Organic agriculture key to climate change adaptation and mitigation

Ma. Estrella A. Penunia, Secretary General of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), at 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:

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.

On the other hand….

Downmarket

More on the effect of the economic downturn on agrobiodiversity. First, there’s a series of reports from markets around the world from the BBC. A couple include information on food. From Beijing:

In the face of the economic crisis, Ms Liu said Chinese people are going back to buying basic vegetables like Chinese cabbage and potatoes.

And from Crawford Market, Mumbai:

Even spice sellers are feeling the pinch. Jabbar Prajapati says the cost of saffron has rocketed from 60 rupees (£0.82 / $1.20) per gram last year, to 300 rupees (£4 / $6) per gram. “People are not ready to buy at those prices,” he says.

Also, The Economist has a story about “victory gardens” in Little Rock, Arkansas. The money quote:

Many gardeners are focusing on “heirloom plants” rare varieties from earlier times that do not appeal to agribusiness.

Meta-analyzing ecological agriculture

Meta-analyze the meta-analyses on ecological agriculture and this — at least according to Lim Li Ching, a researcher at Third World Network — is what you get:

It is clear that ecological agriculture is productive and has the potential to meet food security needs, particularly in the African context. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development concurs that an increase and strengthening of agricultural knowledge, science and technology toward agroecological sciences will contribute to addressing environmental issues while maintaining and increasing productivity (IAASTD, 2008). Moreover, ecological agricultural approaches allow farmers to improve local food production with low-cost, readily available technologies and inputs, without causing environmental damage.

Miguel Altieri thinks that small farms is where the most ecological and sustainable agriculture is predominantly taking place, and that we need to support that. He repeatedly mentions that they are havens of agrobiodiversity, but he doesn’t mention another meta-analysis that shows that small farms are diverse farms.

LATER: From Brazil, “how family farmers may have benefited benefit from the implication of large retail chains in the organic sector and how an economically and ecologically outstanding agriculture may arise from these circumstances.”

Nibbles: Book, Moral and physical revulsion, DNA bank, Cacao genome, Cassava, Agroforestry, Dung products, Pork brain