LEISA's Farm / AgriCultures Network blog

Module 3 - Cropping systems now available

The third module Cropping systems (interim version) of the Learning AgriCultures series is available for downloading.

Module 3 describes different aspects of small-scale cropping systems, with particular attention to mixed cropping practices. It describes recent advances in the development of crop biotechnologies, such as genetic engineering and formal seed systems, which have had a tremendous impact on cropping practices around the world. How can small-scale farmers maintain their diversity-based cropping systems what with the opportunities and limitations these kinds of changes bring up? This module provides some insights into how small-scale cropping systems can be intensified in ways that take on an ecosystems approach, such as that of Integrated pest management (or IPM). It also looks beyond farmers’ practices by analysing governance issues that affect small-scale farmers around the world. Issues discussed include intellectual property rights over plant varieties, and the importance of including small-scale farmers in land-use planning and setting priorities in the development of plant genetic resources.

Read more about:

• Module 3 - Cropping systems
• Learning Agricultures series

Live from Montpellier (well, almost)

By Jorge Chavez-Tafur

The XIIIth IAALD World Congress, which started three days ago, has just finished here in Montpellier, France. It has been a very interesting experience to meet so many professionals from all over the world, and to hear about their projects and activities, their results and challenges. It has equally been interesting to meet, in person, people with whom we had been in touch before, but only through the e-mail. Barnabas Kapange, for example, sent us an article a couple of years ago, describing the work his organisation (the SADC, based in Botswana) does in terms of in situ and ex situ conservation. We exchanged many ideas back then. It was great to meet him personally, and to hear about the developments which his work has seen since his article came out in our magazine.

I had the chance to present some of the results of our documentation programme - and was happy to get some very positive reactions. I talked about the importance of thinking about a method (not a recipe, but some guidelines), but also of thinking about other issues: why exactly are those participating in a documentation processes actually participating? How to ensure that the "owners" of an experience take a very active role? What role must an external facilitator take? We had a good discussion afterwards (both at the plenary session and during coffee), covering issues such as the "property" of the information which results from a documentation process, or the importance of ensuring quality all through the process. I have just seen that those running the IAALD blog have beaten me and posted my Power Point file on their blog, so I hope that these discussions continue! (See here.)

I also found it particularly interesting to hear Thiendou Niang talking about his documentation activities in West Africa. He highlighted many of the positive impacts that a documentation process can have (visibility, inspiration, learning), and repeated the need to pay attention to the dissemination and use of the results - especially in order to influence policy. I can also repeat here his remark on the importance of building content, and not just focus on tools or techniques: "we must make an extra effort to build content with the actors themselves, or we are going to miss the boat".

All in all, these have been three great days, full of ideas and inspiration for further work. It has been good to hear and talk about social media, tools, information exchange, targetted products, innovative learning processes, etc., etc. Thank you IAALD!

Awards - Farmer Voice Initiative and Women's Creativity in Rural Life

posted by Karen Hampson

Firstly, New Year's greetings to everyone. Best wishes for the last year of this decade, may 2010 be happy and prosperous.

And what better way to start the year than by making the most of some interesting opportunities. Here are two awards we have found which we think are worth publicising.

As part of the Farmer Voice Initiative, ALINe announced their Farmer Voice Innovation Awards in December. The key idea is linking management systems with farmer voices. So, they are looking for innovative methods of listening to farmers in a systematic way. With the awards, they aim to build learning around the question: How can managers make sure that agencies listen and respond enough to farmers at different stages of the program cycle? The deadline for applications is 29 January, 2010. Full details and application forms can be found on their website, which also has some interesting examples and information on this subject.

The next opportunity is the Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life, run by the Women's World Summit Foundation. This has been running since 1994 and aims to honour the contribution women and women's groups make to improving the qualtiy of life in rural communities. The deadline for nominations is 31 March. Application details can be found on their site.

Good luck! In 2010 we look forward to being inspired by the stories and people these awards will highlight.

Write for your life

posted by Karen Hampson

One of the things we do here at ILEIA is to encourage people to write. Whether you call it systematisation, documentation or journalism - one way to share your stories, experiences and learnings, is to get it down on paper, and increasingly, screen.

So I enjoyed reading the results of the Guardian's International Development Journalism Competition, especially as they focused on positive stories about development.   

Congratulations to the winners!

LEISA Network's new website on documentation

contributed by Jorge Chavez-Tafur and Frank van Schoubroeck

Worldwide, thousands of NGOs, government agencies and farmers' organisations carry out work in support of small-scale farming. This work is often inspiring and innovative. Yet a lot of it goes unnoticed outside the farming communities, because most fieldworkers do not feel confident to report it to the outside world.

LEISA magazine partners have developed various methodologies to support field workers put their successes and challenges on paper. They have developed different tools to report and analyse the relevance of the experience for small-scale farming. In the process, they learned what works for field workers, what not, and why.

All these lessons are being summarised in a website-under-construction. This website shows how you can systematically approach field-work reporting. It provides information about methodologies, tools, cases, and references to other websites and documents with practical tips. You can visit the website, get inspired, and leave comments. Your documenting experience thus can become part of our "learning to learn" approach on working with small-scale family farming!

Chech it online.

SRI (System of Rice Intensification) developments in Asia

posted by Bertie

The ECHO Asia Notes are a supplement e-newsletter to the ECHO Development Notes, a publication of the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization. The latest issue (July 2009) contains rich information about SRI (the System of Rice Intensification), with an article on the spread and results of SRI in Cambodia, and an overview of websites and other resources, both written by Rick Burnette, director of the ECHO Asia Regional Office.
As the ECHO Asia Notes do not seem to be downloadable from the www, I'm copying the online resources part of the contents here:

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SRI Practical and AV Material Webpage
With regard to SRI, the previously mentioned "SRI Homepage/System of Rice Intensification", a joint collaboration of Association Tefy Saina and CIIFAD, offers a wealth of SRI-related material, particularly on its "SRI Practical and AV Material" page "SRI Practical and AV Material" page. The SRI instructional and presentation material accessible on this page include print documents as well as slides (e.g., PowerPoint) and videos.  Besides information in English, French and Spanish, materials are also offered in various Asian languages.

Manuals
Downloadable English documents include How to Help Rice Plants to Grow Better and Produce More: Teach Yourself and Others, the original SRI manual developed jointly by CIIFAD and Tefy Saina. Additionally, SRI - Achieving More with Less: A New Way of Rice Cultivation, offers a well illustrated overview of SRI. 

Among Asian language manuals available on the same page is a Thai SRI publication (Thai SRI manual) compiled by the Agricultural Extension Unit at the McKean Rehabilitation Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Also available is an Indonesian language PDF file, Menembus Batas Kebuntuan Produksi: Cara SRI dalam budidaya padi, as well as SRI manuals in various South Asian languages, including Nepali, Oriya, Telugu and Tamil.

Slide Presentations
For added visual effect, several SRI-related slide presentations may also be downloaded via the "SRI Practical and AV Material" webpage.  These include CEDAC's experiences with SRI: 2000-2007 by Dr. Yang Saing Koma and Increasing Water Savings while Raising Rice Yields with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), by Dr. Norman Uphoff. 

Another slide presentation entitled System of Rice Intensification - Less Can Be More, by A. Satyanarayana and Acharya N.G Ranga of Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, India, can be viewed online.

Videos
SRI videos, accessible via websites (sometimes requiring Flash Player) or though YouTube links, are also available on this website.  Various offerings include:

Systéme de Riziculture Intensive- Cambodge: Le riz du l'espoir, a French language video on the Tefy Saina website .
SRI and SVA, which offers images with English text about SRI practices promoted by the Sahabhagi Vikash Abhiyan (Campaign for Participatory Development) organization in western Orissa, India.
Rice Intensification, a Kannada language video (produced by Digital Green), which compares SRI with conventional paddy production in Maraladoddi, Karnataka, India. 
Alternative Rice Planting Method Key to Self-Sufficiency, a Tagalog language video about SRI in the Philippines (note: scroll down through blog to get to video).
Living Labs Mekong River Basin, an English language video on YouTube about SRI and rice production in Thailand produced by TVE Asia for the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food.

ADRA New Zealand SRI Videos
Finally, Tom Post, with CRWRC, recently recommended a series of three very watchable English teaching videos produced by ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) New Zealand about SRI in Indonesia.

References
The SRI Group, "SRI Practical and AV Material," http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/manuals.html, Copyright © 2006 Cornell University.

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To subscribe to the Echo Asia Notes, send an e-mail to echoasia(at)echonet.org.

In our LEISA Magazine March 2009 issue, we published an article by Rajendra Uprety. Mr. Uprety, after having read an article in LEISA Magazine about SRI methods, introduced SRI in his region in Nepal, where he works with farmers as an extension officer. The results were amazing. Click here to read the article.

Illustration: from the manual Menembus Batas Kebuntuan Produksi publ. by Veco Indonesia (2007).

Building knowledge on how to build knowledge

Contributed by Jorge Chavez-Tafur

During the last months, 72 persons from all over Brazil were carefully chosen to participate in the workshops I am attending right now, taking place in the outskirts of Brasilia. They are just some of the many men and women, representing many organisations from all over the country, working on the development of agroecological knowledge. Their work in schools, research institutions, farmer organisations or NGOs is contributing enormously to the generation of new ideas, concepts and approaches.

All of these participants are interested in documenting their work as part of a process leading to the national congress of agroecology (which is going to take place later this year). Documentation is thus seen as a process which can help them share their work, but also as one which can help them draw lessons from it. Even more interesting, a documentation process is seen as the way for creating effective "learning networks". Their work during the last days has shown that these networks are already producing results: they were all able to share their work, showing the results achieved to each other. But we were also able to look at the processes by which they are all building knowledge, discussing issues such as the participation of all those involved, the importance of considering the context in which every experience takes place, or the steps which are needed in order to sustain a documentation process. As one of them said, "a meeting like this one gives us fuel to continue." I am already looking forward to hearing more from all of them.

Some participants discussing documentation of best practices in agroecology.

The Farmer-Led Approach has showed a new direction...

contributed by Jorge

"Food sovereignty can be achieved by building upon people's knowledge on traditional agriculture in a community-owned process."

"On the basis of our results, we believe that FLA can sustain farmers' livelihoods and agriculture..."

These are just two of the major conclusions mentioned during our recent documentation exercise. Both me and Radha, of the AME Foundation (based in Bangalore), were invited to facilitate a documentation process with some of Misereor's partners in Bangladesh and India. During the last days of June we were in Mymensingh and in Bhubaneswar, working with representatives of BARCIK, BIA, Caritas, KIRDTI, DULAL, Jana Vikas and ORRISSA. These different organisations are all following the Farmer-Led Approach as part of their work, with many positive results.

These two workshops were the first step in their documentation process - one which promises to be a very interesting one. With interviews, questions and a thorough discussion, we were able to look at the reasons why all those involved with FLA are so satisfied with this approach, and also analysed the steps taken to ensure its sustainability. All of this was shaped by Indian and Bangladeshi hospitality, which made it a highly enjoyable experience! We promise to show the results of the whole process in our website soon.

The KIRDTI group, discussing their results and enjoying the 45 degrees we had during those days.

From mushroom cultivation to pig keeping to ....

posted by Bertie

A few weeks ago one of our readers in Indonesia e-mailed to LEISA's Farm, requesting information about the possibilities for mushroom farming at home. I gave him the address of SALAM, our LEISA Network partner in Indonesia, for further inquiries. In addition, I sent him the title of a practical and concise manual written by Peter Oei and Bram van Nieuwenhuijzen:
Small scale mushroom cultivation, part I and II, published as Agrodok Series, no. 40 and 41.
Mushroom cultivation fits in very well with sustainable farming because of several advantages: It uses agricultural waste products, a high production per surface area can be obtained, and after picking, the spent substrate is still a good soil conditioner. The manual contains detailed information on how to grow mushroom species that are much valued in Asia, like rice straw, wood ear and oyster mushrooms. These mushrooms are rather easy to grow on a small scale and they are brimming with proteins, B vitamins and minerals and even have medicinal properties. Time between spawning and harvesting can be as short as three weeks.
The manual is available in several languages and downloadable for free.

The Agrodok series is published by Agromisa, knowledge centre for small scale sustainable agriculture in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Agromisa offers nearly 50 manuals on all sorts of topics, from pig keeping in the tropics to starting a cooperative, from snail farming to non-timber forest products. I'm happy to share the link to their site, where you can download most of them: Click here! You can also order printed versions there.

Illustration taken from Small scale mushroom cultivation, part I.

Story of a cover photo

posted by Karen

Finding a cover photo for the LEISA Magazine often gives the editorial team a bit of a headache. This time around we looked at more than 500 images, and were still struggling to find a good, authentic shot reflecting agricultural diversity. Having exhausted our usual contacts, we turned to Flickr and discovered photos of farmer Burton Caliz posted by the people from Sustainable Harvest International (SHI). With three days to go till the print deadline, we (frantically) called Sarah Kennedy from SHI, who then contacted their office in Belize to get permissions to use the photo. However, it was election day in Belize! But she managed to get hold of Nana Mensah, SHI-Belize Program Director, who offered to drive to Burton Caliz's farm. We'd like to say thanks to our new friends at SHI for such efforts, and helping secure such a great cover.

We were especially pleased with our choice when we learned a bit more about the man himself, Burton Caliz. SHI told us "He started practicing organic agriculture in the dry season of 1974. At that time, he used slash-and-burn techniques to grow his corn and other crops, but has since adopted methods that he says, 'feed the earth, not destroy it.' He is very committed to sustainable and organic methods, and recognises that to work within mother nature's systems you have to work hard, as he says, 'None of the wild creatures take vacations, so I follow their methods and work 7 days a week, no holidays.' Burton's wife, Adelina Caliz, won the Belize National Agriculture and Trade Show Woman Farmer of the Year Award in 1987 for the Toledo District. In 2005 and 2006, Burton won the award of Senior Organic Farmer of the year. Burton has established a school garden program in the local village school in his community of Mafridi."

Sustainable Harvest International has been working in Belize in 1999 and the local programme is now an independent affiliate organisation recognised by the local government as Sustainable Harvest International-Belize. The local field trainers provide farming families with the training and tools to overcome poverty while restoring our planet's tropical forests. Burton is a shining example of what SHI hope that families working with them can achieve with sustainable land-use practices.