Transcript What new paradigm? Organic agriculture

Major challenges in the food system impacting
ACP countries
Hans R Herren
President Millennium Institute
www.millennium-institute.org
Co-Chair IAASTD
Geopolitics of Food:
implications for ACP countries Wednesday 2nd February 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Brussels Policy Briefing n° 21
The IAASTD
IAASTD Development and Sustainability Goals (=MDG)
The 4 main areas where agriculture needs to transition:
• Eradicating of Hunger and Poverty
• Improving Rural Livelihoods
• Improving Nutrition and Human Health
• Facilitating Environmentally, Socially, Equitable and
Economically Sustainable Development
…under the Challenges of:
• Climate Change
• Population and Demand Growth
• Shrinking Natural Resources / Energy
….to which agriculture itself is contributing negatively
IAASTD….more info @ www.agassessment.org
Why a new paradigm? (social/economic)
Human condition need for quality and quantity of
nutrition not met and increasing
•
One billion hungry & one billion obese
•
1.5 billion jobless people
•
Humanity will grow to nearly 9 billion by 2050
•
Rising affluence brings diet demands for more meat, dairy & fish
•
Greatest population growth in the tropics where CC impact is expected to be worst,
environment difficult or at limit
•
Today’s total food production sufficient for 9 billion people, but:
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Wrong place
Access issues (poverty – hunger nexus)
Post harvest losses >30%
Significant retail and home losses
Why a new paradigm? (environment)
Agriculture’s environmental impacts are substantial
and are getting worse –Not sustainable
• High external input conventional farming has high GHG
emissions (14%)
• Low input, traditional farming lower yields driving
deforestation (18%)
• Both farming systems lack adequate CC stress resilience &
• both are inefficient in their natural resource use
• Water pollution by fertilizer/pesticide runoff and soil erosion
Why a new paradigm? Move from NR exploitation to management
Business as usual is not an option
Why a new paradigm? Provide for food security and sovereignty
2010 food risk map (Maplecroft)
Business as usual is not an option
Terms of trade
Net farm income
Production
livestock
crops
Rural employment
Environmental
degradation
labor
Productivity
farmers
Indebtedness
TRENDS IN AUSTRALIAN
AGRICULTURE 1950s –
1970s
Source Richard Gawden 2010)
Role in the
economy
What new paradigm? Interconnectedness
Water
demand
Water
stress
R&D
Natural crop
yield per ha
Soil
quality
Agricultur
e labor
Forest land
Effective crop
yield per ha
Crop losses
Fertilizer
use
Chemical
fertilizer
Organic
fertilizer
Energy
demand
Sustainabl
e mgmt.
Populatio
n
Agriculture
capital
Oil price
Harvested area
Agriculture
production
GDP
What new paradigm? Multifunctionality
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High productivity
Transition to sustainable / organic / ecological / resilient / equitable
agriculture
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How to transform / transition agriculture?
Invest in agricultural R&D in ACP countries (IPG) that
benefit small farmers / women especially (participatory)
•
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Soil sciences
Plant physiology and ecology
Plant health (Insect, diseases, etc / pre and post harvest)
Plant / animal breeding
Plant / animal diversity, orphan species
Agroforestry
Water management
Biotechnology (tissue culture, marker assisted breeding)
Farm mechanization
Aquaculture
Public / private agricultural R&D spending year 2000
Total Agricultural Output 1970-2004 (1974 = 100)
How to transform / transition agriculture:
Reducing Post Harvest Losses are as Important as
Increasing Yields
• 30% of harvested crops are lost to spoilage and pest damage
and never reach consumers
• Improving post harvest storage & handling capabilities for
immediate benefits
• Supporting appropriate value added food processing in rural
areas also reduces losses and creates jobs
• Parallel investment needed to improve market access
infrastructures
How to transform / transition agriculture:
Ecological Agriculture provides the best prospects for
sustainability –more of what works
• Uses organic nutrient and N-fixing crop rotations to restore
soil fertility (Microorganism mediated nutrient mobilization)
• Organic matter & crop residue build soil carbon EA reduces
use of fossil fuels & agrochemicals and GHG emissions
• EA sequesters carbon (neutral / positive impact on CC)
• EA improves yields by 70% vs traditional farming
What new paradigm? Organic agriculture
Organic bananas in the Dominican Republic
Organic
Conventional
In 1995 –drought year
What new paradigm? Push-Pull
Organic maize in Kenya
How to transform agriculture:
Appropriate scaled mechanization for small farmers
and cooperatives
• Financing for farmers to buy mechanized ag equipment to
improve labor productivity
• R&D for No Till equipment; and incentives for domestic
marketing/tech support supply chain
• Local production of biofuels & power to enable use of
mechanized systems
How to transform agriculture (Institution building)
EA is knowledge intensive: need for human and social
capital development
• Improve and expand extension services and farmer field schools
to train and demonstrate EA practices and values
• Introduce capacity building for cooperatives to enable locally
owned and operated input and output firms
• Increase higher education for implementation of EA
• Agriculture is very localized = regional and local solutions
How to transform agriculture: (Trade and markets)
Improving small farmer access to local, urban and
foreign markets
• Improving food safety
• quality control (compliance with organic, fare trade, Global
Gap and other certification standards)
Essential policy Actions to stimulate transition to EA
• Remove perverse subsidies (fossil fuels, commodity crops,
power, etc…)
• Account for externalities (reward positive externalities)
• Introduce support for transition to EA
• Allow countries to implement trade policies that protect
local farmers
Agriculture in a Green Economy (UNEP Report
–February 2011)
Investing between 0.1% and 0.16% of total GDP ($83-$141 Billion) / year
2011-2050 (green economy report UNEP/Millennium Institute
You cannot solve a problem with the same
thinking that created it. A Einstein
Thank you for your attention