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Africa: Agroecology & the Right to Food
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Mar 11, 2011 (110311)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"Small-scale farmers can double food production within 10 years in
critical regions by using ecological methods, a new UN report
shows. Based on an extensive review of the recent scientific
literature, the study calls for a fundamental shift towards
agroecology as a way to boost food production and improve the
situation of the poorest." - Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights
According to the latest Global Food Price Monitor, from the UN's
Food and Agriculture Organization, world food prices hit a record
high in February, the highest since the index was first created in
1990. The debate on food security, and what to do about, is rising
higher and higher on global agendas. There are elements of
consensus, such as the need for greater attention to agriculture in
development planning, and investment in particular in smallholder
agriculture. But there are also significant disagreements on what
kind of investment is needed.
In broad terms, one approach is to foster a new "green revolution"
giving highest priority to technologies developed in collaboration
with large agrifood corporations and assuming compatibility of
their interests with those of farmers. The contrasting approach
stresses the importance of sustainable agroecology, local
knowledge, and participation by smallholder farmers, while noting
that large agrifood enterprises and technology they control is more
likely to be part of the problem than part of the solution.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a new report by
the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De
Schutter, which summarizes consultations and scientific studies on
agroecological approaches. The report stresses not only the
advantages in terms of giving scope for popular participation, but
also the evidence of potential for significant production gains.
Another AfricaFocus Bulletin released today, not sent out by e-mail
but available on the web at http://www.africafocus.org/docs11/fao1103.php, contains a
press release and excerpts from the latest FAO State of Food and
Africulture report, with the theme of "Women in Agriculture:
Closing the Gender Gap for Development."
Other relevant publications and links of related interest include:
On food prices
Global Food Price Monitor (monthly)
http://www.fao.org/giews
Lester Brown, "Why World Food Prices May Keep Climbing"
Earth Policy Institute, March 9, 2011
http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update92
The "mainstream" corporate/large donor perspective
World Economic Forum, "Realizing a New Vision for Agriculture: A
roadmap for stakeholders."
http://www.weforum.org/issues/agriculture-and-food-security
The key stakeholders involved here are the major global agrifood
businesses.
USAID, Feed the Future
http://www.feedthefuture.gov
USAID's private-sector-friendly perspective on agricultural
development
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
http://www.agra-alliance.org
Recent critical commentaries
Eric Holt-Gimenez, "Onward Corporate Food Crusaders!"
February 7, 2011
http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/3289
Raj Patel, Eric Holt-Gimenez, and Annie Stattuck, "Ending Africa's
Hunger," September 2, 2009
http://www.thenation.com/article/ending-africas-hunger
Africa: Agricultural Knowledge
http://www.africafocus.org/docs09/ag0901.php
Has summary and links to the International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development,
with a comprehensive review of case for agroecological approaches
For other previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on agriculture and related
issues, see http://www.africafocus.org/agexp.php
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
Eco-Farming Can Double Food Production in 10 Years,
says new UN report
8 March 2011
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
http://www.ohchr.org
Palais des Nations Email: press-info@ohchr.org
CH-1211 Geneva 10 Tel: +41 22 917 9310
Switzerland Tel: +41 22 917 9383
(*) The report "Agroecology and the right to food" was presented
today before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. This document
is available in English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian at:
http://www.srfood.org and
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/food/annual.htm
Geneva - Small-scale farmers can double food production within 10
years in critical regions by using ecological methods, a new UN
report shows. Based on an extensive review of the recent
scientific literature, the study calls for a fundamental shift
towards agroecology as a way to boost food production and improve
the situation of the poorest.
"To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the
most efficient farming techniques available," says Olivier De
Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and author of
the report. "Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that
agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers
in boosting food production where the hungry live --
especially in unfavorable environments."
Agroecology applies ecological science to the design of
agricultural systems that can help put an end to food crises and
address climate-change and poverty challenges. It enhances soils
productivity and protects the crops against pests by relying on the
natural environment such as beneficial trees, plants, animals and
insects.
"To date, agroecological projects have shown an average crop yield
increase of 80% in 57 developing countries, with an average
increase of 116% for all African projects," De Schutter
says. "Recent projects conducted in 20 African countries
demonstrated a doubling of crop yields over a period of 3-10
years."
"Conventional farming relies on expensive inputs, fuels climate
change and is not resilient to climatic shocks. It simply is not
the best choice anymore today," De Schutter stresses. "A large
segment of the scientific community now acknowledges the positive
impacts of agroecology on food production, poverty alleviation and
climate change mitigation -- and this this is what is needed in a
world of limited resources. Malawi, a country that launched a
massive chemical fertilizer subsidy program a few years ago, is now
implementing agroecology, benefiting more than 1.3 million of the
poorest people, with maize yields increasing from 1 ton/ha to 2-3
tons/ha."
The report also points out that projects in Indonesia, Vietnam and
Bangladesh recorded up to 92 % reduction in insecticide use for
rice, leading to important savings for poor farmers.
"Knowledge came to replace pesticides and fertilizers. This was a
winning bet, and comparable results abound in other African, Asian
and Latin American countries," the independent expert
notes.
"The approach is also gaining ground in developed countries such as
United States, Germany or France," he said. "However, despite its
impressive potential in realizing the right to food for
all, agroecology is still insufficiently backed by ambitious public
policies and consequently hardly goes beyond the experimental
stage."
The report identifies a dozen of measures that States should
implement to scale up agroecological practices. "Agroecology is a
knowledge-intensive approach. It requires public policies
supporting agricultural research and participative extension
services," De Schutter says. "States and donors have a key role to
play here. Private companies will not invest time and money in
practices that cannot be rewarded by patents and which don't open
markets for chemical products or improved seeds."
The Special Rapporteur on the right to food also urges States to
support small-scale farmer's organizations, which demonstrated a
great ability to disseminate the best agroecological practices
among their members. "Strengthening social organization proves to
be as impactful as distributing fertilizers. Small-scale farmers
and scientists can create innovative practices when
they partner", De Schutter explains. "We won't solve hunger and
stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations.
The solution lies in supporting small-scale farmers' knowledge and
experimentation, and in raising incomes of smallholders so as to
contribute to rural development."
"If key stakeholders support the measures identified in the report,
we can see a doubling of food production within 5 to 10 years in
some regions where the hungry live," De Schutter says.
"Whether or not we will succeed this transition will depend on our
ability to learn faster from recent innovations. We need to go fast
if we want to avoid repeated food and climate disasters
in the 21st century."
Press contacts:
Olivier De Schutter: Tel. +32.488 48 20 04 / E-mail:
olivier.deschutter@uclouvain.be
Ulrik Halsteen (OHCHR): Tel: +41 22 917 93 23 / E-mail:
uhalsteen@ohchr.org
Olivier De Schutter was appointed the Special Rapporteur on the
right to food in May 2008 by the United Nations Human Rights
Council. He is independent from any government or organization.
United Nations A/HRC/16/49
Distr.: General 20 December 2010
Original: English
General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Sixteenth session
Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food,
Olivier De Schutter
[Excerpts. Full report available at http://www.srfood.org]
...
I. Introduction
1. In this annual report submitted to the Human Rights Council in
accordance with Council resolution 13/4, the Special Rapporteur on
the right to food shows why agriculture should be fundamentally
redirected towards modes of production that are more
environmentally sustainable and socially just, and how this can be
achieved. The report is based on a large range of submissions
received from experts from all regions, as well as on an
international expert seminar on agroecology convened by the Special
Rapporteur in Brussels, Belgium, on 21-22 June 2010, with support
from the King Baudouin Foundation.
2. Agriculture is at a crossroads. For almost thirty years, since
the early 1980s, neither the private sector nor governments were
interested in investing in agriculture. This is now changing. Over
the last few years, agri-food companies have seen an increase in
direct investment as a means to lower costs and ensure the
long-term viability of supplies:1 Foreign direct investment in
agriculture went from an average US$ 600 million annually in the
1990s to an average US$ 3 billion in 2005-2007. The shock created
by the 2007-2008 global food price crisis led to the establishment
or strengthening of further initiatives, such as the Aquila Food
Security Initiative, the Global Agriculture and Food Security
Program (GAFSP) or NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Program (CAADP) in Africa. Governments are paying
greater attention to agriculture than in the past.
3. But increasing food production to meet future needs, while
necessary, is not sufficient. It will not allow significant
progress in combating hunger and malnutrition if it is not
combined with higher incomes and improved livelihoods for the
poorest - particularly small-scale farmers in developing
countries. And short-term gains will be offset by long- term losses
if it leads to further degradation of ecosystems, threatening
future ability to maintain current levels of production. It is
possible, however, to significantly improve agricultural
productivity where it has been lagging behind, and thus raise
production where it needs most to be raised (i.e. in poor,
food-deficit countries3), while at the same time improving the
livelihoods of smallholder farmers and preserving ecosystems. This
would slow the trend towards urbanisation in the countries
concerned, which is placing stress on public services of these
countries. It would contribute to rural development and preserve
the ability for the succeeding generation to meet its own needs.
It would also contribute to the growth of other sectors of the
economy by stimulating demand for non-agricultural products that
would result from higher incomes in rural areas.
4. To achieve this, however, pouring money into agriculture will
not be sufficient; what is most important is to take steps that
facilitate the transition towards a low-carbon,
resource-preserving type of agriculture that benefits the poorest
farmers. This will not happen by chance. It can only happen by
design, through strategies and programmes backed by strong
political will, and informed by a right-to-food approach. This
report explores how agroecology, a mode of agricultural
development that has shown notable success in the last decade (see
Section III), can play a central role in achieving this goal.
II. Diagnosis: three objectives of food systems
5. Ensuring the right to food requires the possibility either to
feed oneself directly from productive land or other natural
resources, or to purchase food. This implies ensuring that food is
available, accessible and adequate. Availability relates to there
being sufficient food on the market to meet the needs.
Accessibility requires both physical and economic access: physical
accessibility means that food should be accessible to all people,
including the physically vulnerable such as children, older
persons or persons with disabilities; economic accessibility means
that food must be affordable without compromising other basic needs
such as education fees, medical care or housing. Adequacy requires
that food satisfy dietary needs (factoring a person's age, living
conditions, health, occupation, sex, etc), be safe for human
consumption, free of adverse substances and culturally acceptable.
Participation of food-insecure groups in the design and
implementation of the policies that most affect them is also a key
dimension of the right to food.
6. Consistent with obligations assumed by States under
international human rights treaties to take effective measures
towards the realization of the right to food, food systems should
be developed in order to meet the following three objectives.
7. First, food systems must ensure the availability of food for
everyone, that is, supply must match world needs. The most widely
cited estimates state that an overall increase in agricultural
production should reach 70 per cent by 2050,4 taking into account
demographic growth, as well as changes in the composition of diets
and consumption levels associated with increased urbanization and
higher household incomes. This estimate, however, needs to be put
in an appropriate perspective, since it takes the current demand
curves as a given. At present, nearly half of the world's cereal
production is used to produce animal feed, and meat consumption is
predicted to increase from 37.4 kg/person/year in 2000 to over 52
kg/person/year by 2050, so that by mid-century, 50 per cent of
total cereal production may go to increasing meat production.
Therefore, reallocating cereals used in animal feed to human
consumption, a highly desirable option in developed countries where
the excess animal protein consumption is a source of public health
problems, combined with the development of alternative feeds based
on new technology, waste and discards, could go a long way towards
meeting the increased needs. The United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) estimates that, even accounting for the energy
value of the meat produced, the loss of calories that result from
feeding cereals to animals instead of using cereals directly as
human food represents the annual calorie need for more than 3.5
billion people. In addition, food losses in the field (between
planting and harvesting) may be as high as 20 to 40 per cent of
the potential harvest in developing countries, due to pests and
pathogens, and the average post-harvest losses, resulting from poor
storage and conservation, amount at least to 12 per cent, and up
to 50 per cent for fruits and vegetables. Finally, as a result of
policies to promote the production and use of agrofuels, the
diversion of crops from meeting food needs to meeting energy needs
contributes to tightening the pressure on agricultural supplies.
Although these are all domains in which measures could be adopted,
the need to meet the supply-side challenge remains.
8. Second, agriculture must develop in ways that increase the
incomes of smallholders. Food availability is, first and foremost,
an issue at the household level, and hunger today is mostly
attributable not to stocks that are too low or to global supplies
unable to meet demand, but to poverty; increasing the incomes of
the poorest is the best way to combat it. Cross-country
comparisons show that GDP growth originating in agriculture is at
least twice as effective in reducing poverty as GDP growth
originating outside agriculture. But some types of investments are
more effective than others in achieving that objective. The
multiplier effects are significantly higher when growth is
triggered by higher incomes for smallholders, stimulating demand
for goods and services from local sellers and service- providers.
When large estates increase their revenue, most of it is spent on
imported inputs and machinery, and much less trickles down to
local traders. Only by supporting small producers can we help
break the vicious cycle that leads from rural poverty to the
expansion of urban slums, in which poverty breeds more poverty.
9. Third, agriculture must not compromise its ability to satisfy
future needs. The loss of biodiversity, unsustainable use of
water, and pollution of soils and water are issues which
compromise the continuing ability for natural resources to support
agriculture. Climate change, which translates in more frequent and
extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods and less
predictable rainfall, is already having a severe impact on the
ability of certain regions and communities to feed themselves. It
is also destabilizing markets. The change in average temperatures
is threatening the ability of entire regions, particularly those
living from rain-fed agriculture, to maintain actual levels of
agricultural production. Less fresh water will be available for
agricultural production, and the rise in sea level is already
causing the salinization of water in certain coastal areas, making
water sources improper for irrigation purposes. By 2080, 600
million additional people could be at risk of hunger, as a direct
result of climate change. In Sub-Saharan Africa, arid and semi-arid
areas are projected to increase by 60 million to 90 million
hectares, while in Southern Africa, it is estimated that yields
from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 per cent
between 2000 and 2020. Losses in agricultural production in a
number of developing countries could be partially compensated by
gains in other regions, but the overall result would be a decrease
of at least 3 per cent in productive capacity by the 2080s, and up
to 16 per cent if the anticipated carbon fertilization effects
(incorporation of carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis)
fail to materialize.
10. Most efforts in the past have focused on improving seeds and
ensuring that farmers are provided with a set of inputs that can
increase yields, replicating the model of industrial processes in
which external inputs serve to produce outputs in a linear model of
production. Instead, agroecology seeks to improve the
sustainability of agroecosystems by mimicking nature instead of
industry. This report suggests that scaling up agroecological
practices can simultaneously increase farm productivity and food
security, improve incomes and rural livelihoods, and reverse the
trend towards species loss and genetic erosion.
11. The following sections explain what agroecology is, and how it
contributes to the realization of the right to adequate food in
its different dimensions: availability, accessibility, adequacy,
sustainability and participation (Section III). However, in moving
towards more sustainable farming systems, time is the greatest
limiting factor. Whether or not we will succeed will depend on our
ability to learn faster from recent innovations and to disseminate
works more widely. Section IV is dedicated to public policies that
States should adopt to scale up agroecology.
...
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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