A choice between feeding or saving the planet?

Here is an article over integrating climate and environment into agriculture and vice-versa:

1) The lack of integration of agendas is proving to be costly in developing countries.

Agriculture is both the victim and villain of climate change. Small-holders will suffer if there aren't any measures against the negative impacts of climate change (f.e. drought), while agriculture is the cause of deforestation and plays a large role in emissions.

2) Still a long way to go into integrating climate and environment with agriculture.

3) A clearer message is needed of opportunity in sustainable agriculture.

Best-practice approaches in agriculture are often described in terms of trade-off between feeding the planet or environmental sustainability. This is a false choice in the long term. Improving agriculture, reach poverty objectives as well as protecting the environment at the same time is possible (examples: Integrated Pest Management, sustainable agricultural intensification, multifunctional agriculture) . Sustainable agriculture is only sustainable as long as the environment and people's (basic) needs are respected.

Jatropha curcas

Here we find a revealing article over Jatropha curcas, a plant with high biofuel potential.

Jatropha was presented as one of the solutions to the oscillation of oil prices and climate change problems. Its biofuel is "biodegradable, offers energy security and produce cleaner and lower emissions in comparison to classical fossil fuels. As a result an increasing number of investments have been made in this sector."
"In January 2009, Time Magazine described the Jatropha as the potentially next big biofuel as it has a crucial advantage in alleviating rural poverty: "unlike corn and other biofuel sources, the Jatropha doesn’t have to compete with food crops for arable land. Even in the worst of soils, it grows like weeds""

However, according to a report of the World Agroforestry Center, caution is needed:
"Through a survey literally conducted on the 'field', hundreds of small farmers have been interviewed about the yields of Jatropha. The study has shown a dramatically different reality to what has been enthusiastically claimed. Jatropha has low yields and uneconomical costs of production. What is more this crop needs a large amount of irrigation or rainfall and has a low performance in dry zones. Contrary to what has been stated, Jatropha is vulnerable to a significant number of pests and diseases. In the lights of these results, the report suggests that “Jatropha should not be promoted among smallholder farmers as a monoculture or intercropped plantation crop […] We recommend that all stakeholders re-evaluate their activities promoting Jatropha among smallholder farmers”." Keep in mind that this is a study based in Kenya. As far as I know, Jatropha is hugely succesful in South-Asian countries such as Indonesia (where rainfall is large!).

 The World Agroforestry Center furthermore reports that "Jatropha could become a complementary component of a diverse livelihood strategy that contributes to overall increased agricultural productivity. However, the lack of scientific knowledge on agronomy, such as high-yielding seeds, best management practices, and optimum soil fertility, inhibits the delivery of effective farmer extension services. Another obstacle is that most growers are geographically dispersed and have yet to produce large enough quantities of seeds to achieve the economies of scale necessary for efficient biofuels processing.".  I find the last sentence interesting: biofuel (produced by any plant, not just Jatropha) is not economically viable as long as there is no big enough market for it. However big the potential may be, it still needs to be commercially effective. 
"A final problem involves whether smallholder farmers with little access to capital can afford to wait the years it will take to recoup their investment and start making a profit.". This is not only a problem with Jathropa, but this problems is dealt with all trees. Not all farmers are willing to take risks and unfortunately most of the farmers in developing countries will not or can not look further than short-term profit.

Ultimately, the author of the article rightly concludes that "biofuels have potential for the future of combustible energy but sometimes they have been promoted too easily without investigating the possible consequences. Taking into account that the majority of bioenergy crops are settled in developing countries, even more cautiousness is needed. Before investing in biofuel itself, promoters should devote financial resources towards researching the possible environmental impacts, effects on food production and the economic consequences for the interested region."

The infamous disadvantages of biofuel production, such as competing with food production and the effects on food prices, are quite clear. But it is also a myth that biofuel use and production is CO2 emission-free, as explained in simple terms by this article of Wetlands International. Although a car using biofuel has less impact on the environment than the same car using diesel, the production of the biofuel itself is not emission-free and may have a big impact on the environment, as explained by the article. Basically, to correctly calculate emission by biofuel production, its whole lifecycle must be taken into account. This is where a Life Cycle Assesment (LCA) plays a role.

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I would like to go deeper into the earlier report as there are some more interesting conclusions taken there. Castor, Croton and other oilseeds have promising potential in Kenya:

"Castor has great potential, but is lacking commercial investment in Kenya. Superior, high yielding seed varieties and extensive agronomic knowledge exist globally, but must be developed at the local level. Field trials to assess cost of production and yields under different management regimes are also important in order to identify the most profitable business models. Local processors must also
import the machinery required to process high-quality Castor oil.

There are many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Croton trees growing wildly and in agroforestry systems throughout Kenya. Some of the critical obstacles for the development of Croton for biodiesel production include a lack of knowledge on the best silvicultural practices, such as spacing, pruning, and the correlation between fertilization of trees and yields. Seed harvesting and post-harvest handling techniques also have not been established and standardized. Nonetheless the potential for production, processing and utilization of Croton seeds for biofuels is substantial.

There is a need to design and establish agronomic research trials for determining best practices and
identifying superior, seed-producing trees. There is also an urgent need to undertake countrywide
census of different age classes of Croton trees and to determine accurate seed yield estimates. A final
recommendation, mainly aimed at the private sector, is to design and mainstream an integrated
model of production, processing, utilization, and marketing for Croton-based biofuel systems."
In conclusion, more local research (notice the emphasis of field trials), heavy agricultural extension and business designs are needed.

The Changing Climate for Development

Here is an intriguing presentation of Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, co-director of the World Development Report 2010.

The presentation is focused on climate change and how the developing world can grow (significantly) while adapting to the climate. This she calls a "climate-smart" world.  However, to reach this phase; the world must:

ACT NOW, because 1) today's actions determine what options are left for tomorrow; and 2) or the 2°C trajectory (as opposed to an increase of 5°C in global temperature over the following 100 years. Dr. Bierbaum explains earlier in the presentation that there is a huge significant difference of impact between these two trajectories). 


ACT TOGETHER, because 1)  all have a role to play to manage (research, mitigation and adaptation) costs, although high-income countries need to take the lead; 2) cooperation helps buffer shocks (such as climate change causing a global food crisis).


ACT DIFFERENTLY, as 1) we need to radically transform energy systems thereby moving from a fossil-fuel focused energy system to biomass and carbon-capture-and-storage based energy system; 2) we need to make robust rather than optimal decisions, giving the best outcome for a range of outcomes (such as developing seed varieties that perform well droughts or heat situations); 3) we need to manage contingencies better; 4) we need to manage for multiple stresses (that appear simultaneously in various places).


To make it all happen, Dr. Bierbaum proposes:
- increase funding for adaptation and mitigation now and over the years, which would cost for about 0.4% of GDP until 2100.
- challenge immediate needs, such as reforming carbon markets
- new instruments that support communities and decision-makers
- increasing the pace of innovation
- supporting financial policies leading to more efficient energy, renewable energy and new technology. 
- new pressures to turn awareness into the needed actions

In conclusion, this was definitely a good and clear presentation which included some ideas that were new to me. It is a nice introduction into how the whole world can cope with and adapt to the changing climate. Everything was well argumented and there's a certain optimism that I would love to share with Dr. Bierbaum.

However, the presentation is superficial. It only touches the surface and the details aren't discussed, which is understandable as one can only do so much. Despite the fact that I like the motto of the presentation "act now, act together and act differently", it is all easier said than done. Firstly, it will already be a very difficult task to convince even the majority of all governments of the developed world to support the policies that Dr. Bierbaum suggests. Secondly, it is not certain that the new policies and reforms will have an (positive) effect on the people that need it the most (because of e.g. corruption). Therefore I find it a shame that there is a lack of ideas that effect communities directly and/or the link between the community and the government.

But I don't want to end on a negative point. As I've said before, the presentation is definitely interesting and is a good read.

I'll close this post with a link for anyone who's interested:

Blog: Development in a Changing Climate

Why Sustainability Is Now The Key Driver

"There’s no alternative to sustainable development.

Even so, many companies are convinced that the more environment-friendly they become, the more the effort will erode their competitiveness. They believe it will add to costs and will not deliver immediate financial benefits.

Talk long enough to CEOs, particularly in the United States or Europe, and their concerns will pour out: Making our operations sustainable and developing “green” products places us at a disadvantage vis-à-vis rivals in developing countries that don’t face the same pressures. Suppliers can’t provide green inputs or transparency; sustainable manufacturing will demand new equipment and processes; and customers will not pay more for eco-friendly products during a recession. That’s why most executives treat the need to become sustainable as a corporate social responsibility, divorced from business objectives.

Not surprisingly, the fight to save the planet has turned into a pitched battle between governments and companies, between companies and consumer activists, and sometimes between consumer activists and governments. It resembles a three-legged race, in which you move forward with the two untied legs but the tied third leg holds you back. One solution, mooted by policy experts and environmental activists, is more and increasingly tougher regulation. They argue that voluntary action is unlikely to be enough. Another group suggests educating and organizing consumers so that they will force businesses to become sustainable. Although both legislation and education are necessary, they may not be able to solve the problem quickly or completely.

Executives behave as though they have to choose between the largely social benefits of developing sustainable products or processes and the financial costs of doing so. But that’s simply not true. We’ve been studying the sustainability initiatives of 30 large corporations for some time. Our research shows that sustainability is a mother lode of organizational and technological innovations that yield both bottom-line and top-line returns. Becoming environment-friendly lowers costs because companies end up reducing the inputs they use. In addition, the process generates additional revenues from better products or enables companies to create new businesses. In fact, because those are the goals of corporate innovation, we find that smart companies now treat sustainability as innovation’s new frontier.

Indeed, the quest for sustainability is already starting to transform the competitive landscape, which will force companies to change the way they think about products, technologies, processes, and business models. The key to progress, particularly in times of economic crisis, is innovation. Just as some internet companies survived the bust in 2000 to challenge incumbents, so, too, will sustainable corporations emerge from today’s recession to upset the status quo. By treating sustainability as a goal today, early movers will develop competencies that rivals will be hard-pressed to match. That competitive advantage will stand them in good stead, because sustainability will always be an integral part of development.

It isn’t going to be easy. Enterprises that have started the journey, our study shows, go through five distinct stages of change. They face different challenges at each stage and must develop new capabilities to tackle them, as we will show in the following pages. Mapping the road ahead will save companies time—and that could be critical, because the clock is ticking."

(source: http://hbr.org/2009/09/why-sustainability-is-now-the-key-driver-of-innovation/ar/1)

Want to Curb Litter? Tax the bag

"In 2005, Botswana joined countries like Denmark, Italy, South Africa, and Ireland in regulating the design and use of plastic bags – emulating many countries and municipalities that have taken measures to cut the environmental eyesore of plastic bag litter. The legislation set a minimum manufacturing standard, punishment for those who did not follow those standards and forced retailers to be transparent when determining the costs of plastic shopping bags. In 2007, Botswana imposed a tax on each bag used.

In a new Environment for Development discussion paper, Behavioral Response to Plastic Bag Legislation in Botswana, authors Johane Dikgang and Martine Visser analyze the success of the legislation and conclude—at least in the short-term—that the bag policies are working.

During the 18 months after the legislation was passed, plastic bag consumption fell by 50 percent when compared to pre-tax consumption. “The partial success of the Botswana levy was due to the constant high prices of the plastic bags,” Dikgang and Visser write. “Even after the initial significant decline in consumption, prices of bags continued to increase.” Compared to other countries with similar legislation, Dikgang and Visser believe Botswana will continue to see positive results.
“Unlike South Africa, plastic bag consumption in Botswana fell sharply and remained significantly low 18 months after charging for them began,” the authors write. “It suggests that South Africa’s attempt to use taxes to regulate plastic bag consumption failed because the initial price that was too low. “Whether the Botswana levy will result in sustained lower consumption, as in Ireland, remains to be seen. However, based on the Irish experience, we predict that as long as the price remains high the levy in Botswana will continue to be effective over time.”"

(source: http://www.efdinitiative.org/centers/south-africa/news-press/news-archive/2010/want-to-curb-litter-tax-the-bag)

This article led me to the interesting nonprofit research organization Resource For the Future:

 "RFF is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that conducts independent research – rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences – on environmental, energy, natural resource and public health issues.

....

For more than 50 years, RFF has pioneered the application of economics as a tool to develop more effective policy about the use and conservation of natural resources. Its scholars continue to analyze critical issues concerning pollution control, energy and transportation policy, land and water use, hazardous waste, climate change, biodiversity, ecosystem management, public health, and the environmental challenges of developing countries."

Green Economy

Following the previous articles, here are two useful links:

- Chalmers Climate Calculator: with this calculator you can generate your own graphs of CO2 emission and temperature over the following decades. By playing with the parameters (including emission percentages of Annex 1 countries to climate sensitivity) you can change the paths of the curves and generate your own scenario.

- The Green Economy Initiative: "The Green Economy Initiative (GEI) is designed to assist governments in “greening” their economies by reshaping and refocusing policies, investments and spending towards a range of sectors, such as clean technologies, renewable energies, water services, green transportation, waste management, green buildings and sustainable agriculture and forests."

Voluntary Pledges and Green Growth in the Post Copenhagen climate

Here's an abstract of the article, written by professor of environmental economics Thomas Sterner (whose bio you may find here):

"A number of features set climate change apart from most environmental problems: It spans several generations forcing us to think in new ways about intergenerational fairness. Even more importantly, it involves a delicate problem of coordination between countries and other agents at a truly global scale. As long as it is very profitable to use fossil fuels, policy coordination must include basically all major economies. The costs are sufficiently sizeable to make it important that the policy instruments chosen encourage efficiency in abatement. Ultimately this means striving towards a single market for carbon. The importance of getting near-universal adhesion to a treaty makes fairness and procedure important but we know how difficult it is to build a truly global agreement. Some people, both environmentalists and business leaders see green growth as the magic bullet: we should stop talking about who gets to use fossil fuels and instead focus on who will lead us into the green valleys of the future and there reap all the benefits of being first. This sounds good but who is going to stop laggards from simply continuing to burn coal? This paper discusses the necessary ingredients for a long run Global Climate Strategy. At the end we will dwell on the “short run” issue of what policies to pursue in the mean time. As we wait for the final (and maybe elusive) Worldwide treaty, we must have a policy that makes sense and in fact is not only compatible with, but hopefully facilitates the development of this worldwide agreement! The last section will focus on what forms of “green growth” strategy are reasonable for this intermediate period that we are in and which may be end up being more long than short."

Read the full article here.

Rodale Institute

"Rodale Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach. For over sixty-years, we’ve been researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing our findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating consumers about how going organic is the healthiest options for people and the planet."

On their website you may find some interesting articles:

- Regenerative Organic Farming - A Solution to Global Warming: the paper could be more critical on this farming method, but an interesting read nonetheless.

- Soil carbon research insights show co-solutions - Scientists analyze interactions with climate change and land management to adress food, fuel, water and fiber needs.

Watershed Organisation Trust

"WOTR believes that land degradation and water scarcity are the most intense and commonly felt needs of a village community that can bring different groups of people together to begin their development process. Community restoration of the natural environment makes sustainability happen. Such community-led efforts help combat and adapt to climate change and mitigate the impacts."


Related with this: The Indo German Watershed Development Programme

"The objectives of the Indo German Watershed Development are :

1. To develop micro-watersheds in a comprehensive manner, so as to create adequate and sustainable livelihood opportunities for the inhabitants of that area.
2. To catalyse to form village groups into mobilising their degraded environment through participatory self-help initiatives.
3. To facilitate the arising and unfolding of a people’s movement for sustainable economic development along watershed lines."

Farming Systems Research

 Here is an interesting article about Farming Systems Research:

"Central to FSR is the farming system:
"The entire range of human and technical aspects, which influence the living of a farming family" (Gilbert,
et al., 1980).
The primary target of FSR is then:
"To increase the productivity of the farming system in the context of the entire range of private and societal goals, given the constraints and potentials of the existing farming system"(ibid). Important differences between this concept and traditional concepts on agricultural research are:
1. FSR recognizes that not only production but also consumption is a major issue in the farming households
decision-making. Farmers' objectives are not only to yield high production, but also to avoid risks of drought or pests and to have a varied and assured food supply and a sustained ecological balance.
2. FSR recognizes that socio-economic constraints are important. FSR dedicates explicit attention to farmers'
objectives and constraints. Traditionally, research focussed on biological and technical constraints only.
3. FSR criticizes the single crop or commodity approach and recommends concentration on the whole range
of farming household activities. Essential activities such as off-farm employment and livestock production
are included in the research.
4. Although FSR is essentially a method for the improvement of agricultural research and therefore tends to
search for technical solutions, it also recognizes that socio-economic constraints such as land scarcity, a
bad marketing situation or infrastructural problems, can be important.
5. FSR promotes the effort to enhance communication and contact between researchers, extension workers
and farmers to avoid the isolation and top-down contact of traditional research.
FSR should be complimentary to the work on a research station, and feed the research on the station with
ideas."

Below you may find a simplified diagram of farming systems research:

 (source: Food and Agriculture Organization)

Case Studies of Succesful Projects

Here's an interesting article found on the website of the International Development Research Centre (furthermore, you may find on the same website an article about sustainable agriculture). However, I will quote here only the most relevant sections:

"Employment in rural agribusiness

Rural people can be liberated from poverty when enabled to earn a stable income from sustained employment in agribusiness enterprises which, individually or collectively, they own and operate. Agribusiness includes production of crops and livestock; of materials essential to crop and livestock production; preservation and processing of agricultural, horticultural and livestock products; and safe delivery to identified markets. Sustained development of rural agribusiness requires:

1. 
   
   
   a comprehensive, critical assessment of resources available and resources needed to produce and deliver familiar, acceptable, affordable products to identified accessible markets;
2. 
   
   
   training to acquire relevant practical knowledge and skills;
3. 
   
   
   constant, consistent, reliable access to technical, financial and marketing advisory services;
4. 
   
   
   organisation into legally registered community cooperative associations administered by the community. A community cooperative organisation can exert greater influence than isolated individuals in gaining favourable access to loans, credit, bulk purchasing and markets; in providing essential supporting and advisory services;
5. 
   
   
   two highly successful programmes in south India are exemplary.

The MSSRF Biovillages programme

In 1991, the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), based in Chennai, began its Biovillages programme for rural agribusiness development. The programme persuasively illustrates that, given the opportunity, with effective training and advisory services, poor rural women with little formal education can collectively and individually engage in sustainable agribusiness. MSSRF supports a national biovillage network, illustrated by the programme in Pondicherry. The Pondicherry programme is administered by a Biovillage Council of some 30 women representatives from 19 rural communities. A Biocentre is staffed by young trained advisers recruited from the biovillage communities who train, assist and provide an immediately accessible advisory service to the rural women, negotiating low interest loans and credit, providing veterinary and ancillary advisory services. Each village community is equipped with a computer linked to market outlets to provide instant access to current prices and levels of demand for products offered by the biovillages. Computer graphics and illustrations are useful tools for demonstration and training.

Pondicherry biovillage women cultivate horticultural crops, produce low-cost hybrid seed for more than a dozen vegetable species, organic fertilisers from vermiform compost, and bio-pesticides from Neem trees and other local resources. The women raise poultry, culture fresh water carp in village ponds, compound fodder for their cows. The Biovillage Centre maintains demonstration plots to ensure efficient crop cultivation and crop combinations that contain most nutrients essential to human health. The Biovillage Women's Council study opportunities for new and expanded activities, manage and monitor collective financial resources, and make bulk purchases at wholesale prices of essential supplies.

VGKK/KT-CFTRI health and employment programme

The Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra/Karuna Trust is an NGO registered in India that provides health care, basic education, vocational training, biodiversity conservation, stimulates community self-help and small-scale rural industries in the B. R. Hills/Yelandur taluks of Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka State. The forest reserve covers more than 350 square kilometres and is inhabited by some 80,000 people of the Soligas tribe whose ancestors have subsisted on the products of the forest for countless generations. Several years ago an eminent Indian physician abandoned his practice in Bangalore to provide much needed health care to the poor tribal forest people. At the outset, more than half the children suffered chronic malnutrition; infant mortality exceeded 150 per 1000 live births; leprosy, epilepsy, tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases were hyper-endemic. Assisted by other volunteer physicians and surgeons, the director provided a diversity of remedial and health care services. They established clinics for maternity, ante-and post-natal care, a surgery, ward residence facilities, a mobile surgery to visit remote communities, and trained young tribal women as nurses, midwives and medical assistants. By multi-antibiotic drugs and reconstructive surgery, the incidence of leprosy dropped from over 20 per cent to less than one per cent of the population. Comparable improvements occurred with other hyper-endemic diseases.

The need was evident for education, vocational training and employment to alleviate abject chronic poverty. Schools for primary, secondary education and vocational training were established. The physician director then requested assistance to promote rural agribusiness industries to harvest and process non-timber forest products (NTFP) and horticultural crops cultivated in forest clearings. Extracts of more than 60 identified natural medicinal plants have been registered as Ayurvedic drugs. Opportunities by which to expand from domestic to small commercial scale processing of fruits, vegetables, wild honey and medicinal plants from the forest were realised through a grant from a development agency and a loan from the local agricultural bank. Roughly 50 poor women were trained to operate and manage factory-scale processing technologies by which to transform various NTFP into marketable products, products familiar and readily acceptable to local people. The factory, with a working area of 220 square metres, is equipped for steam processing, fluid concentration, dehydration and simple fermentations. An ingenious evaporative cooling chamber preserves fresh and perishable biological materials.

The factory, constructed entirely of local materials by local labour, was completed in 45 days and began full-scale production in September 2004. Technologists from the Indian Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) at Mysore trained the women, gave guidance in product design, development and quality control, and continue as an accessible, reliable source of technical and marketing advice. The VGKK organisation is formally registered as a cooperative association and administers a credit union from which members can obtain loans or make interest-bearing deposits. In addition to the 50 women who manage and operate the factory, cultivation and harvesting of raw materials, marketing of processed products, provides employment for very many more. Among the tribal people, it is a self-imposed discipline that quantities of NTFP harvested never exceed the natural rate of regeneration. Thus it is a model of biodiversity conservation.
These two examples clearly illustrate that poor rural people who have little formal education can be trained to produce and process a wide diversity of biological materials, so long as they have constant and consistent access to technical, financial and marketing advisory services, services provided by intelligent young people indigenous to and therefore familiar with the language, culture and customs of the people to be assisted. They illustrate that rural poverty alleviation demands very many relatively small financial investments; that poverty alleviation is a labour-intensive not a capital-intensive undertaking, a lesson yet to be learned by many development agencies.

...

Local management of water

In the précis of his book Water; Local-level Management, David E. Brooks gives blunt advice: "There is one iron rule for managing groundwater and aquifer supplies: assume the worst". And then, from a man who has been in the forefront of this field heading an NGO (Friends of the Earth) and worked as a consultant before joining IDRC, Brooks adds more positively: "Policy and research should shift their focus from enlarging supplies of water to managing demand". On the question of engaging local communities, he says: "Policy-making should always start by accepting social customs and cultural norms as given, but not sacrosanct". Finally a warning: "Devolution of the power to manage water (not just read meters and fix leaks) will not come easily. The forces to maintain a top-down approach to water are well entrenched and serve many power elites".

His way of thinking has informed a wide range of water projects supported by IDRC, that have taken place at all levels from international to community. Internationally, the Centre has worked for a dozen years in the Middle East and North Africa region to promote water demand management (WDM) through gatherings of ministers and officials to exchange knowledge and experience among their nine regional countries. Missions between countries have shown, for example, the Syrian water officials how Water Users Associations (local bodies) in Tunisia distribute drinking water and levy charges, and how Egypt deals with wastewater.
These gatherings have evolved into a Water Demand Initiative, a five year-programme (2004–2009) with the awkward acronym WaDImena, to reach out further to civil society with research, and to apply WDM strategies in particular rural areas, concentrating on women and the rural poor. WaDImena has a website (www.idrc.ca/WaDImena) with a trilingual glossary of WDM terms and a library that highlights lessons learned.

But respect for traditional knowledge is a major factor in tackling water demand problems. Farmers in the stony highlands of Yemen depended for years on intricate terracing to save water, and conserve fertile soils from erosion. Researchers studying why these terraces were now in disrepair learnt the obvious answer: maintaining them was brutally hard labour, and many men had left for the cities. Also, there was no clear agreement on cost-sharing between landlords and tenants, and no credit available to farmers to invest in water management. Ways were found to rebuild at reasonable cost and labour, and food production became profitable and attractive again. A comment from David Brooks: "Reviving traditional water management approaches can require both technical and policy ingenuity, but the rewards can be significant".
China provides the most striking example of how a determined (and sometimes desperate) community can take on management of its water resources, and reverse the top-down process of regulation. Centralised state control enforced by a cumbersome bureaucracy has long been the pattern in China, and one recent result has been that the economic boom in its eastern provinces have brought little benefit to parts of the interior. In particular, the mountainous Guizhou province in the southwest has remained one of the poorest; and Changshun county, set on sloping land that is mainly porous limestone is chronically short of ground and subsurface water. Shortage of water has meant low rice yields, little diversification of crops and degraded forests. It has added to the burden of women who walk miles to collect water for households.
A first attempt at water management was made in the early 1990s when facilities were rebuilt and maintained by the state. But there was little accountability of this poorly managed government project, and no local control. Politely put, the project had limited effectiveness. At that point, researchers at the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GAAS), funded by IDRC, decided to try a community-based approach, involving participatory decision-making about natural resource management. In 1995 its team began learning about and analysing traditional practices in a number of villages, and measuring the damage already done to the natural resource base there. (It was the same diagnostic approach described in the case-study on Farming Systems Research).

The GAAS team guided the academics and local residents through a collaborative process. There was debate on practical and technical matters – irrigation, reservoirs, pipes, new water sources – and strong attention to the social aspects of development. But the overall emphasis was on the process and on involving people in decisions about their own development. It was painstaking and lengthy, but the process worked. The people selected the technical solutions, and built the water systems; they took 'ownership' by working out regulations and agreed payments for maintenance and by electing (and paying) a manager to run daily operations.
Results reported have been remarkable. Farmers diversified crops and enjoyed increased yields. They grew fruit trees and berry bushes on the marginal land. Women probably gained the most. Relieved of hours of water gathering (it was now piped, a tap to every 50 households), they took charge of a peach orchard, and marketed the fruit. They overruled the researchers, who had suggested chestnut trees; and they impressed the deputy governor of Guizhou province, who had expected the scheme to fail, and who later admitted his officials had not thought of the kinds of regulations and management systems the villages established.
The idea that local initiatives can solve local problems is gaining ground in China. David Brooks should have the last words: "Decision-makers too often dismiss small groups and small solutions. They make a big mistake"."

Icipe

Various institutions exist that focus research on crops, forests and other natural resources. For agriculture to develop sustainably, an effort also needs to be made in the defense against / use of insects:
African Insect Science for Food and Health
How small little things can become a life-threatening problem...

"icipe is a tropical organisation with a tropical agenda. But why study insects? Because in the tropics, insects are a fact of life to be reckoned with. Insects pose a greater risk to food production, often causing the loss of entire crops and destroying about half of all harvested food in storage. The 'old' tropical vector-borne diseases of malaria, dengue, kala-azar and the like are making a dramatic comeback, and frightening new ones are emerging. Livestock succumb in their millions of insect- and tick-borne diseases, resulting in loss of milk, meat and traction power. Underlying all of these issues is the fundamental poverty of most tropical countries and inability to harness their natural resources for themselves.
Established in Kenya in 1970, icipe's founders recognised that the mainly developing countries in the tropics had special problems that were not being adequately addressed by scientists and organisations in the North. Furthermore, there was a serious lack of indigenous expertise to resolve these problems. It should come to no surprise therefore that icipe's objectives for this millennium are essentially the same as they were three decades ago:

• To help ensure food security and better health for humankind and its livestock;
• To protect the environment;
• To conserve and make better use of natural resources."

Related with this: Integrated Pest Management

47 Portraits of Sustainable Agriculture Projects and Initiatives

Interesting read here

Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices

"The goal of sustainable agriculture is to maximize the net benefits that society receives from agricultural production of food and fibre and from ecosystem services. This will require increased crop yields, increased efficiency of nitrogen, phosphorus and water use, ecologically based management practices, judicious use of pesticides and antibiotics, and major changes in some livestock production practices. Advances in the fundamental understanding of agroecology, biogeochemistry and biotechnology that are linked directly to breeding programmes can contribute greatly to sustainability.

Agriculturalists are the de facto managers of the most productive lands on Earth. Sustainable agriculture will require that society appropriately rewards ranchers, farmers and other agriculturalists for the production of both food and ecosystem services. One major step would be achieved were agricultural subsidies in the United States, EU and Japan redirected to reward sustainable practices. Ultimately, sustainable agriculture must be a broadly based effort that helps assure equitable, secure, sufficient and stable flows of both food and ecosystem services for the 9,000 million or so people likely to inhabit the Earth.."

Read more here.

Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement

Not so long ago I read the book of Noble peace prize winner Wangari Maathai: The Challenge for Africa. It is a very interesting read for anyone curious in the problems (and possible solutions) facing Africa's development. What I especially like is that Mrs. Maathai places as much blame on the Western world as well as Africans themselves and their leaders. She gives the perspective of the two.
Mrs. Maathai has also founded the Green Belt Movement, a NGO with a mission "to mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, equity, improved livelihoods and security, and environmental conservation.". Definitely check it out.


Let's end with a good Q&A with Wangari Maathai:

"Question: Why did you decide to write about Africa?
Wangari Maathai: I had been working in Africa for thirty-five years, and at all levels of society--in the academy and at the grassroots, as an activist and in the government, as a human rights advocate and an environmentalist. My experience is that dealing with the issues requires a holistic approach and a broad understanding of the issues at play, so that one feels challenged to keep going rather than giving up. I wanted to share my experience with others who, like me, want to see a better Africa. I hope that reading of my experience will help them understand why things are the way they are.

Q: You place as much blame on Africa’s post-independence leaders as on the legacy of colonialism for the failure of Africa to progress, and strongly advocate for better leadership. How do you feel this will be accomplished?
WM: First and foremost, it is important for the African leadership to let go of the excuse of the legacy of colonialism, and to accept that it is many decades since the colonial powers left Africa and some of the expectations of the African people should have been realized. It is the people in charge of the countries that should have made that possible, expcially since many of them were educated, enlightened, well-traveled, and well-exposed. Their people, however, were largely just the reverse and so put a lot of their faith in their leaders. My experience is that it is the leaders who let their people down, and it is they who must make a decision to work for their people. That is more likely to happen than their people having the capacity to hold them accountable and therefore to change the status quo. That’s why I emphasize leadership.

Q: You emphasize the loss of culture as one reason why Africa is not progressing. Why is this important?
WM: Every people in the world has a code of wisdom they have developed out of their experiences over the course of time. That code of wisdom is reflected in their ways of life: their worship practices; their sense of justice and fairness; their agriculture and the food they eat; their biological heritage and environment; their songs, language, and dances; and the way they mourn their dead and celebrate life. All of these are what we mean when we talk about the culture of a people.
The reason why I think culture is important in Africa, especially south of the Sahara, is that peoples’ cultures were deliberately demonized, trivialized, and destroyed, and people were encouraged to embrace a culture that was largely Western. Now the problem is that, when you deny people their cultural heritage, you render them vulnerable and make them feel inadequate. They become people with no ground to stand on, and they are disempowered. That is what happened to Africa during the colonial period, and because the cultures of Africans were largely unwritten when they got their independence, it was very difficult to go back to the pre-colonial cultures, and to a large extent many of them died with their ancestors. Because the people who were given power by the colonial administrators were devoted convertees to Western culture, they imposed that culture even more on their peoples.
As a result, when we look back and try to deal with the challenges that confront us, we don’t have one of the very important platforms we need to stand on to start. When I compare the experience of sub-Saharan Africa with Africa to the north, the reason why the northern Africans seem to have been able to pull out of the colonial legacy better than the southerners is, in my opinion, probably because they have a culture that is written, that wasn’t completely destroyed, and even if the colonial power tried they were able to resist. India also seemed to deal better with their post-colonial period than Sub-Saharan Africa. Gandhi removed his three-piece suit (which represented Western success) and put on a dhoti; he ate Indian food and adopted the symbol of the spinning wheel--all to appeal to the Indian peoples’ sense of themselves and their rich, written culture. This gives me reason to question aloud, and encourage Africans to do the same, whether culture may be a missing link in Africa’s failure to progress.

Q: You examine the negative perspective of Africa that is present in Western media. What do you believe the West doesn’t understand about Africa?
WM: I think there are people who understand Africa but like to present it in a distorted fashion. I also believe there are people who genuinely want to understand Africa, but don’t because they look at Africa through the eyes of the Western media. The African media are not able to penetrate the Western media to give their own story, and even if they did, sometimes that media are already very pro-West, because the journalists have been educated and acculturated in the West and are unable to present Africa as it really is.
Quite often in the case of Africa, people will just present one aspect--for example, poverty--without having the time or patience to explain that poverty is manmade and created both by the local leadership and the international community in the way it deals with Africa. A Western person looking at poverty makes a judgment, without understanding that that poverty is partly caused by the way their government is dealing with Africa. Another good example is the debt issue. Many of us who wanted to campaign for debt cancellation came to appreciate that Africa has already paid the principal on the debt many times over, but the way the debt was structured, Africa was going to pay it through several generations. This is unfair and exploitative. Yet most Westen people are only told that Africans have borrowed and are refusing to pay the money. They don’t get the whole truth.

Q: African leaders often use the phrase “African solutions to African problems.” Do you support this idea?
WM: I’ve yet to see it applied.

Q: You seem optimistic about Africa’s future, despite entrenched challenges. Why?
WM: I would have to accept defeat if, after so many years of committing myself to Africa, I arrived at the conclusion that Africa cannot be saved. My personality is that of an optimist, because I believe that almost every problem has a solution. There are very, very few problems in life that have no solution whatsoever. Where there is a will and a commitment we can always find a solution. I do believe Africa can change. I am an African, I am highly educated; I was educated in the West, I went back home. I worked at all levels of development--among the rich and poor.
If I was able to change and was willing to devote my life to trying to improve Africans’ quality of life and, in spite of all the obstacles, was able to accomplish some measure of success, which even the world came to recognize, why not another person? And not just two people, but four--and then a critical mass of Africans who think like me in every other African country? If that happened, we could change; indeed, it is how things change. There are countries who have been poor, colonized, and enslaved, and they have been able to get out of that situation--mostly due to the kind of leadership they enjoyed. I don’t believe that other people have a monopoly of good leaders. I know I’m not alone. We need to speak out. We need to hold our leaders accountable, so they can stop dividing us along ethnic and economic lines, and begin uniting us so we can have a respectable place at the table of the nations of the world."

Environment for Development

"The Environment for Development initiative is a capacity building program in environmental economics focusing on research, policy advice, and teaching in China, Central America, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania."

This is what EfD says on the theme of agricultural research:

"Land degradation threatens food security and the sustainability of agricultural production in many developing countries. In response, government and development agencies have invested substantial resources in promoting sustainable land management technologies (SLMTs). In spite of the great efforts to promote bunds, SLMTs have not been widely adopted by smallholders in many developing countries.

Not only are the technologies not widely adopted but there is even some evidence that conservation structures, once constructed, are partially or fully removed. In some cases, pilot demonstration projects remain unreplicated on smallholder farms. These findings raise the following questions:

• Why are promoted resource conserving measures not widely adopted by land users?
• Why is there limited success in promoting resource conserving measures?

The research activities on SLM in each EfD center, which depend on the agricultural policy of the specific  country, were developed to answer these critical policy questions."

Also other themes such as Forestry and Climate Change are important.
I recommend visiting the organization's project and research pages for further (scientific) information.

Here is an interesting short article found on the website:
Climate change financing - what is the role of development cooperation? 

"Together with his colleague Emelie César he (Olof Drakenberg) has written the report, Old, New and Future Funding for Environment and Climate Change - the Role of Development Cooperation, which is a background study commissioned by Sida that feeds into the ongoing work on Swedish government policy on environment and climate change.

Weak rule of law, lack of transparency and low administrative capacity risk hamper climate funding to poor countries. The experience of climate finance coming through the Clean Development Mechanisms is illustrative. The least developed countries have attracted about 5 per cent of climate finance with the large majority ending up in China and India.

”The most important role for development cooperation in relation to environment finance in general and climate change finance specifically is to reduce the bottlenecks that inhibit financial flows and effective delivery, so that even the poorest countries benefit from climate change funds. In practice, support for strengthening institutional capacity, increase transparency and combat corruption becomes even more important. In addition, Sida and other donors should prevent the proliferation of funds and conditions that increase transaction costs and reduces national ownership.""

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

So here we have an interesting project promoting a new Green Revolution in Africa. While it is debatable whether the first Green Revolution was succesful, AGRA looks promising and we can atleast give it a chance. Here are the programs that AGRA uses to "trigger comprehensive change" :

• The Seeds Program supports the breeding of improved seed and works to ensure that this good seed gets to farmers. Currently, less than one-quarter of African farmers use high yielding, locally adapted seed. Poor seeds and depleted soils have kept farmers’ yields at one-quarter the global average.
• The Soil Health Program improves farm productivity through increasing farmers’ access to locally appropriate soil nutrients and promoting integrated soil and water management. The Seeds and Soil Health Programs work together to raise farmers’ yields. Both are key to environmental sustainability and helping farmers adapt to and mitigate climate change.
• Once improved seeds and soils engender higher yields, farmers need access to markets for their surplus. AGRA’s Market Access Program pursues multiple routes to expanding market access for smallholders.
• For all of these efforts to have a widespread impact, agricultural policies must provide smallholder farmers with comprehensive support on national, regional and global levels. At the same time, partnerships are needed to marshal the resources and expertise that will catalyze change. AGRA’s Policy and Partnerships Program tackles these challenges.
• All of this takes resources, and one overlooked source is Africa’s own commercial banks. AGRA’s cross-cutting Initiative on Innovative Finance works with Africa’s financial institutions and other partners to increase access to low-interest loans for smallholder farmers and agricultural businesses. 

Agroforestry

If you have checked the previous blog I just posted, then you've certainly bumped up agroforestry. At first sight, this seems like the certain thing to do in any agricultural system anywhere in the world. But keep in mind that disadvantages also exist with this production system. There is not one golden solution that you can blindly promote. All factors have to be considered.

"On the detrimental side, trees can be or be seen to be competitive - either economically or biologically or both - with annual-crop production rather than complementary or supplementary. Consequently, when farm size falls below a certain level, farmers may forego tree products and services in favour of staple food-crop production. Or if land tenure is not secure, the time-lag in realizing benefits gained by planting trees may become a severe disadvantage, and trees will not be planted or protected. Sustainability is not common sense if there is no future return to the individual on today's investment in conservation or long-term production. Also, trees hinder mechanization, and their establishment or maintenance may require more manual labour than is easily available.

...

Policies promoting agroforestry may demand costs from those who will not receive the benefits. Planning for agroforestry becomes very complex if it takes into consideration the incongruencies that may exist between ecological and economic accounting or if it seeks to resolve the issues of equity that promotion of agroforestry may cause across time and between social sectors or between the individual and the community.

...

To maintain the landscape in good health, it is not necessary that every landholding, every stretch of land, contain trees, just as every farmer need not be an agroforester- but it is necessary that there be sufficient trees in the right places, at the least on sloping land and along streams."
(http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80824e/80824E0l.htm) 

Some more related articles:


Livelihoods, Forest, and Conservation in Developing Countries: an Overview 

Agroforestry and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Africa Project 2020

Here's a first a blog with different interesting articles concerning sustainable agriculture in Africa: Africa Project 2020

I discovered some interesting projects/links through this blog:

United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD)

Is economic behaviour both the cause and solution to global warming?

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa