Is there a sustainable agriculture option? there a sustainable agriculture option? Overseas Development Institute 20th June 2001 Professor Jules Pretty, Centre for Environment and

Is there a sustainable

agriculture option?

Overseas Development Institute

20th June 2001

Professor Jules Pretty,

Centre for Environment and Society, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK

[email protected]

Three agricultural options

• expand the area of agriculture, by converting new lands to agriculture, but losing forests, grasslands and other areas of important biodiversity

• increase per hectare production in agricultural exporting countries, mostly industrialised, so that food can be transferred or sold to those who need it

• increase total farm productivity in developing countries which are going most to need the food

• by purchasing inputs/technologies?

• by using locally-available assets and resources?

Best options for the poorest?

• Which work best for the poorest• great success in past… but still 790 million

people food poor

• Key questions:

– to what extent can farmers improve food production with low-cost and locally-available technologies and inputs?

– What impacts do these methods have on environmental goods and services, and the livelihoods of people relying on them?

Five Assets of Rural Systems(livelihoods, communities, economies)

Financial Capital:money, savings

Natural Capital:nature’s goods and services

(waste assimilation, pollination, storm protection, water supply, leisure, wildlife)

Social Capital: cohesiveness of people

and societies -trust, reciprocity, rules and norms,

networks and institutions

Physical Capital:infrastructure

Human Capital:the status of individuals -health, skills, knowledge

Assets - inputs and outputs• Agriculture transforms:

• natural capital (functional biodiversity, soil health)

• social capital (connectedness, cooperation, trust)

• human capital (knowledge, skills)

• together with physical and financial capital

• But it also indirectly affects all three renewable assets

• some forms of agriculture increase the asset base

• other forms decrease assets, and leave less for future generations

Farm,Livelihood orCommunity

System

With access toand stocks of:

Natural capitalHuman capitalSocial capital

Physical capitalFinancial capital

Renewablenaturalcapital

Contextualfactors:

agro-ecologicalclimaticcultural

economiclegal

politicalsocial

Shaped by:external

institutionsand policies

Depletion of:Natural capitalHuman capitalSocial capital

Social capital:vertical andhorizontal

participatoryprocesses

New skillsand

technologies

Non-renewableinputs

Food and other

marketed produce

Finance:income, credit,

grants

Accumulation of:Natural capitalHuman capitalSocial capital

Assets-based model of agricultural systems

PositiveFunctions

NegativeFunctions


System





Contextualfactors:


economiclegal

politicalsocial

Shaped by:external





New skillsand

technologies

Non-renewableinputs

Food and other

marketed produce


grants


Assets-based model of agricultural systems – flows and outcomes

in modernised systems

PositiveFunctions

NegativeFunctions


System





Contextualfactors:


economiclegal

politicalsocial

Shaped by:external





New skillsand

technologies

Non-renewableinputs

Food and othermarketed produce


grants


Assets-based model of agricultural systems – flows and outcomes

in sustainable systems

PositiveFunctions

NegativeFunctions

Sustainable Agriculture Audit and Research• Aims

• audit recent progress in developing countries towards sustainable agriculture,

• assess the extent to which such projects/initiatives have increased local food production

• Surveyed 208 projects in 52 countries using questionnaires, project reports and evaluations, and verifying experts

• purposive sampling - not random

Cases rejected where:• no obvious sustainable agriculture link

• participation in projects was for direct material incentives

– as there are doubts that ensuing improvements persist after such incentives end

• where there was heavy or sole reliance on fossil-fuel derived inputs, or on their targeted use alone

• this is not to negate these technologies, but these were simply not the focus of this research;

• where the data provided was too weak or the findings unsubstantiated

Farmers and hectares

• 208 projects/initiatives

• 8.98 million farmers have adopted sustainable agriculture practices and technologies

• 28.92 million hectares • equivalent to 3.01% of the 960 million hectares

of arable and permanent crops in Africa, Asia and Latin America

• 8.44 m ha if discount large farms adopting zero-tillage in South America

Cumulative proportion of total area by project size according to region

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000

avg area/farmer (ha) per project

pro

po

rtio

n o

f to

tal

are

a

Latin America

Asia

Africa

Food production increases• intensification of a single component of farm system

• with little change to the rest of the farm ~ home gardenintensification, vegetables on rice bunds, introduction of fishponds or a dairy cow;

• addition of new productive element to a farm system• such as fish in paddy rice, or agroforestry, which provides a

boost to total farm food production;

• better use of natural capital to increase crop intensity• water ~ water harvesting and irrigation scheduling

• land ~ reclamation of formerly unproductive land

• improvements in per hectare yields of staples• through introduction of new regenerative elements into farm

systems (eg legumes)

• improvements in yields through introduction of newand locally-appropriate crops and animals

Frequency of occurrence of each type of mechanism by projects, farmers and area

0 20 40 60 80 100

Intensification ofsingle

component (i)

New productiveelement (ii)

Better use ofwater and land

(iii)

Per ha food cropyield

improvements (iv& v)

Other (plantationand fibre crops)

Mech

an

ism

sProportion of total (%)

Projects (%)

Farmers (%)

Area (%)

Sustainable agriculture projects/initiatives -

crop yield changes (89 projects)

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000

yields before/without project (kg/ha)

rela

tive y

ield

ch

an

ge a

fter/

wit

h p

roje

ct

maize

sorghum/millet

beans/soya/peas/groundnut

rice

wheat

potato/sweet pot/cassava

cotton

vegetables

no change

Increase in annual household food production with sustainable agriculture

0

2

4

6

8

10

0 1 2 3 4 5

hectares per household

marg

inal i

ncre

ase in

household

.

food p

roductio

n (

t/yr)

The velvetbean in Central America• Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens)

• Multiple cropped with maize

• Fixes 150 kg N/ha per year

• Produces 30-50 tonnes biomass per ha/year

• Improves and regenerates soils

• 45,000 families in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua growing mucuna

• Crop yields up from 400-600kg/ha to 2000-2500 kg/ha

• social capital critical - farmers’ groups, experimentation, and extension

Zero-Tillage in Brazil and Argentina• Zero-tillage

• No ploughing of soil

• Brazil - 11 million hectares

• Argentina - 9.2 million hectares

• Benefits• better input use, water retention, diverse

rotations, increased organic matter in soils (thus more carbon sequestration)

• reduced erosion and water pollution

• yields: maize up from 3 to 5 t/ha (Brazil); wheat up from 2 to 3.5 t/ha (Argentina)

Soil and Water Conservation in Niger and Burkina Faso

• 100,000 ha of abandoned and degraded land improved with tassas/zaï

• 20-30 cm holes with residues/manures; harvest water and aid infiltration

• Yields up 50-100% ~ highest in dry years

• Household food security ~ from 153 kg deficit to 644 kg surplus

• Reverse migration

• Key elements: action-research approach, openness to farmer initiatives, immediate results, ability to be integrated into existing cropping systems, technological package can be adjust to changing local context

Better land husbandry, Kenya

• ABLH using double-dug beds with composting, green and animal manures ~ last 4-6 seasons

• Better water holding capacity and higher organic matter ~ beds more productive, more diverse and are able to sustain vegetable growth into the dry season

• Benefits for women and children • 75% of households free from hunger during the year (up

from 43%);

• Households buying vegetables during year has fallenfrom 85% to 11%;

• Proportion selling vegetables up from 20% to 77%;

• 48% of households maize self-sufficient (up from 22%).

Sri Lanka: Water Users’ Groups

• 33,000 water users’ associations• 500,000 farmers on 0.5-1.0 million hectares

• irrigated rice main crop

• Benefits• increased water use efficiency

• increased cropping intensity

• greater total production

• reduction in complaints and conflicts

• 1998• water available for only 14% of area

• farmers’ associations persuaded government to release water - successfully produced whole rice crop and earned country $20 million foreign exchange

Positive effects on livelihoods• natural capital:

• increased soil water retention; improvements in water table (with more drinking water in the dry season); reduced soil erosion & improved organic matter in soils; better carbon sequestration; increased agro-biodiversity

• social capital:• more and stronger social organisations; new rules and

norms for managing collective natural resources; and better connectedness to external policy institutions

• human capital: • more local capacity to experiment and solve own

problems; increased self-esteem in formerly marginalised groups; increased status of women; better child health and nutrition, especially from more food in dry seasons; reversed migration

Confounding Factors

• Critical trade-offs between assets• roads for markets and loss of forests• land closed for rehabilitation - poor sell livestock• more work for women• additional incomes go to men

• Increasing assets• may tempt the powerful to take over?

• Aspirations• rural people may want to get away from rural

parochialism

• Backlash• strong social capital (groups and networks) become new

power bases - and tempt backlash?

• Changing markets for inputs• reduced demand for agro-chemicals?

Summary of recent progress• Technologies and social processes for local

level sustainable agriculture are well-established

• Social and institutional conditions for spread are less well-known, but have been established in several contexts;

• Political conditions for the emergence of supportive policies are least well established, with only a very few examples of real progress

Policies out of step?

• Much evidence of transformed thinking• everyone in favour of “sustainability”

• some willing to change words alone

• some willing to change practices

• Most policy structures still encouraging `old’ modernist agriculture

• Need to go beyond `greening the edge’ to `greening the middle’ of farming

• Supportive policies• Core challenge for next decade

What is a good policy for sustainable agriculture?• Integrated across sectors

• Promotes multifunctionality• enhances positive externalities and reduces

negative externalities

• Knowledge-based and nature-based• builds renewable assets

• Participatory• links up different stakeholders

• bottom-up

• Mixture of instruments• economic, advisory, regulatory

Marcus Cato (200 BC)author of Di Agri Cultura

“And when our ancestors would praise a

worthy person, their praise took this

form: good husbandman, good farmer

(bonum agricolam bonumque colonum);

one so praised was thought to have

received the greatest commendation”

Documents

Is there a sustainable agriculture option? there a sustainable agriculture option? Overseas Development Institute 20th June 2001 Professor Jules Pretty, Centre for Environment and