by the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA)
(Paper presented during the Round Table Discussion “Research and Innovation for Smallholder Farmers in the Context of Climate Change”, organized by IFAD during the 32nd session of IFAD’s Governing Council, 18 February 2009 by Ma. Estrella A. Penunia, Secretary General, AFA.)
Good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for attending this round table discussion.
First of all, we would like to thank IFAD for giving us the opportunity to share with you our experiences, perspectives and ideas on agricultural research for smallholder farmers in the context of climate change. Indeed, it is a very timely matter for discussion, as we are experiencing rapid climate change. In the Philippines where I come from, the months from December till April should be dry months. But we are experiencing lots of rainfall, even flooding in areas that normally are not flooded. In the Southeast Asian region which we are part of, we have experienced in recent years extraordinary flooding in some areas and droughts earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis in some other areas.
Climate change affects everyone in the planet, but smallholder men and women farmers are one of the most affected, if we may say. We rely so much on our communion with nature and climate for our livelihoods and way of life. The warming of the earth changes weather patterns, disrupt ecosystems, and with it, unusual droughts, floods, storms, heat, pests, and diseases, all of which can spell insecurity, illness, disaster, hunger and even death and tragedy among us.
Realizing this, we in AFA, started to study the issue of climate change. We attended several conferences, conducted national and regional consultations on this issue. We also made efforts to read various reference materials on agriculture and climate change. From these things, we have come to a common understanding on some points. We would like to share these with you, as they form the basis of our responses to the quide questions for this round table discussion.
How do we understand the issue of climate change?
First, the climate change that we experience now is mainly caused by human activities that have caused the emission of greenhouse gases or GHG, too much that our planet has become much warmer. The three main causes of increase in GHG are fossil fuels, land use and agriculture.
Second, in the agricultural sector, the main contributors to global warming are energy and chemical intensive farming, practiced mainly by plantations and agribusiness corporations.
Third, we believe that sustainable, integrated, diversified, organic/ecological friendly agriculture which is owned, controlled and managed by small scale men and women farmers, fishers and indigenous peoples, and massively supported by government policies and programs, is a key to a significant reduction of greenhouse gases, a key measure for adapting to and mitigating climate change.
Smallholder farmers serve as responsible stewards of the land. Unlike industrial agriculture or factory farms, smallholders live on or near their farms, and strive to preserve surrounding environment for future generations. Smallholders are most likely to use sustainable farming techniques to protect their natural resources and health. Also, smallholder farming communities have been developing their own culture of coexistence with the environment that surrounds them since the beginning of humankind. They have been known to practice integrated, diversified farming to meet their nutritional needs; to reduce their risks and to return the soil’s health. Thai farmers for example have intercropped rice and cowpeas or soybeans for many decades. Philippine NGOs have developed integrated farming systems for one hectare of irrigated land – where a farmer’s family can get their fish, rice, vegetables, organic fertilizers from their land; and still have a little surplus to sell, to have money to finance the education of their children.
This belief is backed up by no less than the UN’s International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), signed by 60 countries and the World Bank. The work of more than 400 scientists over four years, the 2,500-page report is a sobering account of the failure of industrial farming. The key message of the report is that small-scale farmers and organic, agro-ecological methods are the way forward to solve the current food crisis and meet the needs of local communities. In a study, FAO also said that organic agriculture can help mitigate climate change, by either reducing emissions of GHGs or by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere in the soil. In a report, GreenPeace also said that diversity farming is the single most important modern technology to achieve food security in a changing climate. Scientists have shown that diversity provides a natural insurance policy against major ecosystem changes, be it in the wild or in agriculture. The larger the number of different species or varieties present in one field or in an ecosystem, the greater the probability that at least some of them can cope with changing conditions. Species diversity also reduces the probability of pests and diseases by diluting the availability of their hosts.
It is in these understanding that we would like to respond to the questions posed for this round table discussion.
What is needed to sharpen the focus of international research on the challenges faced by the regions that are most vulnerable to climate change?
In general, we ask policy makers to have a clear, systematic redirection of investment, funding, research and policy focus on sustainable, integrated, diversified, organic farming.
How can investments in agricultural research be significantly increased to improve the resilience of smallholder farmers to the effects of climate change, improve their productivity in the context of risk and uncertainty?
In particular for agricultural research, we strongly ask policy makers, funders and research institutions to:
a. invest much (70% or more) in agricultural research and development that is geared towards effective, sustainable, integrated, diversified, organic farming.
We are concerned with the increasing role of private companies, especially transnational corporations, on agricultural research and development, spending $3B a year on it. Private funds in agricultural R&D remains largely concentrated in industrialized countries, particularly in the area of seeds, agro-chemicals and biotechnology, but invest little in developing countries. The public sector conducts 94 percent of agricultural R&D in developing countries. Efforts should be made to develop innovative public-private partnerships to raise funds for the research agenda of the public research institutions, and to make closer links between research and extension.
b. In the area of sustainable, integrated, diversified, organic farming, we suggest that research institutions focus instead on: soil fertility management, crop growth and health; better exploitation of leguminous plants in improved crop sequences; habitat management with improved manipulation and exploitation of diversity at all levels; crop breeding programs focusing on the adaptability of plants to low-input situations in soils, on weed competition, and on pest and disease tolerance; improved plant protection techniques and compounds from natural sources; breeding strategies and programs for adaptability to management and environmental stress situations; reduced tillage organic systems. (FiBL, FAO)
c. we suggest that research on improving resiliency of crops and increasing their diversity of traits be done through traditional and modern conventional breeding techniques, which will involve smallholder farmers and their organizations. There is considerable scope for breeding a large number of stress traits through the use of traditional varieties.
d. research and document various traditional, local knowledge and practices on crop breeding, seed banking, pest management, organic fertilizers, energy-efficient mechanisms. Our Indonesian farmers can produce charcoal briquettes from coconut. We need to document this technology and share this with the Filipino coconut farmers. We have to go back to these traditional, local knowledge, dismissed before as hearsay, superstition. Researchers can look at the scientific explanation of these things.
e. strengthen links between research, advisory and extension services to promote sustainable agriculture; strengthen partnerships between research institutions, extension workers and organizations of smallholder farmers, particularly women. Extension work has failed farmers in terms of access, availability and quality. Agricultural extension workers are not there when you need them, primarily because they are few and have many areas to cover and other tasks to do. Sometimes, their technologies are not aligned with our needs, and many times, they also do not know the answer to our questions. Perhaps this is because the extension workers are not accountable to us farmers, and only when we are strengthened, only when we can claim accountability, can they be more responsive to us. In AFA, we have admired the close link between state agricultural universities and various farmers’ association in Taiwan. The production of rice and wax apples of the members of the Taiwan Wax Apple Development Association was raised to very competitive levels because of the close cooperation between research and extension work from the National Pintung University of Science and Technology and the farmers themselves. An Indian NGO developed a systematic rice intensification system (SRI) now adapted by the Ministry of Agriculture in Cambodia. An IRRI officer was amazed at how SRI has spread so quickly among farmers’ organizations and said that IRRI should particularly look at the methodologies on how this SRI technology was marketed to smallholders. We want to say that this is because of good extension work, with NGO agriculturists really being there with the farmers to also respond to problems in adapting the technology.
Why specially target the women farmers? Because women are good educators — if they are trained, they will be able to dedicate themselves to teach other farmers.
f. While we know that the climate is very unpredictable now, maybe some of the research and extension efforts can go to understanding the changes in the weather so farmers can also plan in the longer term. We need help in monitoring the climate variation and needs to be warned and informed, soonest possible time, so we can better plan ahead.
How can the concerns of marginalized rural communities be given a voice and influence the research agenda?
Efforts should be made to support farmer-led and civil society initiated R&D efforts such as participatory plant breeding and community-based genetic resource conservation efforts. For example, PAKISAMA, our Philippine member, was part of the initial group who conducted a participatory research, way back in 1986, on the effects of the “Green Revolution” on our incomes, as well as on the health of our soil, on the animals in the farm, particularly the fishes, and of course, on our bodies. It was a very powerful research for us, farmers, as it made us realize that the Green Revolution, while it indeed increased our incomes, increased our production costs, killed the mud- and catfishes in our rice farms, contaminated our water supply, increased our risks to health, and made our soil unhealthy. Because of this research, PAKISAMA set as one of its goals the promotion of sustainable agriculture. We also became part of MASIPAG, a network of farmers and scientists, who researched on traditional rice seeds, experimented on going back to organic rice farming, and later established a seed bank. From the experiments and sharing of experiences among organic rice farmers, we learned that there should be gradual phasing out of chemical fertilizers, if we want to be economically viable.
Conclusion
In closing, we reiterate our belief that sustainable, organic, ecological friendly agriculture, which is owned, controlled and managed by small men and women farmers, and supported by government policies and programs, is a strategic agricultural measure to adapt and mitigate climate change, ensure food security, and reduce poverty among smallholder farmers. We ask for strong support to this kind of agriculture by putting money for research and development, for communication and information dissemination, for promotion and upscaling. We look forward to meaningful partnerships with all stakeholders — government, business, civil society, producer organizations to promote this kind of agriculture.
Thank you for your attention.
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References:
AFA. Climate Change. Causes and Possible Impacts to Agriculture. Issue Paper Volume 1, Year 1. October 2008.
AFA. The Needs and Expectations of Asian Farmers on Agricultural Research. Paper presented by Mr. Vicente Fabe. June 2007
GreenPeace. Food Security and Climate Change. The Answer is Bio Diversity. June 2008.
FAO. Low Greehouse Gas Agriculture:Mitigation and Adaptation Potential of Sustainable Farming Systems. May 2008.
International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL). Organic Farming and Climate Change. 2007.
Khor, Martin. Food Crisis, Climate Change and the Importance of Sustainable Agriculture. June 2008.
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