Organic Agriculture, instead of chemicals, for food security in Africa
08/28/2008 Organic Agriculture, instead of chemicals, for food security in Africa
The third African Green Revolution Conference will take place 28 - 29 August 2008 in Oslo, Norway. High level representatives of banks and industry most of them engaged in seeds and chemical fertilizers are meeting to discuss action for an African Green Revolution. While IFOAM is welcoming the attention for the agricultural situation in Africa, it expresses its deep concern about the direction the talks in Oslo are taking: back to the past instead of looking at the future, neglecting recent scientific and societal findings.
Moses Kiggundu Muwanga, IFOAM world board member and coordinator of the
National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU), says that:
‘The global food crisis has inter-linkages with other man-made crises
and we should search for solutions that respond to them systemically.
Focusing on chemical fertilizers does not make sense: they emit
considerable greenhouse gasses, both through their production and their
composition of mainly nitrous oxide, and so they contribute to climate
change. With energy prices going up, the cost of synthetic fertilizers
will increase even more and are unaffordable for most subsistence
farmers.’
Recent international reports and studies support organic agriculture as a solution for the food crisis in Africa.
The
International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology
(IAASTD) (1) held its concluding meeting from 7-14 April in
Johannesburg, South Africa, this year. Conceived in 2002 by the World
Bank and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the IAASTD began
to work in 2004 with the objective of improving life, health and
prosperity for millions of poor farmers. The core message of the final
IAASTD report is the urgent need to move away from destructive and
chemical-dependent industrial agriculture and to adopt environmental
modern farming methods that champion biodiversity and benefit local
communities. More and better food can be produced without destroying
rural livelihoods or natural resources. Local, socially and
environmentally responsible methods are the solution. The IAASTD also
concluded that such techniques as genetic engineering are no solution
for soaring food prices, hunger and poverty. The report is definitely
asking for a new agriculture paradigm, focused on the role of farmers
and especially on poor farmers.
In the research paper
‘Organic Agriculture and the Global Food Supply’ (2), published in
2007, Badgley et al., from the University of Michigan focus on
productivity of Organic Agriculture through a scenario study, comparing
yields of organic versus conventional or low-intensive food production.
The resulting estimates indicate that Organic Agriculture has the
potential to produce enough food on a global per capita basis to
sustain the human population without increasing the agricultural land
base. Organic yields are mostly much higher than conventional yields in
tropical countries, like those in Africa. In addition, estimates of
nitrogen fixation from leguminous cover are sufficient to replace the
amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use. These results indicate
that Organic Agriculture could contribute quite substantially to the
global food supply, thereby reducing the detrimental environmental
impacts of conventional agriculture.
The FAO conference on
Organic Agriculture and food security, May 2007 (3), aimed to identify
organic agriculture's potential and limits in addressing the food
security challenge. In conclusion, organic agriculture is presented as
a “neo-traditional food system” as it merges science and traditional
farming practices. It has the potential to contribute to sustainable
food security through reducing input costs dramatically, improved
household nutrient intake, contributing to transitional food emergency
situations and to healthy diets. It also serves as a national employer
through employment generation in rural areas, and can provide global
environmental services, while being challenged to help mitigate climate
change.
The Tigray project (4) in Northern Ethiopia has
succeeded in reversing the negative agricultural developments, in an
area once severely affected by problems such as soil erosion and
hunger. Here, poor subsistence farmers, researchers, local advisors,
agricultural experts, and the Institute for Sustainable Development
have together devised a cropping system. This system is based on local
inputs, biological diversity, and other ecosystem services. The project
has produced a range of positive results such as higher yields, higher
groundwater levels, better soil fertility, decreased susceptibility to
drought, increased income, and better livelihoods.
Angela Caudle
de Freitas, IFOAM’s Executive Director says that: ‘This is not the time
to look for short-term solutions through chemical agriculture. It never
has been and the world today more than ever needs to be investing in
solid, sustainable solutions that benefit people and the environment.’ ---
