Transcript Document

ROLE OF ORGANIC
AGRICULTURE IN PREVENTING
AND REVERSING LAND
DEGRADATION
By Sue Edwards
Institute for Sustainable Development,
Ethiopia
Also representing IFOAM
Land degradation
Soil erosion and desertification are the
physical expressions of land degradation,
while the social and economic impacts are
degraded lifestyles and pernicious poverty.
An understanding of how to maintain
healthy soil is essential to reverse and
prevent land degradation. Healthy soil
carries a good plant cover and enables
rain water to infiltrate and recharge both
soil water and underlying aquifers.
What is IFOAM?
• IFOAM, the (International Federation Of Organic
Agriculture Movements) has its head office in
Bonn, Germany
• Its mission is leading, uniting and assisting the
organic movement in its full diversity
• The goal is the worldwide adoption of
ecologically, socially and economically sound
systems that are based on the Principles of
Organic Agriculture
What is organic agriculture?
• Organic agriculture is a whole system approach
based upon a set of processes resulting in
sustainable ecosystems, safe food, good
nutrition, animal welfare and social justice. It is
more than just a system of production that
includes or excludes certain inputs, particularly
agro-chemicals, because it builds on and
enhances the ecological management skills of
the farmer, the fisher folk and the pastoralist.
Practicing organic or agro-ecological agriculture
requires ecological knowledge, planning and
commitment to work with natural systems, rather
than trying to change them.
Organic agriculture and mitigating
climate change
• In 2004, IFOAM commissioned a scoping
study on “The Role of Organic Agriculture
in Mitigating Climate Change”.
• It looked at the possibilities of reducing
greenhouse gases (GHG)
• Organic agriculture is a systematic
strategy, which may reduce GHG
emissions and enhance sequestration of
carbon
• The strategy includes basic principles to
be followed, compulsory standards to be
respected, suitable production
technologies, and a system of inspection
and certification to guarantee adherence
to the process
Basic principles
• To encourage and enhance biological
cycles within the farming system
• To maintain and increase long-term fertility
in soils
• To use, as far as possible, renewable
resources in locally organized production
systems
• To minimize all forms of pollution
Emission Reductions
• Carbon dioxide through:
– Avoidance of shifting cultivation
– Reduction of fossil fuel consumption
• Methane
– Soil management to increased oxidation of methane,
also grasslands and forests
– Compost and biogas
– Animal husbandry, particularly locally produced and
appropriate feeds, and controlling grazing
– Paddy cultivation with aeration periods
• Nitrous oxide – produced by all forms of
nitrogen
– No synthetic N fertilizer is used
– Nitrogen comes from within the system thus
avoiding overdoses and high losses
– Animal stocking rates are limited
– Diets for dairy cows lower in protein and
higher in fibre, and use of crops (sunflower
seeds) that reduce NO2 emissions
• Biomass as a substitute for fossil fuel
– Directly as a crop
– Processing slurry in biogas
• Agroforestry
– Shade trees in plantation crops
– Fuel wood plantation
– Trees in cropland
– Living fences
– etc
Can organic agriculture combat
poverty?
• An example from northern Ethiopia
• Despite the fact that Ethiopia is also
known as the ‘water tower’ of the Horn of
Africa, it is better known for the images of
emaciated children and the high rate of
soil erosion
• Can this be reversed?
MAP OF ETHIOPIA
WITH REGIONAL
BOUNDARIES
• The popular image is a ‘desert’ – dry, with
very little vegetation, and very large
numbers of free-ranging livestock
Why the degradation?
• Efforts at State building destroyed local organization in
most of the country starting from in 2nd half of the 19th
century
• Development efforts started only in the 1960s and
largely ignored smallholder (peasant) farmers despite
the fact that 90% or more of the food comes from them
• The 1974 ‘revolution’ and its impact on land resource
use
• The land was mined, and there were no inputs in
technologies or ideas to help the farmers improve their
productivity
• The Sasakawa-Global 2000 approach uses high external
inputs, out of reach for most smallholder farmers both
economically and ecologically
The existing strengths
• Farmers control their own seeds and there is still
a wealth of agro-biodiversity and farmers’
traditional knowledge
• Traditional methods for managing and using
land resources, e.g. grazing land, farms are still
in place in many communities
• Local community members work together, and
this is being strengthened through the present
policy of decentralization
The components of the
project, or ‘basket of choices’
• Making and using compost (ISD initiative)
• Trench bunds for catching both soil and water
(BoA initiative)
• Planting small multipurpose trees – particularly
Sesbania – and local grasses (ISD and BoA
initiative improved by farmers)
• Halting gullies (at farmers demand)
• Making communal ponds (farmers initiative)
• Making and using bylaws to control access and
use of local biological resources and control
grazing (ISD initiative)
Adi Nefas in
1997 and 2003
Zeban Sas
grazing area in
1996 – starting
the rehabilitation
work
Zeban Sas grazing
area in October
2003
Adi Nefas
All the components being used in October 2003
Pond
Rehabilitated
gully
Sesbania
trees and long
grasses
Faba
Bea
n
Composted fields of
tef, wheat and barley
Training on Compost
Impact of compost on
yields
• Sampling technique (FAO method for
monitoring food security)
• Samples were taken with the farmers.
• Fields were selected and 3 one-metre
square plots were cut and threshed,
and the straw and grain weighed with
the farmers.
10 Birr is equivalent to 1 Euro, or 8.5 Birr equals 1 USD.
Table 1: Grain yields (in kg/ha), expenses and
returns (in Birr) for Adi Nefas in 2003 (7 years)
Crop
Input
Faba Bean
Compost
Check
Finger Millet
Compost
Check
Maize
Compost
Check
Teff
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Wheat
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Barley
Compost
Check
Yield
Gross
income
Fertilizer
cost
Net income
4391
13173
0
13173
2287
6861
0
6861
2650
4505
0
4505
833
1416
0
1416
5480
8768
0
8768
708
1133
0
1133
1384
3875
0
3875
1033
2892
377
2515
739
2069
0
2069
2250
5625
0
5625
1480
3700
377
3323
842
2105
0
2105
1633
3266
0
3266
859
1718
0
1718
Table 2: Grain yields (in kg/ha), expenses and returns (in Birr) for Adi
Gua’edad in 2003 (1st year)
Crop
Input
Faba Bean
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Finger Millet
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Maize
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Yield
Gross
Fertilizer
income
cost
Net income
2900
8700
0
8700
1100
3300
377
2923
766
2298
0
2298
2000
3400
0
3400
1433
2436
377
2059
500
850
0
850
2000
3200
0
3200
1133
1813
377
1436
680
1088
0
1088
Table 2: continued
Crop
Input
Barley
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Wheat
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Teff
Compost
Fertilizer
Check
Gross
income
Yield
Fertilizer
cost
Net income
2193
4386
0
4386
1283
2566
377
2189
900
1800
0
1800
1020
2550
0
2550
1617
4043
377
3666
590
1475
0
1475
1650
4620
0
4620
1150
3220
377
2843
390
1092
0
1092
10 Birr is equivalent to 1 Euro, or 8.5 Birr equals 1 USD.
Crops not usually given chemical
fertilizer
Finger Millet
Faba Bean
Field Pea
These are usually not given much attention, but with
compost, high yield increases have been obtained.
It is interesting to see that the ‘checks’ for faba bean
and field pea in Adibo Mossa in 2002 were nearly
the same as the compost treatment.
They were growing on previously composted fields
and were benefiting from the residual effect of the
compost
Faba Bean with and without
compost
Yields have risen from
less than 500 kg/ha on
non-compost treated fields
to around 2,500 kg/ha
when compost is applied.
Yields (kg/ha) for faba bean, field pea and finger millet in 3 sites - 1998
Field Pea / Adi Abo Mossa/02
Field Pea / Adi Abo Mossa/98
Faba Bean / Adi Abo Mossa/02
Faba Bean / Adi Abo Mossa/98
Finger Millet/ Guroro/02
Finger Millet/ Adi Nefas/02
Compost
Check
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Yield (kg/ha)
2500
3000
Indicators of Sustainability
• Maintaining or increasing agricultural biodiversity:
for example, Ziban Sas was growing only wheat
and barley mixed together and a little teff, but now
other crops e.g. maize and faba bean, are also
grown.
• Reduced weeds: weed seeds, pathogens and
insect pests are killed by the high temperature in
the compost pits, but earthworms and other useful
soil organisms establish well.
• Increased moisture retention capacity of the soil: if
rain stops early, crops grown on composted soil
resist wilting for about two weeks longer than those
grown on soil treated with chemical fertilizer.
• Disease and pest resistance: as seen through the
problem of shoot fly on teff and root borer on faba
bean in Tahitai Maichew and La’elai Maichew
respectively, crops are more disease and pest
resistant.
• Residual effect: farmers who have used compost
for one or two years can obtain high yields from
their crops the next year without applying compost
afresh.
• Economic returns: farmers have been able to stop
buying chemical fertilizer, but they still get even
higher yields.
• Flavour: food is said to taste better.
Ethiopia and Organic Production
• In March 2006, the Ethiopian Government
passed a law setting out a framework for
organic farming.
• The results of the farmers in Tigray in
producing and using compost indicate that
the aim for Ethiopia having a substantial
number of farmers producing organically
could be realized.
Protection and promotion of
sustainable livelihoods
• Developing bylaws has been an essential part
of the community decision making and
implementation.
• These statutes were developed by consensus
to govern the activities of each member as
well as that of the whole community in order
to manage the land under the usufruct right
of each member and the community so that
the whole environment in which the
community lives and its productivity are
improved sustainably.
Other examples from Africa
• SEKEM in Egypt, led by Dr. Ibrahim
Abouleish
• Organic cotton farmers in Benin
• NOGUM and EPOPA in Uganda and
Tanzania >2% of production is organic
• Dried fruits and vegetables from over 600
producers, mostly women, Burkino Fasso
A farmer of the future