Novib, Hivos and the Dutch Government, it supports programmes promoting agro-biodiversity with emphasis on local practical knowledge, especially for farmers in marginal areas. They, together with the inhabitants of still natural forests and fishing communities, are assisted in developing new, practical technologies and in managing genetic resourcesxvii through the promotion of best practices.
9.2 IFOAM In 2012 over 750 organisations, covering 116 countries, are members of the ‘International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements’ (IFOAM).xviii Around 1.5 billion hectares of the surface of the earth is used for agriculture. Some 26 million hectares, or 2% of this area is already used for certified organic agriculture. The increase in the worldwide trade in organic products shows, that organic is changing from a niche market to mainstream, the New Normal.
9.3
Biodiversity International
Sustainable agriculture requires coherence between three important social aspects: the human habitat, the economy and society. Biodiversity Internationalxix supports this coherence through projects: 1. Promoting crop diversity 2. Investigating and integrating market forces 3. Supporting a participatory approach in crop cultivation for biodiversity and 4. supporting cultural diversity in nutrition.
9.4 CAAANZ CAAANZ was founded in 2005 to represent ‘conservation farmers’ xx worldwide and to facilitate exchange of information and knowledge. Members apply all kind of management systems for fertile soils, ranging from research to practical experience in carbon fixation, but also the no-tilling system. http://www.caaanz.org.au
9.5
Canadian Foodgrains Bank
“We want a world without hunger!” the Canadian Foodgrains Bank works toward this goal by: providing food in times of crisis for hungry people in the developing world; helping people grow more food to better feed themselves and their families; and providing 32 | P a g e
nutritional support to malnourished people with a focus on pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and young children. They also advocate for public policies that enable families and communities to better feed themselves. International programs provide food assistance to people in emergency situations and longer-term support to help people provide for their own food; amongst others through conservation agriculture.
9.6 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) By changing to more resilient agro-ecological systems, agriculture can contribute to a reduction in the impacts of climate change, and provide enough food for everyone. Seventy% of these changes can be realised in developed countries.36 Since 2012, therefore, FAO is advocating that agricultural policy is the cornerstone for food security and improved living conditions. A more productive and resilient agriculture requires improved management of natural resources (soil, water and biodiversity). This can be achieved through integrated practices such as conservation agriculture, integrated crop protection, agroforestry, agro-ecologic agriculture and more sustainable consumption patterns, with emphasis on a reduction of the intake of animal proteins. CSA acknowledges the fact that climate change is a crosscutting issue with the need for an integrated approach to food security, environmental quality, human welfare and other development goals. Agriculture is uniquely situated between climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, because it is both a major contributor to the world’s changing climate as well as a vulnerable socioecological system. Thus, transitioning to CSA requires a landscape approach that considers the multi-functionality of agricultural practices and the need for cooperation at many levels and across all sectors. Sometimes, it helps to see a practice in action. In Niger, a landscape approach to farmer-managed natural resource generation provides a strong example of CSA. Traditional woodland management was expanded from forests to farmland by strategically planting and allowing naturally germinating trees to integrate with crops. Food security, nutrient-rich fodder trees and fertile top soils have all increased. Diversified livelihoods make for better-adapted communities, while mitigating the contributions of agriculture to climate change.
9.7 Conservation agriculture Today, 842 million people do not have enough to eat. And the pressures on our food system are only growing.We must figure out how to feed the world — without destroying it.37
36 37
www.fao.org. http://www.conservation.org/what/pages/food-agriculture-and-fisheries.aspx
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9.8 EcoAgriculture Partnersxxi (2004) This organisation manages and develops landscapes following a holistic systems approach, without considering agriculture as a separate sector. Their aim is to create and maintain agro-ecological landscapes at a worldwide level. EcoAgriculture Partners promotes management of natural resources by local rural communities, thus realising three outputs at regional level (1) maintaining biodiversity (2) improving agricultural and food production and (3) reinforcement of the social and economic viability. The terminology agro-ecology covers both management and development of agro-eco-systems, it acknowledges local communities as managers of eco-systems and biodiversity and enables them to take up this responsibility in an effective manner. The stakeholders in the area are collectively responsible for the management of their landscape and their region. They support individuals as well as organisations in agricultural xxii practices from local to global levels. EA-Partners is a network of farmers, communities, international companies, policy makers and donors.
9.9 Fairfood International This is a not-for-profit organisation which represents the worldwide interests of Fair Food: food produced in a fair manner. Fairfood envisages a future with fair and sustainable food production that can feed the world population while maintaining and protecting the environment and biodiversity for future generations, while respecting human rights. Fairfood therefore encourages large corporations in the food and beverage industry to adapt their production chains to reach socio-economic and ecological sustainability.
9.10 Forum for Indigenous People In February 2013 the first Forum was organised in Rome by the International Fund for Agricultural Development38 (IFAD), in order to emphasize the importance of traditional knowledge and experience in management of land and natural resources, including agricultural practices.
9.11 The Future We Want This is the title of the ‘agenda’ agreed upon during the Rio+20 conference. It describes how a green economy can promote sustainable development. It describes how the organisation of the UN has to be modified in order to meet a set of sustainable development goals by 2015; and it presents a Framework of Action for special sectors and special areas in the world.
38
International Fund for Agricultural Development; http://www.ifad.org/events/ip/2012/index.htm
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The most important conclusion is: Business as usual cannot be an option; transformative change is needed. As the challenges are highly interdependent, a new, more holistic approach is needed to address them. Because the challenges (read solutions to the problems) are directly linked, a new, more holistic approach is necessary.
9.12 GIAHS This stands for Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. These systems are special land use systems and landscapes, rich in biodiversity. This diversity is the result of a long period of mutual adaptation of a community to the natural surroundings, and a strong link with nature. In order to preserve and support these integrated landscapes the FAO founded the GIAHS in 2002. It promotes an integrated approach for sustainable agriculture and rural development.
9.13 Groundswell International “Our global agricultural and food system is broken and needs to transition to one that is more sustainable and beneficial to the world’s population. This must happen in the face of the linked challenges of climate change, natural resource depletion, and worldwide economic and social upheaval. At the same time, farmer-led social movements are growing, and there is increasing recognition that agro-ecology and food sovereignty are key solutions.” Groundswell therefore is working to build healthy farming and food systems by supporting rural communities across the globe. In August 2009, 12 people from eight countries – Burkina Faso, Canada, Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, the Philippines, and the United States – gathered at Overlook Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts to create Groundswell International as a global partnership to contribute to this movement and these bottom-up solutions. xxiii
Their motive : A partnership of local civil society organizations, NGOs and people grounded in diverse contexts and experiences, yet whom share a common approach to supporting social change, a history of collaborating over many years, and a common dream.39 They have been at the leading edge of developing methods to spread agro-ecological farming practices, farmer innovation, farmer-to-farmer extension, community health, and strengthening local organizations to lead their own development processes.
39
: http://www.groundswellinternational.org/ourstory/#sthash.Pssn8x9v.dpuf http://www.groundswellinternational.org/our-story/ 35 | P a g e
9.14 International Society of Tropical Foresters In January 2013 the society held an annual conference. The main topic was the promotion of resilient landscapes where food production and forest development go together. Forests and jungle offer a wide range of food products for about 1 billion humans, while providing natural resources (soil fauna, insects and natural crop protection) necessary for agricultural production.
9.15 International Sustainable Seed Development (ISSD) ISSD contributes to agricultural development. Quality seed is a key input for agriculture with an immediate effect on agricultural production and productivity. Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) is an inclusive approach that recognizes and builds upon a diversity of seed systems in the sector. At the Centre for Development Innovation (CDI), Wageningen UR and at Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the ISSD approach is used to guide us in the design and implementation of seed sector interventions that are coherent with farmers’ agricultural practices. The main objective is enhancing farmers’ access to quality seed of superior varieties, and contributing to food security and economic development.
9.16 La Via Campesina (LVC)40 This is an international movement, uniting over 200 million self-sufficient farmers, small and medium scale farming enterprises, artisans, farmhands and indigenous peoples. LVC wants to strengthen small-scale sustainable agriculture in order to create protection against large-scale industrial agriculture, which often destroys nature and local communities. Their major aim is to create food security and self-sufficiency.
9.17 Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Development and application of eco-agriculture was the aim of this three year cooperation programme (2009-2012) between various UN organisations, NGO’s and European governments. It was an international initiative for trans-sectorial sharing of knowledge, dialogue and action. Following the whole landscape approach, this initiative is looking for new approaches to integrated sustainable landscape development. The agricultural landscape approach is a new concept that has been used since the Rio+20 Conference on sustainable development in 2012. This approach includes, among others: ecoagriculture, participatory watershed management, management of natural resources by beneficiary communities and an ecological framework. This 40
http://viacampesina.org/en/
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approach has been developed by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), FAO, IFAD and the international NGOs, World Resources Institute and Conservation International. An integrated landscape approach for sustainable food production is more effective for the protection of ecosystems than the current system of supporting individual farmers. Tim Benton of Leeds University showsxxiv how diversified agricultural landscapes can provide the resilience necessary in a rapidly changing world.
9.18 EcoAgriculture Partners Landscape labelling for better smallholder product-marketing. In recent years, voluntary certifications and labels like fair trade, organic and shade grown have gained popularity, enabling consumers to pay farmers a premium in reward for sustainable practices. In 2014, EcoAgriculture Partners released a frame-work and case studyxxv exploring the possibility of labelling products to reflect the location and integrated management practices of their landscape of origin. Landscape labeling is a strategy that practitioners of integrated landscape management can use to market their products.41 A landscape label captures and brands the social and ecological assets, growing conditions, soil, topography, and management practices of producers in a landscape. It serves as a mechanism for increasing the visibility of small producers, improving market access, and generating premium payments. Based on actor interest, EcoAgriculture Partners decided to design and test a landscape labeling approach to marketing. The approach was tested in collaboration with local partners in two locations, Lari, Kenya and Mbeya, Tanzania. Despite notable barriers, landscape labeling represents an exciting and viable approach to marketing for smallholders
9.19 Palm Oil Platform 42
“It’s where and how it’s grown that we need to change.” In the U.S. it’s estimated that palm oil, or ingredients derived from it, are used in half of the products on the average supermarket shelf. So it is in your cookies, your baked goods, your margarines, your lipsticks and skin lotions, your shampoo and toothpaste and a wide range of other packaged foods and personal care products. As far as edible oils go, palm oil is actually quite good. Oil palm yields 4–10 times more oil per hectare than other oilseed crops, including soybean and canola. Palm oil represents about 38% of the world’s supply of edible oil, but it’s grown on only 5% of the land dedicated to oilseed crops globally. With international demand for edible oils growing steadily, more oil from less land is a good thing.
41
http://bit.ly/1nXz7oB http://blog.conservation.org/2014/04/why-palm-oil-isnt-theenemy/#sthash.nttOSGy1.dpuf 42
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But it isn’t all good news! Deforestation, draining and planting palm on peat lands, land disputes with rural communities — all of these have been major consequences of the global palm oil boom. Many problems stem from the fact that too much oil palm has been planted at the expense of tropical forests. These forests are a critical source of food, medicines and other materials; they are vital to regulating weather patterns and buffering local communities from storms and floods, and are home to many of the world’s most unique and threatened species (including orang utans). Forests also play a critical role in maintaining healthy watersheds and river systems that are essential for communities and downstream agriculture. And loss of forests doesn’t just impact local communities. Deforestation is one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. So how can we change for the better? Palm oil and deforestation do not have to go hand in hand. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO is a network of hundreds of organizations with interests in the global palm oil supply chain, from oil palm growers to consumer goods manufacturers to NGOs. Presently, the RSPO has developed a set of sustainability standards for the industry, and in just six years, the group has certified 16% of global production. In addition, several major producers are voluntarily exceeding these standards, and the Indonesian government has developed a national standard with the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) initiative. We need not deforest more. The World Resources Institute43 estimated there might be 14 million hectares (more than 34.6 million acres — an area about twice the size of Ireland) of previously cleared or degraded land in Indonesian Borneo alone, that could potentially be suitable for palm oil. Compared to the roughly 9 million hectares (22.2 million acres) currently covered by oil palm in Indonesia, that’s room for a lot of growth without clearing more forest.
9.20 Permaculturexxvi Permaculture is the deliberate design and maintenance of agricultural ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. Permaculture is a fast growing sustainability movement. The Permaculture Learning And Network Demonstration project (LAND) in UK is growing daily and the ‘Permaculture Research Institute’ in Australia is developing a worldwide network of demonstration and training centres, which in their turn are responsible for spin off activities in the region. A 44 number of development organisations assist small farmers in increasing their production and in accessing the market. Small-scale farmers support the development of areas that are at war, or major conflict zones. They 43
wri.org/blog/ Development organisations such as Oxfamnovib, Cordaid, SNV, ICCO, Hivos, Plan Nederland, Terre des Hommes . 44
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ensure that there is sufficient food for society and create job opportunities. This is a serious issue as over 800 million people in countries in development are suffering from food shortages. Furthermore cooperation between farmers and salespersons can create trust where there was mistrust before.
9.21 Prolinnova Prolinnova45 stands for PROmoting Local INNOVAtion. This is done on a local scale in ecological oriented farming enterprises and in the management of natural resources. In twenty different countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania, various NGO’s have joined forces to increase the impact of their network.
9.22 Slow Food Founded in 1989 as a not for profit organisation, Slow Food promotes biodiversity and sustainable and environmental friendly food production and consumption. Slow Food also wants to be an intermediary between producers and consumers of quality food and organises events to facilitate contacts. The farmer in the drivers’ seat! In Zimbabwe, support from IFAD, Oxfam Novib and its partners, has encouraged farmers and NGOs to build on the 46 experience of LIBIRD in Nepal. Community seed fairs are a valuable opportunity to exchange seeds and knowledge, and to take stock of the status of biodiversity in their communities. One way to do this is by using the ‘Diversity Wheel’, originating from the ‘Four Cell Analysis’ in Nepal and further developed by the Zimbabwean Community Technology Development Trust. At a seed fair, a facilitator picks up one seed variety and asks the farmers present: “How many of you are growing this variety?” and “Is this variety grown on a large or small area of land?” A fifth cell was added to the original tool, referring to varieties that a community lost. This prompts farmers to discuss why certain varieties are no longer being grown, or why they value a specific variety. It leads them to reflect on how to pro-actively ensure the conservation of varieties at risk. Once all the crops that farmers grow are placed on the Diversity Wheel the farmers find it easy to visualise how their food security and diet composition is evolving. The Diversity Wheel is a story of partnerships, where good ideas build on each other and travel across continents. It is also an example of a tool that puts the farmers firmly in the driver’s seat.
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http://www.prolinnova.net/ For more information contact Rima Alcadi and Shantanu Mathur at the Strategy and Knowledge Department of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Visit www.ifad.org or e-mail: r.alcadi@ifad.org 46
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9.23 The Sustainable Landscapes Partnership (SLP) SLP is an innovative public-private partnership that brings together governments, businesses and NGOs to identify, develop and test new solutions aimed at avoiding deforestation and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They do this through the development of low emission business models. The SLP — whose founding members are Conservation International, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Walton Family Foundation — will focus activities in select district-scale landscapes. Each landscape will be anchored by a REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus conservation, the sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) project. Low emission business opportunities will be developed in the adjacent areas with the aim of a 50% reduction of potential emissions in specific land-use change investments over the next five years, as well as conserving Indonesia's unique biodiversity. The first pilot program will be launched in district-level sites of highconservation value in Indonesia, which is the world's third-largest emitter of GHGs, the majority of which comes from burning peat lands and from deforestation and forest degradation caused by large-scale land conversion to commodities like oil palm and pulp and paper. In response to this growing concern, the Indonesian government has announced its intent to commit to significant GHG emissions reductions over the next decade — by 26% by 2020 (up to a 41% reduction with international assistance), while still growing the economy at 7% per year.
9.24 The Terra Madre Networkxxvii Terra Madre was founded in Turin in 2004 by the Slow Food movement to give a face and a voice to small and traditional farmers, gardeners, dairy farmers and other food producers, who, through their production methods, support the environment and the society worldwide. The network brings them together and connects them to academia, cooks, consumers and youth groups, to enable them to improve the entire food production system and render it sustainable.
9.25 UN: Rethinking is necessary! In 2012, the report Sustainable Development in the 21st Century (SD21), was published by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.xxviii In the section ‘Food and Agriculture’ it is stated that the status of our food security and the reduction of our natural resources is mainly caused by industrial agriculture. Also is says that the importance of public health in the coming 20 years is a serious matter. Many of the interviewed experts plead for a complete change in thinking: it concerns a transformation of our current habits and ways of thinking and a 40 | P a g e
transformation of our current (Western based) food production and agricultural systems.xxix Re-thinking is necessary because we are aiming for the wrong goals: Our eating habits result in poor health and the destruction of ecosystems. The importance of healthy food for the worldwide population is the responsibility of the wrong parties and not related to correct agricultural and water management practices. We have to restore the nutritive value and the vitality of food through better soil management. No more empty calories! In the developed countries, imported food is more important than its production; while there are 50,000 edible crops in the world, fifty percent of our food consists of three crops, grain, rice and maize. Farmers and emerging organisations that contribute to the resilience and reinforcement of natural resources through the use of ecological agriculture and soil management are hardly supported. Industrial agriculture is the largest water user; on top of that it is the cause that annually some 2,000 to 50,000 km squared of productive land is lost as a result of erosion and land degradation.
9.26 United Nations in 2013 In 2013, the United Nations announced that the world’s agricultural needs could be met with localized organic farms. Food security, poverty, gender inequality and climate change can all be addressed if we adopt a significant paradigm shift, according to the UN’s Trade and Environment Review (TER)47, a 320-page report written by 63 authors from organizations around the world. They provide evidence with numerous coherent case studies and surveys. “Wake up before it is too late: Make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate.” The solution to all these interrelated problems is establishing a conglomerate of small, bio-diverse, ecological farms around the world and a localized food system that promotes consumption of local/regional produce.
9.27 The Zero Hunger Challenge Since it was launched in 2003, Brazil’s Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) strategy has allowed 28 million people to break free from the cycle of hunger.48 These impressive figures suggest that public policy can have a significant impact in the fight against hunger. A French report looks at some of the conditions contributing to the success of the strategy, including political will combined with a plan that is coherent, consistent, multidimensional and participatory. 47 48
http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=666 19 February 2014, Marília Mendonça Leão Renato S. Maluf
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The United Nations launched the Zero Hunger challenge in 2012, and countries and regions around the world are looking at the lessons from Brazil’s experience. In West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has initiated a process for achieving Zero Hunger in West Africa. An editorial by the West Africa GROW campaign and a preface by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food (2008–2014) are included in the French report and as separate documents in English. The editorial reflects on the practicalities and challenges in terms of social mobilization and the sub-region’s capacities to carry such an ambitious initiative. A key question we look to address: How can the necessary ‘political will’ be ensured in a region of diverse states?
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10
Emerging Knowledge & Technologies for AgroEcology
A striking number of innovative initiatives in the field of integrated knowledge development, exchange of experiential knowledge, implementation of endogenic practical knowledge and co-creation of knowledge is emerging worldwide. Agriculture is roughly three times more effective at reducing extreme 49 poverty than non-agricultural sectors. Grounds for optimism! Growing academic evidence highlights agriculture’s unique role in helping to reduce extreme poverty. An important 2011 paper by economists Luc Christiaensen, Lionel Demery and Jesper Kuhl, shows that. Complementary investments in transport infrastructure, irrigation, farmer credit and input support systems were essential to Asia’s 20th century green revolutions, which laid the foundation for that region’s subsequent economic breakthroughs. The same basic approach, updated for today’s social and environmental realities, can help to ensure that Africa’s long-term economic success is equally, if not more, robust. Applying agro-ecology to enhance the productivity of peasant farmers in Latin America.50 The great majority of farmers in Latin America are peasants who still farm small plots of land, usually in marginal environments utilizing traditional and subsistence methods. The contribution of the 16million peasant units to regional food security is, however, substantial. Research has shown that peasant systems, which mostly rely on local resources and complex cropping patterns, are reasonably productive despite their land endowments and low use of external inputs. Moreover analysis of NGO-led agro-ecological initiatives show that traditional crop and animal systems can be adapted to increase productivity by biologically re-structuring peasant farms, which in turn leads to optimization of key agro-ecosystem processes (nutrient recycling, organic matter accumulation, biological pest regulation, etc.) and efficient use of labour and local resources. Examples of such grassroots projects are herein described to show that agro ecological approaches can offer opportunities to substantially increase food production while preserving the natural resource base and empowering rural communities.
49
World Economic Forum blog. http://forumblog.org/2014/05/ending-extremepoverty-by-2030 50 MIGUEL A. ALTIERI, Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.(e-mail: agroeco3@nature.berkeley.edu)
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10.1 Communicating ecology: Improving the traditional journal model British Ecological Society,51 Edinburgh, December 15, 2015. A wide range of knowledge dissemination tools is available, yet science remains heavily reliant on academic journals. For the applied sciences in particular, it is critical that knowledge generated is transferred into action. There may be alternatives to the journal model that would support the delivery of action more effectively. This workshop focuses on developing a framework for knowledge dissemination for agro-ecology. After evaluating and ranking models of dissemination, participants will consider the Indian context. The output of this workshop will be made available of the Agricultural Ecology SiG website for societies and groups wishing to consider their KE (Knowledge Exchange) strategy. The outcome of the workshop will be: framework for delivering agro-ecological knowledge into practice, contribution to the strategy for the Society for Agro-ecology in India.
10.2 Cattle husbandry, cause or solution for the climate crisis? According to the Zimbabwean biologist and conservationist Allan Savory, cattle husbandry offers interesting opportunities for the restoration of ecosystems. He presents examples of projects in degraded steppes in Africa, Australia and North and South America, where cattle husbandry is a necessary and natural contributor in the restoration of degraded lands. Of course water conservation is essential. Through applying the right techniques flora will become more abundant and the groundwater levels will increase.
10.3 Carbon sequestration According to Rattan Lal, director of Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, the world’s cultivated soils have lost between 50 and 70% of their original carbon stock, much of which has oxidized upon exposure to air (by ploughing and laying bare) to become CO2. Now, armed with rapidly expanding knowledge about carbon sequestration in soils, researchers are studying how land restoration programs in places like then former North American prairie, the North China Plain, and even the parched interior of Australia might help put carbon back into the soil. Absent of carbon and critical microbes, soil becomes mere dirt - a process of deterioration that’s been rampant around the globe. Many scientists say that regenerative agricultural practices can turn back the carbon clock, reducing atmospheric CO2 while also boosting soil productivity and increasing resilience to floods and drought. Such regenerative techniques include planting fields year-round in crops or other cover, and agroforestry that combines crops, trees, and animal husbandry. 51
https://futureagriculture.wordpress.com/
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10.4 CGIAR Challenge Programme In 2014, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) came to an end and is now fully integrated into the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Andrew Noble reflects on its ten-year legacy: “For me, it is also a time to reflect on the personal transformation that I have undergone in my perceptions and views of CPWF since becoming familiar with the program and its activities.” CPWF’s main objectives were always two-fold and interlaced. First, it was to generate practical knowledge to improve water and food productivity that would yield tangible development outcomes for the poor and improve how water is managed. The second was based on the need to change the way we do research and to move towards an inclusive approach to research-for-development that results in outcomes and impact; so they explored new ways of doing research and engaging with partners.
10.5 Conference October 2012 - UNEP The Ecological Foundation on food security and realising sustainable food systems held a conference in October 2012. Joseph Alcamo, chief scientist of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), showed us that food security (availability, access, utilisation and stability) has an ecological foundation - agriculture- and that we are undermining that.52 Society undermines the requirements for good agriculture: competition for water, for land. On top of that there is loss of land through degradation, through overgrazing improper cultivation and monocultures. He proposes to do the following things about it: Work worldwide on sustainable agriculture: integrate at farm level, integrate at landscape level (multipurpose landscapes). Invest (0.16% of GNP to 2050) in sustainable agriculture. It will create 47 million new jobs and sustainable food production.53 (UNEP economic report). Invest in smallholders with rewards for ecosystem stewardship and land tenure rights. Make progress in scaling up of conservation agriculture - we have 125 million hectares now.
10.6 Conference on Agro-Ecology September 15, 2015 in Cuba La Via Campesina Interrnational and the Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños of Cuba (ANAP, National Association of Small Farmers) hosted the 5th International Conference of Agro-Ecology and Cooperatives in November 2015, at the Centro Nacional de Capacitación Niceto Pérez, in Güira de Melena, Cuba.
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http://www.unep.org/publications/ebooks/avoiding famines www.unep.org/greeneconomy/.../GER_synthesis
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Comment [HR1]: Reference?
The conference brought together farmers, peasants, agro-ecology promoters, facilitators, scientists, students, and everyone interested in the development of agro-ecology throughout the world. It was meant as an opportunity for peasant and indigenous organizations from around the world working in this field, to exchange their knowledge and experience. Several days were spent in small groups visiting the agro-ecology experiences of farmer cooperatives in several provinces. Other days had a conference format, where farmers gave some 75% of the talks.
10.7 Cuba-U.S. Agro-Ecology Network (CUSAN) “Cuba, out of necessity, has applied agro-ecological practices to develop the most sophisticated and time-tested system of growing agricultural crops without the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Our goal is to explore opportunities for research, education, and marketing collaborations between Cuba and the United States that will support the development of this globally important sustainable farming system in both countries.” 54
10.8 Enhancing Agricultural Biodiversity Agricultural biodiversity plays a huge role in maintaining resilient local economies, balanced diets and balanced ecosystems. The rapid disappearance of agricultural biodiversity and the lack of measures to protect it are therefore great causes of concern. Although mainstream agricultural policies threaten such agricultural biodiversity, in recent years many promising initiatives have been launched around the world, that aim to preserve and manage agricultural biodiversity. Small-scale family farmers often play a central role in these initiatives. But other actors and institutions also play important roles: farmers and researchers are taking up joint research initiatives, and farmers’ organisations are engaging in dialogues with policymakers, pushing for policies that enhance agro-biodiversity. Issue 30.1 of Farming Matters, April 2014, looks at these emerging initiatives and at the insights gained from the efforts to up-scale these experiences.
10.9 FAO Symposium 2014 The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, hosted a two-day International Symposium on ‘Agro-Ecology for Food Security and Nutrition’, culminating in a high-level round table which discussed recent experiences and experiments in the field with agriculture ministers from several countries, 18 -19 September 2014 in Rome More than 50 experts, including academic professors, researchers, private sector, government officials and leaders of civil-society organizations, made 54
http://www.agroecologynetwork.org/; https://bfi.org/dymaxionforum/2015/09/agroecology-conference-cuba 46 | P a g e
presentations or speeches at the symposium, which was attended by more than 400 people. “Agro-ecology continues to grow, both in science and in policies. It is an approach that will help to address the challenge of ending hunger and malnutrition in all its forms, in the context of the climate change adaptation needed,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva. FAO hosted the symposium as a means to allow experts and advocates to debate agro-ecology, an emerging set of practices that seek to apply ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable food systems. Agro-ecology is increasingly becoming part of the debates of intergovernmental bodies and its approaches are repeatedly mentioned by the Committee on World Food Security. The closing round-table discussion featured interventions by several agriculture ministers, including Stéphane Le Foll, Papa Abdoulaye Seck for Senegal Abdelwahad Nouri, Luis Felipe Arauz-Cavallini, and Hidemichi Sato, Japan’s parliamentary vice minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Brazil’s agriculture minister, Laudemir André Müller, and Dacian Ciolos, the European Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, also participated with video messages.55
10.10
Food Otherwise
Voedsel Anders (Food Otherwise)56 is a network of farmers, fisher folk, scientists, beekeepers, students, artists, professionals, policymakers, journalists and other active citizens in the Netherlands and Belgium engaged in building healthy food systems. “While the current agri-food system is depleting the soil and biodiversity, causes major greenhouse gas emissions and squeezes farmers out of business, many local, national and international initiatives show that there is another way. Around the world, we can feed ourselves sustainably with good and healthy food that is produced regionally, with fair prices and dignified lives for farmers, fishermen and citizens, while respecting the environment and biodiversity. This is the system we promote.” Read their manifest.57 Food Otherwise organised its second Conference on agro-ecology in Wageningen in February 2016, with 1000 participants (the first and very successful one was in 2013).
55
http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/afns/en/ http://www.voedselanders.nl/towards-fair-and-sustainable-food-systems/ 57 http://www.voedselanders.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Manifest-Voedsel-Andersengels.pdf 56
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10.11 Heterogeneous farms are an advantage in rural development58 According to the neo-classical economic model, farmers were seen as entrepreneurs who aimed at profit maximisation. This goal would be achieved through intensification of production, scale enlargement, and higher competition which led to the adoption of the latest technology by farmers and to the elimination of small holdings which could not operate efficiently in such a competitive environment. Consequently, substantial variation in agricultural practices was related to low levels of development. A different approach perceives heterogeneity not as an obstacle that needs to be eliminated but as an advantage in the rural development process. In this alternative model, diversity is seen as a consequence of the acknowledgement of agriculture as a social structure. More specifically, the selection of agricultural practices was heavily dependent on the decisions of the agents involved and on their strategies. Heterogeneity reflected different development patterns, each emerging from corresponding farming style. Farming styles were the outcome of the strategic behaviour of the agents involved in agricultural production and denoted specific market relations, specific selection of technologies and specific structuring of the process of production. According to the definition provided by Long and van der Ploeg: “Endogenous development patterns are founded mainly, though not exclusively, on locally available resources, such as the potentialities of the local ecology, labour force, knowledge and local patterns for the use of natural resources.”
10.12
‘Holistic Science’ study
The Schumacher College in England has already existed over twenty years but we see an increase in the number of students attending their trainings over the past few years. Their basic principle is that nature is our teacher, especially in these times of transition. They follow a holistic approach of science and thus systems, complexity and chaos theory, eco-psychology and values are part of their study programme. They are walking along the borders of science and practice in order to tackle ecological, economic and social challenges.
10.13
How to feed and not to eat our world?
In a dissertation by Ruben Boonen for the KU Leuven of Belgium in December 2015, he states that within the finite boundaries of planet Earth, agriculture plays an essential role in the production of renewable resources. As production inputs (soil, water, nutrients) are limited, choosing between different functions for agriculture (food or fibre of flowers, crops or 58
Introduction to different conceptualisations of endogenous rural development. Katharine HASSAPOYANNES,University of Patras. lrene DASKALOPOULOU, Natasa PETROU,Mediterranean Agronomic lnstitiuotef Chania.
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animals, fuel crops or food crops) results in moral discussions. Boonen argues that animal production can play an important role in producing food on ’useless’ land or by converting ‘useless’ energy/ proteins. Some new ethical discussions will probably occur during the next decades, e.g. the globally increasing population of pets that demand larger numbers of animals raised and killed to feed them- food that instead could be used to feed people. There is also an interesting chapter on how sustainable agriculture is defined by your worldview: ecological or reductionist.
10.14
IASS / GIZ/ German Cooperation & Development
‘Soil protection and rehabilitation for food security’ is the title of a research and development programme, in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya and India, between 2015 and 2017. Sustainable land management techniques such as green manure and agro-forestry, have long been known. Nevertheless in many agricultural areas, unsustainable land use still prevails. A large number of studies have investigated and identified the factors that constrain sustainable land management. Among these are: limited access to finance, too little and biased support, insecure land tenure, and insufficient rural infrastructure. IASS59 research focuses on entry points to overcome those challenges. Social learning and participative processes are some key instruments.
10.15 IIED, International Institute for Environment and Development IIED started the Knowledge Programme on Small Producer ‘Agency’ in the Globalising Market, in 2009.60 The reason? There are about half a billion (500,000,000) small-scale famers in the world. A lot of expectations are piling up at their doorstep! Small-scale farmers are expected to be engines of rural poverty reduction; they are expected to manage natural resources; they are expected to organise themselves in the agricultural value chain in regional and international markets. That means that those smallholder farmers need to be able to make effective choices that advance their interests and those of their community. So they need to be ‘agents’ in their own social and economic development, in their own right. Rather than being treated as passive beneficiaries of an external (Western) policy or agri-business agenda. At the same time, globalisation is changing the way markets operate, exposing small-scale producers to risks and opportunities. The price of food is going to be very versatile because of increased demand, climate change and speculation. NGO’s in the countryside advise farmers to diversify, to 59
IASS, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam Germany. www.iass-potsdam.de/en 60 From the article ‘small scale farmers & markets - a knowledge programme; Farming Matters, Dec. 2010
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grow high value crops, to form a cooperative etc. there are companies looking for new sources of supply so they propose contract farming. There are new instruments to pay land users for carbon sequestration in their soils and manage biodiversity on their farms. So the smallholders have to make choices all the time even when they haven’t got all the information available. The IIED global learning network is pursuing a programme of research and advocacy, to support smallholder agency, like empowering smallholders in supply chains, and to shape the global debate on this matter. See www.iied.org and www.hivos.org.
10.16
ISIS
In fact, small farms are known to be two to 10 times as productive as large industrial farms and much more profitable, not just in the developing world, but also in the developed world, reports the Institute of Science in Society ISIS. Industrial agriculture and our globalized food system is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, up to 50% if proper account is taken of emissions from land use change and deforestation, most of which are due to agriculture, and for food-related transport, processing, storage and consumption.
10.17
A workshop in Mozambique in May 2015
The participants of the workshop identified five ways to sustainably intensify agriculture. In food insecure countries, large-scale investments are often considered a major driver of agricultural growth, but these can promote monocultures and intensive approaches that damage the environment and progressively decrease soil fertility.61 Push Pull technology This is a technology applied to protect crops like sorghum and maize from the parasitic weed, Strega, and the stem borer moth. The technology uses planting of Desmodium intercropped with maize and sorghum to suppress Strega and drive away egg-laying stem-borer moths. Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) or Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanensis) is planted around the farm to attract and trap the stem borers. The stem borers are more attracted to the grasses than maize or sorghum and they lay their eggs on the grass. But the Napier grass does not allow stem-borer larvae to mature. When the eggs hatch and the small larvae bore into the Napier grass stems, the plant produces a sticky substance that traps them and they die. The grasses are great for fodder (for grazing emclosures, to prevent soil erosion) and Desmodium is – apart from fodder - very good for soil improvement. .
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http://www.iied.org/tag/agroecology
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10.18
Rodale Institute
A 30-year study from the Rodale Institute showed that organic farm fields yielded 33% more in drought years compared with chemically managed ones. In an article titled “’Yes Organic Food Can Feed the world’, Anna Lappe, author and educator, known for her work as an expert on food systems, writes that, “organic agriculture is taking off around the world, especially where it’s needed most.” She reports that 80% of all organic producers are based in developing countries, with India, Uganda, Mexico and Tanzania leading the charge. To date, 162 nations are now home to certified organic farms, and in 2012, the 37.5 million hectares of farmland produced a harvest worth $63.8 billion.
10.19
The annual international course on Agro-Ecology
This annual course in Vermont concentrates on the application of agroecological principles to increase resilience under climate change and to promote solid, sustainable food production systems. The leading principle is that farmers innovate on a daily basis in their day-to-day practice and that there is a lot that can be learned together.
10.20
Sustainable Inclusive Investments in Agriculture
Sonja Vermeulen and Lorenzo Cotula describe business models which provide opportunities for small farmers in development countries in their booklet ‘Making the most of agricultural investments; a survey of business models that provide opportunities for smallholders’. An important conclusion is that international support should be more than the establishment of minimum standards to prevent negative impacts. It is important to promote income-generating models, which create maximum opportunities for small farmers. The next important step is to discover which factors are crucial, what works under which conditions. Investments in integrated landscape management. Public and civic sectors have difficulty promoting landscape-scale action as they tend to operate in sectorial silos and undertake parallel planning processes at national, subnational and local scales for agricultural production, watershed management, forestry, biodiversity, bio-energy, climate adaptation, climate mitigation and community development. Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) provides a context to spatially target and harmonize investments so that they can efficiently yield public goods and private financial returns while mitigating investment risks. To scale up financing for ILM, the full spectrum of private and public financial institutions will need to adapt and develop innovative mechanisms that can move beyond sector-based approaches. Each institution will have to figure out how best to engage given its objectives and capabilities, and some of them are already beginning to operate in this space. Meanwhile, 51 | P a g e
stakeholders of ILM processes throughout the world are figuring out how to exploit the opportunities that are already available to finance their investments.
10.21
System of Rice Intensification (SRI)
Since the start of this experiment on Madagascar in 1980, SRI is a resounding success.xxx SRI comprises of a number of coherent actions to intensify rice cultivation. By increasing the planting distance, the plants develop a better root system, which increases the efficiency of water and nutrient uptake, while a larger leaf area improves photosynthesis. Plants are thus better developed and more resistant against pests, diseases and drought. While scientists are still discussing how this is possible, the use of SRI is increasing. At this moment farmers in over 50 countries apply the system. It is interesting to see how this bottom up innovation spreads like an oil slickxxxi due to the rapid acceptation by the farmers.
10.22 The Scientific Council for Integrated Sustainable Food and Agriculture This Council was founded in 2011 as an interdisciplinary think tank of independent persons with experience in integrated systemic thinking. The Council states that closed-loop cyclic approaches are required. “Present day agriculture and food supply are not sustainable as food has lost its position in the social and environmental context, while at the same time the present system, which exists of loose elements, has run off the rail. This has resulted in an organised irresponsibility. We have to get away from linear food chains and restore closed-loop and complex-systems approaches and feed back mechanisms.”
10.23
Sustainable International Agriculture
A Master of Science (MSc) programmexxxii, ‘Sustainable International Agriculture’ was set up in the winter of 2009 as a communal study programme of the agricultural faculties of the Universities of Göttingen and Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany. The idea is to train specialists who can provide solutions for specific area related problems for the production of food while making minimal use of non-renewable resources for a fast growing world population.
10.24
Shaping the Future of Agriculture
This is the title of a BSc programme on sustainable agriculture, offered by Rein-Waal Hochschule62 in Germany. They offer a course with a holistic approach, environmental stewardship, economic profitability and social responsibility. 62
www.hsrw.eu
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10.25
The potential to prevent a world food crisis exists!
An inventory by Jules Pretty, professor at University of Sussex, UK, shows that in 2010 over 1.5 million farmers are already applying agro-ecological principles. The change to agro-ecology has in many cases resulted in a doubling or even tripling of the yields. In addition to this there are advantages such as a positive energy balance, a low consumption of fossil energy, economic use of scarce water resources and preservation of soil fertility, which are not found in industrial agriculture. The combined positive effects of agro-ecology are so substantial that it can be considered deservedly as the structural answer to the problems we are currently facing, especially how we can feed the continuously growing world population.
10.26
The current system must be overhauled
Alinson Power states in a scientific article xxxiii that only re-modelling of farming practices along agro-ecological principles will be effective. This remodelling involves a paradigm change: the system has to be overhauled. It will only work if the farmer (or his boss or his cooperative) has an overview of the coherent system and understands how the interactions and the feedback process in the system works. His conclusion is that only making more efficient use of the inputs only (optimisation, the aim of most of the current sustainability initiatives) is not enough. Only re-modelling along agro-ecologic principles can provide a breakthrough to sustainable food production and maintain biodiversity and improvement of the environment.
10.27
Transformation of research approaches
The Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development (GCARD) is a partnership between the Global Forum in Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the International Consortium for Agricultural Research (GCIAR). During the second international conference in Uruguay in November 2012, the research institutes of GCARD discussed on how to take action in a “pro-active, together with partners, with capacity development for innovation and with an impact on viability for small farmers” way. During this conference the participants first of all discussed the question which transformation of agricultural research is required for development. The next question was, ‘How are we going to realise this in practice and what difference will it make?’ The message that a turnaround is necessary was impressive and explicitly directed towards meeting the requirements and the needs of small farmers.
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10.28
The protein transition
If we do not succeed in curbing our animal protein consumption and turn to a more sustainable, vegetarian diet, there will be serious consequences for nature, the environment, landscape and food security in 2050. This was the sentiment of a number of experts in 2008xxxiv. In the jargon, the expression ‘protein transition’ means: transition to a food package, which relies less on animals and more on plants. The Agricultural Economic Institute of the Wageningen University investigated (in 2013) how this transition can be realised through more responsible production methods, international trade relationships and a more sustainable consumption of food.
10.29
The Trews
“I try to raise awareness about the need to shift away from globalizing to localizing,” Helena Norberg-Hodge recently told actor and activist Russell Brand on his Internet show, ‘The Trews’ - (truth+news= trews). NorbergHodge is an analyst on the impact of the global economy and on cultures in agriculture worldwide. She states,“Localizing is a systemic alternative that has incredible power.”
10.30
Climate-resilient agriculture by smallholder farmers
The Third World Network gives us a wake-up call for a true Climate Smart Agriculture in 2014. “The world needs real low-emissions, climate-resilient agriculture: by small producers using agro-ecological methods!” The responses and solutions lie in real low emissions technologies: organic fertilizers, composts, and manures; cover cropping; agroforestry and agropastoral systems that use tree, crop, and animal diversity to increase the fertility of cropping systems.63 Low emission solutions must drastically reduce or eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers, which are responsible for a significant amount of global emissions from agriculture. Monocultures of genetically engineered herbicide tolerant crops (as promoted by some Climate Smart adverts) are not low emissions solutions. Developed countries must also reduce their overconsumption of meat and eliminate industrial production practices, both major sources of global greenhouse gas emissions. The responses and solutions to climate change lie in those technologies and practices that increase the climate resilience of systems. Many of the practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions also increase the resilience of agricultural systems and increase the water-holding capacity of soils: practices that increase diversity within the system; and practices that build the humus content of soils through use of organic fertilizers and cover cropping. In parallel, there is urgent need to widely disseminate as much traditional and local seed varieties as possible among peasants and small63
The Gaia Foundation. 2011. Clear as mud: why agriculture and soils should not be included in carbon offset schemes
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scale farmers worldwide to provide them with wide options to adapt to the changing climate and environmental conditions in the years to come. These are the real needs and solutions that must be created for a truly lowemissions, climate-resilient agriculture. If the practices promoted by the Climate-Smart Agriculture Alliance depend on synthetic fertilizers and herbicide tolerant plants, that’s really being climate-dumb.
10.31
Urban food policy
Such policies come up all over the industrialised world now as cities have to deal with the logistics of providing sufficient food for their inhabitants from all over the world. A master class on this subject was organised on 23 January 2013 by the Christian Agricultural College in Almere, the Netherlands. Professor Gaston Remmers invited ‘local food pioneer’ Wayne Roberts64 from Toronto, to present his experiences. The central message was not to look at the problems in the food supply situation but to turn the situation around. According to Roberts, one has to look at which problems can be solved through food. Food can improve health, urban agriculture can improve social cohesion and reduce mobility, regional food production and – consumption can reinforce the economical basis of the region and improve the relationship between town and rural area.
10.32
Revitalisation of smallholder farms
Five key reasons for supporting revitalisation of small farms in the Global South65. Small farms are a planetary ecological asset for the following reasons:
64 65
They are the key to the world’s food security. They are more productive and resource-conserving than large-scale monocultures. They represent models of sustainability. They represent a sanctuary of GMO-free agro-biodiversity. They cool the climate.
http://wayneroberts.ca/about; © Miguel A Altieri 2008 www.twnside.org.sg
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11
Emerging books, movies and debates on agroecology
Recently published books and films give us tools to realise a more rosy future with good food and integrated sustainable production methods. They show us that transition is possible. The world can be changed for the better and the change to agro-ecological and responsible production is taking place. We only have to go for it, with everybody taking responsibility. Most of the movies show us how things have gotten out of hand and what we must definitely not repeat. They denounce certain events and call for change. In the debates different opinions are compared and understanding and realisations occur. In this way we can see what is happening, what should change and how we could contribute. You are herewith invited to implement the ideas and visions that are presented in these books, movies and debates, in the reality of today and tomorrow.
11.1 BOOKS The grain, the pig and the smile of a child (1996) “Is transition necessary? Or do we only talk about transformation without changing to agro-ecology?” Renaat Tijskensxxxv discusses in his book the ailing eco-agricultural system. He describes the symptoms, diagnoses and prepares a prescription. Tijskens pleads for a different agricultural policy, which goes for self-sufficiency of the basic foods. Too many imports and exports destabilise the agro-ecosystem. A Plea for Real Food (2008) “Eat real food, not too much, especially more plants”, is the message of Michael Pollan. In his book xxxvi, he shows how we, as consumers, are in the grip of the food processing industry and the food sciences, which have imposed on us a type of nutritional idealism, which makes us believe three myths: 1. Food elements are more important than complete food; 2. Only specialists can decide what is good for us; 3. Chronic illnesses, resulting from the industrialisation of our food, can be cured with diets that consist of the same food. Pollan shows us a way out by explaining what ‘real food’ is, what we have to eat and how we have to eat it. Food Policy - integrating health, environment & society (2009)
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Professor Tim Lang of the City University of Londonxxxvii wrote this book in cooperation with two colleagues. He says that a new Hot Springs Conference is required, like the one that was called in 1943 by the American president, F.D. Roosevelt. The first Hot Springs dealt with four topics: increased food production and the quality of living on mankind; the improvement of production and distribution of food; better conditions for rural communities; and guarantees for food security. Actually, all topics that are still important. But according to Prof. Lang the conference should now deal with 1) sustainable diets and related international guidelines 2) food that is beneficial for eco-systems and human beings 3) re-design of food production systems according to sustainable principles and 4) transition from consumentism66 to citizenship. Terra Reversa (2009)xxxviii In this book about the transition to a ‘just’ sustainability, Peter Tom Jones and Vicky de Meyere explain the structural unsustainability of our current agricultural and consumption patterns. They discuss the impact of our fish and meat consumption and describe possibilities for transition to more sustainable food, through family farming and agro-ecology. It should be realised globally - that food is not just a product for sale, but that it is an integral element of a way of life, which also provides job opportunities and can contribute to ecological management of the earth. Thriving beyond sustainability, pathways to a resilient society (2010) In this bookxxxix Andrès R. Edwards demonstrates that apart from sustainability principles we need criteriaxl for effective and continuing initiatives to create habitable and resilient society. In the back of the book a 32 page, long list of organisations, initiatives and ‘Catalysts for Change’, is presented which together could realise a powerful shift to an agroecological society. Making the most of agricultural investments: a survey of business models that provide opportunities to smallholders67 (2010) This report immerses the reader in the amazing arena of agri-business models. Much attention is being given to land grabbing and the problem this presents to small-scale farmers. Contracting, sharecropping, or joint ventures are just a few of the possible models by which the global economy can take over your farm. But what are the alternatives? In this book, options are given that link businessmen with family farmers, with different negotiating powers. This book is a must read for understanding the many
66
Consumentism or Consumerism: being led by consumption instead of other values; http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/discontents.aspx 67 By Sonja Vermeulen and Lorenzo Coltula; IIED, FAO/ IFAD/ SDC, London,
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ways by which farmers can benefit, or lose out, from their dealings with agribusiness. From Outrage to Change (2011) Dirk Barrez, chief editor of the Belgian news site DeWereldMorgen.be (TheWorldTomorrow) shows how the numerous forces, especially those in the outraged centre, can be mobilised to realise an ecological, social and xli democratic global society.
The Urban Food Revolution (2011) In this bookxlii Peter Ladner makes an appeal that we should change the way in which we feed our cities ourselves. The subtitle of the book is ‘Change the way in which we feed our cities’. He presents a prescription for food security for communities, towns and villages and cooperating citizens. A different agriculture? A different economy
xliii
(2012)
Bavo Verwimp, organic farmer and agro-economist, makes this plea for an ecological economy for sustainable agriculture. In his opinion, the current agricultural policy needs more than a facelift. An ecological economy is presented as the foundation for sustainable agriculture. A worldwide acceptance is required of the fact that we need agricultural production tuned to the possibilities of the region. The proposed model assumes production of an item at a sustainable level of scale for that item and the region, fair sharing and efficient use of scarce resources instead of onesided emphasis on economic growth. The Last Hunger Season (2012) Through this book by Roger Thurow we find heart-rending stories of bad management and wrong approaches, resulting in situations where African children are dying from starvation, while food is rotting away in nearby stores. The author suggests that this will be the last time we reach such situations if his solution is employed. He demonstrates how women, through a new social organisation, the One Acre Fund, succeed in structurally changing their lives. The underlying message “If they can do it, we can do it!” World Food - A plea for a fair and ecological food supply (2012) xliv
In this book environmentalist Guus Geurts presents an alternative to the present day food production and trade systems. He opts for regionalisation and food sovereignty and, through this way, he expects more justice for both humankind and nature. For fairer food distribution we need a drastic 58 | P a g e
change in European and global trade policy, supported by each stakeholder assuming their own responsibilities. Restoring the Soil (2012) This is a guide for using green manure/cover crops to improve the food security of smallholder farmers, written by Roland Bunch for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.68 With the aim of promoting recovering soil fertility in a sustainable way, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) and Roland Bunch launched a new book entitled, ‘Restoring the Soil: A Guide for Using Green Manure/Cover Crops to Improve the Food Security of Smallholder Farmers’. This book synthesized Roland’s extensive field-based research gathered from smallholder farmers around the world, who incorporated green manure into their farming systems. It is written as a practical manual for farmers to maintain and improve soil fertility through the use of green manure/cover crops. The decision tree is offered as a step-by-step guide for farmers to identify and decide the most appropriate system for their work environment. The Food Paradox (2013)xlv “After the two major food crises of 1880 and 1930, we stand now at the beginning of a third global food crisis”, says Jan Douwe van der 69 Ploeg in one of the 14 interviews in this fascinating book. The major merit of this book is that it shows us the strange paradox, where rich and poor live in two different worlds. Work on the WEconomy - on our way to a cyclic economy (2013)xlvi Professor Jan Jonker of the Nijmegen University describes the cooperative organisation of sustainability. There is a huge request for change. In a world based on organisation, this implies that we have to start organising in a different way. Sustainability requires different concepts, in which the worth of things, but especially people, is respected again. A worth that resonates in our organisation and decision-making. 70
Organic Farming, Prototype for Sustainable Agriculture? 2014 Much debate still arises about the value of organic farming as a model for sustainable agriculture. Rather than questioning whether organic farming performs better or not than conventional farming, the question addressed in this new book is whether, and under what conditions, organic food and farming can contribute to sustainable agriculture. The book was edited by 68
http://www.apaari.org/restoring-the-soil/ Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, Professor Rural Sociology at Wageningen University 70 A new book in 2014 69
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the staff of the French Institute of Agronomic Research INRA and includes contributions from FiBL researchers. Regenerative Agriculture - a bibliography (2015) This compilation of resources71 reflects the latest and best information on organic regenerative agriculture and land use practises, especially as they relate to carbon sequestration and climate change. Restoration Agriculture (2015) Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs — in your own backyard, farm or ranch.
71
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/regenerative-agriculture-annotatedbibliography
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11.2 MOVIES Cow Number 80 Has a Problem (2007) Farmers all over the world are fighting for a different type of agriculture. Altemir in Brazil, Ndiogou and Awa in Senegal, RenĂŠ in France and many others are working together for a sustainable type of agriculture, which respects man and animal. They do that through social organisations, at fairs and through manifestations, right until the highest levels of the World Trade Organisation. This is a story of people who produce our food. They do not accept that the living conditions of a couple of billion people in the rural areas are destroyed and that 850 million people suffer from hunger, of which 600 million are farmers themselves. This is the story of the battle between global industrial agriculture and family enterprises, a battle that is mainly conducted at local and regional level. This film is financed by the European Communion and produced by the Belgian organisation Iles de Paix. Meat the Truth (2007) The title of this movie has a double meaning. Apart from the truth about meat, it cleverly sounds like meet the truth. It is presented by Marianne Thieme - a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the Animal Party. It is a documentary about the contribution of the bio-industry to climate change. Animal husbandry not only uses land, water and energy for cattle but also for the production of cattle feed. It is more efficient to use agricultural land for the production of crops that are directly consumed by man, instead of being transformed to cattle feed. Generating the same amount of calories by growing grains and beans, one only needs 10% of the land that is currently used for animal husbandry. The World According to Monsanto (2009) Using unpublished documents and witness reports from victims and politicians, the French journalist, Marie-Monique Robin, presents a detailed picture of this “industrial kingdom, based on lies, blackmail and corruptionâ€?xlvii. Monsanto has become the world leader in Genetically Modified Seed, without assessing the negative impact of their products on nature and human health. Today Monsanto presents itself as a bioscience company, which strictly adheres to the values of sustainable entrepreneurship. This documentary is a cooperative enterprise from Arte and the National Filmboard of Canada. Bitter Seeds (2011) US/India. Bitter Seeds is the last part of a trilogy on globalisation by director Micha X Peled. This movie follows Manjusha Amberwar as she reports on the suicide wave among Indian farmers, including her own father. These farmers had switched to genetically manipulated seeds of Monsanto, but 61 | P a g e
there are quite a number of negative consequences. Expenditures for fertilizer and pesticides are unexpectedly high, the crop requires more water, while the farmers in this dry area are dependent on rainfall and seldom had good harvests, while seeds for the next season have to be purchased on an annual basis. The farmers cannot repay their loan and can no longer look after their families. Hungry For Change (2013) This online moviexlviii from the producers of the documentary Food Matters, shows the shocking facts about diets, weight loss and the food industry. They advise on the meaning of food labels, additives and their impact and on what you should and should not buy in the supermarket. They also explain that it is better for your skin and hair to eat good food than to buy expensive unsustainable creams. They present interviews with medical experts and people who are ridding themselves of obesity. People who have seen the movie say they have discovered the relation between food and their own life and health. Food Myth Busters (2013) A short film of about six minutes which shows that the biggest players in the food industry – from manufacturers of pesticides and fertilizer to food processors – who spend billions every year, not on the sales of food but on the idea that we need their products to feed the world.xlix But do we really need so much chemistry and advertisements to feed the world, or can sustainably grown food provide the quantity and the quality that we need now and in the future? That is the question that Anna Lappé poses us with this film by foodmyths.org. Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth72 The moviel follows six young Mayans in their natural habitat, where globalisation and industrial agriculture are destroying the planet, the natural resources and the people. It shows them in their daily life and how they are resisting these developments. They explain how we have to deal with Mother Earth. Their vision of the world is diametrically opposite to our (Western) exploitation of the earth. According to the Maya’s vision of the cosmos everything is related and agriculture takes the central position. In the movie, the current ‘era of the fields’ has come to an end and we are now preparing for the integration of forests and agriculture: agro-forestry is the future. Mother Earth - a new future for small farmers, 2008 This movie73 is like a sequel to Bitter Seeds. Millions of farmers in India have turned their backs on modern agriculture after the bad experience with GM 72
http://www.heart-of-sky.com/
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seeds. They modernise their traditional practices. Their success is the result of cooperation and the combination of local traditional seeds. Chandramma Moegeri says in the film, “our own agriculture is beautiful and generous, you cannot imagine anything better. We have gold in our hands and we harvest gold�. The movie is available on DVD. For more information, e-mail: xtvfilms@zonnet.nl
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https://archive.org/details/Mother_earth_A_new_future_for_small_farmers
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12
Debate and Fora
Foodlog.nl li
Since 2010 this interesting weblog is giving information on recent developments, agendas and backgrounds on food production and consumption and everything related to it, including links to articles in other magazines. The Future of Agriculture (2012) Oxfam Novib organised a 10 days online discussion forum on the required and necessary policy for sustainable agriculture. Four crucial issues were identified: 1) farmers’ practical knowledge as catalyst for innovation, research and investment; 2) land rights for women; 3) the (too large) dependence on fossil fuel of industrial agriculture; and 4) effective systems for risk management. Towards Sustainable Food Production Between 2012 and 2014, the Association of Environmental Professionals in the Netherlands organised a series of critical workshops on the sustainability of our Western food production system. Questions raised were: How sustainable is our food production system? Which criteria are 74 applied to test its sustainability? Some critics say that greenwashing practices are being applied by the organisations concerned with the sustainability of production chains of soy, palm oil and sunflower. The question is whether the Round Tables are a mere pretext to a step in the direction of sustainable agriculture. Cooperation of development organisations and the business community on the conservation of agriculture, soil and water resources (2013) Cordaid, together with the Network for Vital Agriculture and Food (Network VLV), organised a symposium with the title Which knowledge do we share? The event resulted in useful recommendations that can be found at www.nvlv.nl. An example: an economy of scale can be realised when nucleus farming is practised - the combination of large commercial farming enterprises with small-scale family enterprises (outgrowers). The Alternative Trade Mandate (ATM) Alliance The Alliance supported a week of action organized in Brussels from the 10th to the 14th of March 2013 against the transatlantic free trade agreement, defended by the EU and the US administration. They plea that in order to achieve sustainable economic development and to diminish the dependency on export, effective and transparent laws and regulations need 74
‘green washing’ an analogy to ‘white washing’ in the world of finance.
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to be put in place. When the people of developing countries have a say in the exploitation of their own natural resources less social and environmental calamities will occur. It will also lead to better distribution of income from resources when local peoples have a share in the profits. The Alternative Trade Mandate calls for an effective approach to diminish overconsumption of natural resources – contradictory to present European and American policies – that developing countries can use import tariffs on resources to their own benefit. With import tariffs they also can better regulate the activities of foreign investors in their own countries.
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13
References
i
The IAASTD was a three-year project (2005-2007) that consisted of one global and five sub-assessments. They all used the same framework, which consisted of the impact of agricultural knowledge and technology on hunger, poverty, nutrition, health, social, and ecological sustainability in relation to the past and the future. All assessments were critically evaluated by governments and independent experts and finally approved by a panel of the governments from participating countries. The assessment culminated in the report Agriculture at a Crossroads. ii
The United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Olivier De Schutter in 2008, as special UN Rapporteur in the right to food. He is completely independent and reports to the Council for Human Rights and the General Assembly. iii
Integrated nutrient management, soil fertility and sustainable agriculture, current issues and future challenges. Peter Gruhn, Francesco Goletti and Montague Yudelman. Sept 2000, International Food Policy Research Institute iv
http://soco.jrc.ec.eropa.eu
v
http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/highlights/detail/en/c/157597
vi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8TyaL2DAPA
At 15.2 The world-wide emergence of agro-ecological agriculture
At 15.1 Emerging Initiatives for a healthy soil vii
Based in Madison, WI, SSSA is the professional home for 6,000+ members dedicated to advancing the field of soil. https://www.soils.org/ viii
Buen Vivir does not take individual interests into consideration, but looks into the possibilities to create a balance between social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects, without one domineering the other. Only by stepping back and taking a communal perspective the best possible solution for all the stakeholders in an area can be identified. ix
http://operations.ifad.org/web/ifad/operations/country/project/tags/ecua dor/1588/project_overview x
 
CLADES seeks answers to the following questions: Which economic policy will create a more just and sustainable agriculture in each country? Which combination of technologies can reduce the negative impacts on the environement without annihilating the advantages of these technologies?
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What would the relation between export agriculture and small-scale agriculture be if we would use agro-ecological practices under the current or less contorted policy framework? How efficient are alternative technologies in comparison with the conventional high input technologies if all cost centres, types of energy and the creation of employment are included in the comparison? What kind of applied research is necessary to develop and promote agroecological technologies? Technologies that increase the economic and social quality of life and reduce the ecological expenditures. What are the costs and benefits for the natural resources when applying different technologies? xi
http://landscapes.ecoagriculture.org/documents/files/reported_impacts_ of_23_integrated_landscape_initiatives.pdf xii
The Grow Africa Initiative: Countries across Africa are developing multistakeholder partnership initiatives to promote investment in line with national priorities for the agricultural sector. Click on the country on the map to find out more about their partnership and investment opportunities. xiii
http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/pagine/eng/orti/cerca.lasso?id_pg=30 xiv
http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/what.html. Plus 17 descriptions of sustainable farming enterprises: http://www.soilsforlife.org.au/casestudies.html xv
J. Boussard e.a.: Assessment of the budgetary effects of the New Policy
xvi
http://www.pan-europe.info/Campaigns/agriculture.html
xvii
Source: Hivos and Oxfam Novib, 2009
xviii
http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/index.html
xix
http://www.bioversityinternational.org/research/sustainable_agriculture.ht ml
At 15.3 Emerging knowledge for agro-ecological agriculture xx
CAAANZ. The FAO describes conservation agriculture as a “concept for saving and protecting agricultural systems, which is profitable and at the same time realises sustainable production and protects environment and biodiversity.(FAO 2007). xxi
Eco-agriculture. This description was introduced in 2000 by Sara Scherr and Jeffrey McNeely, authors of “Common Ground, Common Future: How Eco-agriculture Can Help Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity”xxi. 67 | P a g e
xxii
Eco-agriculture Partners are: Landcare Uganda, Landcare international; ICRISAT, International Crop Research Institute; ILRI, International Livestock Research Institute; Oasis Initiative; Kenya nut company; The Kenya Network for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies; Universidad Autonoma de Yucatán (Mexico); Landcare Philippines; UNDP Equator Initiative; The Katoomba Group; World Wildlife Fund; UNEP, United Nations Environment Program; FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; The Nature Conservancy; Sustainable Food Laboratory; National Academy of Sciences (USA); African Wildlife Foundation; AgroEco; BOPP, Business and Biodiversity. The partners develop practical experience in regaining biodiversity. xxiii
Groundswell’s values: 1. Lasting Change –address the root causes of poverty and support social change processes that bring lasting improvements in people’s lives and provide equal opportunities for all. 2. Community-Led Processes – working people-centered, responding to local priorities, and promoting creativity, innovation and learning. 3. Local Action, Global Impact –strengthen local leadership and organizations while pursuing common global goals by fostering connections between partners. 4. Continual Learning –ensure practices that aresustainable, relevant and effective. 5. Walking the Talk –committed to transparent, grounded actions and maintaining positive, coherent lifestyles that promote the causes. xxiv
Abson, DJ, EDG Fraser, and TG Benton. 2013. Landscape Diversity and the Resilience of Agricultural Returns: A Portfolio Analysis of Land-Use Patterns and Economic Returns from Lowland Agriculture. Agriculture & Food Security. http://www.vilt.be/Denk_landschapswijd_na_over_duurzame_voedselprod uctie xxv
In 2014, EcoAgriculture Partners released a framework and case study exploring the possibility of labeling products to reflect the location and integrated management practices of their landscape of origin. The papers were written by Abigail Hart, Chris Planicka, and Louise E. Buck of EcoAgriculture Partners' Landscapes and Leaders team, as well as Lee Gross, Senior Program Manager for Markets and Biodiversity. xxvi
http://permaculturenews.org/2008/06/26/the-permaculture-masterplan-permaculture-centres-worldwide/; http://www.permaculture.org.uk/land; http://www.permaculturenews.org xxvii
http://www.terramadre.info/pagine/welcome.lasso?n=en
At 15.4 Emerging exchange of knowledge for agro-ecological agriculture xxviii
Written by Daniele Diavanucci, Gabriel Scherr, Danielle Nierenberg, Charlotte Hebebrand, Julie Shapiro, Jeffrey Milder, Keith Weeler 68 | P a g e
xxix
Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, SD21. “Re-thinking is necessary because we are aiming for the wrong goals. Our eating habits result in poor health and the destruction of eco-systems. This is stupid; the importance of healthy food for the worldwide population is the responsibility of the wrong parties and not related to correct agricultural and water management practices. We have to restore the nutritive value and the vitality of food through better soil management. No more empty calories! In the developed countries import of food is more important than its production; while there are 50.000 edible crops in the world, fifty percent of our food consists of three crops, grain, rice and maize; farmers and emerging organisations which contribute to the resilience and reinforcement of natural resources through the use of ecological agriculture and soil management are hardly supported. Industrial agriculture is the largest water user; on top of that it is the cause that annually some 20.00 to 50.000 km2 of productive land are lost as a result of erosion and land degradation.” xxx
http://www.agriculturesnetwork.org/farmingmatters. 29/1 Maart 2013.
xxxi
http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/aboutsri/origin/index.html
xxxii
http://sustainableag.wordpress.com/tag/universitat-kassel/
xxxiii
Linking Ecological Sustainability and World Food Needs, Agro eco’ Alison G Power, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Agp4@cornell.edu +16072558088 xxxiv
The protein transition. http://www.wageningenur.nl/nl/ExpertisesDienstverlening/Onderzoeksinstituten/lei/Onderzoeksthemas/Eiwittransitie .htm 15.8 Books, movies and discussions supporting integrated agro-ecological agriculture xxxv
Het graan, het varken en de glimlach van een kind, Renaat Tijskens. ISBN 90-6966-102-2 xxxvi
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan. De Arbeiderspers ISBN 978-90-2956633-9. oorspronkelijke titel: In defense of food. xxxvii
Food Policy - integrating health, environment & society; Oxford, 2009 ISBN 978-01-9856-788-2 xxxviii
Terra Reversa is a think-tank and action group in Belgium. Their basic idea is that we cannot apply the general Western economic concept to the rest of the world and – even worse- to the future. We need a different development model, based on the principles of an ecological economy and global justice. Terra Reversa is developing those ideas in the fields of agriculture, economy, biodiversity, employment and food production. http://www.terrareversa.be/content/ 69 | P a g e
xxxix
Thriving beyond sustainability, pathways to a resilient society; Andrès R. Edwards. New Society Publishers. ISBN 978-0-96571-641-4 xl
According to the SPIRALS Approach of Andrès R.Edwards criteria to be used for effective projects towards a sustainable society are: Scalable, Place-making, Intergenerational, Resilient, Accessible, Life Affirming. xli
Van verontwaardiging naar verandering, Dirk Barrez. ISBN 978-90-8180340-3 Global society vzw en EPO. Order through info@globalsociety.be or orders@EPO.BE xlii
The Urban Food Revolution, Peter Ladner. Publisher: New Society Publishers ISBN: 978-08-6571-683-4 xliii
Wervel organised on bio-farm De Kijfelaar on 02/06/12 "Different agriculture? Different economy! – Ecological economy as foundation for sustainable agriculture” The brochure can be ordered through info@wervel.be. The text can also be downloaded at: http://www.wervel.be/downloads/ecolecon2012.pdf xliv
Wereldvoedsel, Guus Geurts, 2012. Uitgeverij De Republiek, ISBN 978-908605-008-6 xlv
De voedselparadox, John Habets en Henk Gloudemans. Publisher Stichting Werelddelen. ISBN 978-90-82068-0-5. xlvi
Jan Jonker, Amsterdam, 1954, is since 1 January 2011 professor Business Management, with special assignment Sustainable Business Management. His vision is that the old organisational setups will be replaced by new ones which are more oriented towards human scale and communality. xlvii
A movie based on the book of Marie Monique Robin. Publisher: de Geus. For DVD, 2008, zie livingcolour.nl xlviii
http://www.hungryforchange.tv/free-worldwide-online-screening
xlix
Bron foodbusters. http://aardeboerconsument.nl/filmpje-hoe-kunnenwe-vandaag-en-morgen-de-wereld-voeden l
Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth is a documentary by Frauke Sandig & Eric Black. www.heart-of-sky.com; li
http://www.foodlog.nl/artikel/overzicht/meer/achtergrond
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