Transcript BACKGROUND ON PELUM ASSOCIATION

AGROECOLOGY FOR FOOD SECURITY
AND SOVEREIGNTY
PRESENTED AT THE 5th FANRPAN High-level
Food Security PARTNERS’ MEETING
Vuningoma Faustin
SG PELUM ASSOCIATION
REGIONAL SECRETARIAT
Pretoria/SA, 30th May, 2013
Brief information on PELUM
• PELUM Association is a civil society member driven
regional network of 220 civil society organisations,
operating since 1995.
• We are in 10 countries of Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho,
Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda,
Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Very soon we will also be in Burundi, Ethiopia, South
Sudan and Swaziland
• Our mission is: To improve the livelihoods of
smallholder farmers and the sustainability of farming
communities by fostering ecological land use
management.
PELUM’s take on agro-ecology
• As PELUM Association we see agro ecology as a form
of agriculture that integrate natural, regenerative
processes; minimize non renewable inputs; relay on
indigenous knowledge of farmers; involves locally
adapted practices and encourages biodiversity.
• Our ELUM is a production system that sustains the
health of soils, ecosystems and people.
• It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and
cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the
use of external inputs.
• ELUM combines tradition, innovation and science to
benefit the shared environment and promote fair
relationships and good quality of life for all involved
in the ecosystem.
Approaches to promoting agro-ecology
• Farmer field schools through lead farmers
The community farmer field school is a result of ToT
that has a capacity building multiplier approach,
where each lead farmer targets 10-30 farmers.
MOBILISATION AND TRAINING
Approaches to promoting agro-ecology
cont.
• Training, Mobilisation and awareness raising
Mobilsation and training of the farmers on cassava production
This approach takes on a bigger number of farmers at
a time and most theories are captured in these
sessions
Approaches to promoting agro-ecology
cont.
• Holding training with exhibitions
Approaches to promoting agro-ecology
cont.
• Community seed production for seed
sovereignty hence food security through use of
regenerative OPV seeds
• Value addition and Market access; Once value is
added market linkages are created by bringing
together different players in the value chain.
• Networking of like minded organisations for best
practices sharing and strengthening common
voice for advocacy.
• Communication and information sharing
through publications, resource centers and esharing
Farmer to farmer experiences
• On-farm soil management, water conservation & harvesting
Farmers plant fodder on the boundary of the contour
to make the soil firm while at the same time
providing feed for the animals, adding nitrogen to
the soil and also providing mulching material
Farmer to farmer experiences cont.
• As a result of adopting mulching, farmers have
Testified to increased yield and ability to maintain
Productivity amidst harsh climate conditions.
Farmers dig a ditch (left & below
left), fit in a tapoline and then
introduce water weed to purify as
well as minimise water loss through
evaporation. A farmer from Masaka
district (below right) demonstrates
the use of a simple water pump to
draw water from the well to the
animals and for irrigation
Farmer to farmer experiences
Challenges of scaling up agro ecology
• Lack of support from Governments: Most African
governments
have
deliberately
promoted
conventional agriculture at the expense of agroecology.
• Interference and pressure from multinationals;
whose focus is maximizing profits through creation
of monopoly supply of high cost external agriculture
inputs.
• Research agenda geared towards conventional
agriculture: There has been deliberate negligence of
undertaking farmer participatory research to avoid
shading scientific proof that support agro-ecology.
Challenges of scaling up agro ecology cont.
• Unfair trade policies: Trade policies that favour
multinationals at the expense of the small scale
farmers who still stand to be the bigger producers of
food eaten world over.
• This is done through protection of IPRs and
harmonization of trade laws of goods and services that
have undergone formal approval and registration that
undermines the exchange of small scale farmers
produce (seeds) which would be classified as illegal.
Conclusion
• There is enough practical evidence that agro-ecology is
the way to go not only to sustainably feed the world
population, but also to raise the rural poor household
incomes.
• African governments and donor community have for
long supported conventional agriculture that has only
benefited the small number of commercial farmers and
multinationals dealing in agriculture inputs. This trend
needs to change.
• We call upon FANRPAN to critically analyze the ongoing
seed trade harmonization regulations for the benefit of
the SSFs and advise policy makers appropriately.
THANKS FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION