LEISA's Farm

New approach to agricultural innovation

posted by Bertie (thanks Karen Hampson, for sending the link)

Agriculture needs better innovation, not technology
By Andy Hall and Susanna Thorp, SciDev.net, Sept. 16, 2009:

"We live in an era of unprecedented technological advancement. So why does technical change in agriculture continue to be slow and patchy?

One possible explanation is that the importance of farmers' capacity to access and use information for innovation has been overshadowed by the conventional view that change is driven primarily by new technology and farmer-led technical improvements.
Similarly, insufficient attention may have been given to the fact that the capacity for innovation in agriculture is influenced not only by farmers' skills and resources, but also by the wider network of links and relationships in which farmers are embedded, which help ideas to diffuse and find new uses.

These hypotheses are currently being tested by a research project in India and Nigeria on the long-standing problem of fodder scarcity, using what is widely referred to as an 'innovation systems' perspective. [...]"

Click here to read the whole article.

Eldis Manuals-Toolkits CD-ROM

News from ELDIS - sharing the best in development policy, practice and research:

The latest edition of Eldis OnDisc is out now and focuses on Manuals and Toolkits. It contains over 400 full-text publications from 150 development organisations. Eldis OnDisc is freely available to subscribers with poor internet connection who struggle to access the full Eldis online services.

Designed with the busy development professional and researcher in mind, publications on this CD-Rom have been categorised into key subject and skills areas for quick reference. There is also an easy-to-use Search function, helping you get right to the publication you need and each publication is accompanied by a short abstract.

To receive your copy of Eldis OnDisc Manuals and Toolkits edition, please complete the registration form. If you are experiencing problems with this form, you can request a Word version at: eldisondisc@ids.ac.uk. For more information about the project and its aims, check out the Eldis OnDisc community group.

(Sourced from the Eldis Community Blog.)

Photo contest: the future of family farming

A lot to win !! LEISA Magazine jubilee photo contest

posted by Bertie

What do you think about the future of small-scale family farming? What changes will happen or have already happened? Are your neighbours moving to the city? Have farming methods and markets changed a lot in your lifetime? Will your children become farmers? How has mobile phone changed your life? Which technologies will you use in the future?

Photograph your ideas about families, farming and change and send them to us. It doesn’t have to be a real situation – you can also envisage your ideas of change and photograph that. Digital photos can be sent to jubilee(at)ileia.nl (mention ‘Contest’ in the subject heading) and should be a minimum size of 1 MB. Printed photographs can be sent by regular mail to: ILEIA Photo Contest, PO Box 2067, 3800 CB Amersfoort, The Netherlands. If you mention your address, we will return photos afterwards. The closing date for this contest is September 1, 2009. Winners will be announced in our December issue.

A lot to win !! The prize for the best picture – which will be chosen by the editors of LEISA Magazine – is a beautiful netbook – a compact laptop with many useful features. The second prize is a lightweight digital camera, and the third prize is a combined radio with nine functions. We will also give away ten USB sticks. The best entries will be published in LEISA Magazine next year, and will feature on our website and weblog.

Right to food, right to land

Posted by Frank and Safi
Men of a village of people with virtually no rights tell the first thing they need is land

Dear all,

 
Please find a few pictures of our field visit the other day. Some of the men are looking at us through very cool sunglasses. These are inhabitants of a village with virtually no rights; if they want to build a shed next to their house they have to ask permission from the chef. Such people are being "sensitised" on human rights; in a big meeting with all authorities present and everybody being welcomed with a special local lunch.
 
Yesterday OXFAM and us did a workshop on the "right to food". As we suspected from the field visit, many participants thought that an important condition for the "right to food" is the "right to land". Land and water are not being used optimally because people in power leave them fallow or hardly used; while others have to beg for temporary access to land. Everybody talks about this but there is no programme that solidly addresses this issue.
 
Some people work on marketing of agri-products. All fine, but the products are being sold to Nigeria when prices are low and there are food shortages later, so prices go up. This kind of free-market is not conducive for "food for all" and some people speak of "free-market induced famines".
 
That's it for now. We are thinking what to do with what we learnt - both for our network of magazines, but also for a possible future co-operation with other Dutch agencies such as Agri-Pro-Focus.
 
Niamey, 11 June
Safi and Frank

A judge and an NGO fighting slavery make a speech on Human Rights and rights of women to the village crowd

People attend a awareness raising meeting on rights

Safi and Fenke enjoy their meat and macaroni meal in a Germa-Toeareg village

For previous posts on the visit to Niger click here and here.

Safi found in Niamé

Posted by Frank van Schoubroeck

Dear friends,

Good news: Safi is found in Hotel Terminus in Niamé! She did not sleep too well because of the shrill sound of the local peacocks trying to impress the ladies. Safi is in an optimistic spirit and getting brainwashed with entrepreneurship, right-based approaches, hot issues (questions brûlantes) and policy chains. Yesterday (Monday) an NGO working on rights with OXFAM-NOVIB called TIMITRIA took us to a north-western region; a savannah area. After being welcomed by a Prefect and the Secretary-General of the Gouverneur (I am yet to note the names) we went to a village that is in the OXFAM food support programme. Besides the rice bank (a local store with bags of ... rice!) we met with a colourful group of people, men and women, we shook a hundred hands, and asked how they could produce their own food in the long run. The answer was clear. They needed land rights. Just every question ended with the conclusion they were stuck in their slavery situation as long as they were dependent on the chef de canton (traditional chef) for their access to land.

After a little dance we went to a "sensibilation" meeting organised by the same NGO. A few hundred people got lectures about the right to food, women's rights not to be married so young, the necessity to be inscribed in the birth register, etc. This was all about 250 km from Niamé, where we returned in the evening, chewing on what we have seen and a possible agriculture-related plan.

I cannot download pictures from my camera but I hope to fix that tomorrow.

Safi and Frank

LEISA Network partners at ... Niamé, Niger!

Posted by Frank van Schoubroeck

Today Sunday afternoon I arrived in Niamé 33 degrees :o). This is the capital of Niger, West Africa. I just chatted with two Dutch colleagues, Fenke Elskamp of OXFAM-NOVIB and Christel Schiphorst of AgriProFocus.

 

I am yet to meet Safi of IED-Afrique - but the hotel manager says she did not check in here. I thought she'd be here yesterday... Safi, if you read this: come to Hotel Terminus, Room 119 - or send me an SMS!!!

 

We are planning a field trip to get ideas from villagers about options for productivity in the area. Niger has a history of bad famines that some people call "Free-market induced famines" - shops are full of food but people have no money to buy it. What is the long-term solution for this? Should people produce for the market, and make money to buy food, or should people try producing their own food, or should people care for trees and feed cattle? Or a mix of all?

 

We AgriProFocus partners would like to figure this out so that we can look how the range of expertise in the network can be used to solve food problems, also for the poorest. So we try to get a picture and see how the Netherlands can support.

 

Tomorrow: More!
Frank


"Niger"

Photo credit:
Vodkamax
CC-licensed
BY-NC-SA

Agriculture: not part of the problem, but part of the solution

"Farmers feed the world, yet far too many of them put their children to bed underfed."

Posted by Bertie

What are the topics of fundamental importance to our economies, societies and to the future of sustainable development?
Agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa.
These were also the themes discussed by ministers and other high level representatives during the CSD17, the 17th Session of the United Nations Commission of Sustainable Development, held from May 4-15 in New York.

From the Commission's Shared Vision Statement:

"The multiple challenges the world is facing in terms of climate change, degradation of ecosystems, the food insecurity, the financial meltdown and economic recession require an integrated response that ensures that short term emergencies are addressed while developing long term strategies within the framework of sustainable development. With the economic crisis, many countries, especially developing countries, are hard hit by collapsing exports, capital flight and rising unemployment.

Still, to feed a growing population adequately and to allow for improved nutrition under conditions of growing water scarcity, climate change, soil depletion and ecosystem degradation, business as usual will not suffice. Ministers highlighted the urgency of appropriate national and international action and greater cooperation to bring about a paradigm shift and to realize a truly sustainable green revolution that reverses the widespread trends of declining agricultural productivity and incomes. Nothing less is needed than a revolution in ideas and a revolution in technologies, supported by a revolution in trade policies and market access and the financial means to implement it.

With sharing our vision we underlined our deeper appreciation of the centrality of agriculture to sustainable development: agriculture in the broad sense, including livestock raising, agro-forestry and mixed systems. Farmers, particularly women farmers and small rural farmers are at the heart of sustainable agriculture. Farmers are central to the enterprise of building and sustaining a productive, resilient agricultural sector - here again, farmers in the broad sense, including pastoralists, farmer workers and others who make a living from the land. This includes women and men, and the important place of women in farming needs to be recognized. Farmers feed the world, yet far too many of them put their children to bed underfed. This injustice must cease.

We must commit ourselves to working to create the conditions and provide the opportunities and resources so that farmers everywhere can increase their food production, send their children to school, and enjoy rising living standards and fulfilling lives. This applies specifically to small farmers. (Emphasis mine. B.)

A paradigm shift is needed. Agriculture should no longer be seen as part of the problem, but part of the solution. Agriculture is at the heart of poverty eradication. It is at the heart of sustainable development. It is also increasingly at the heart of climate change."

The Commission's Shared Vision Statement was sent to the Dutch Parliament on May 29 by Gerda Verburg, Dutch minister of Agriculture, and Chair of the 17th Session of the Commission.

The full text of the Shared Vision Statement can be downloaded from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture's website (click here). On the same page: "Policy options and practical measures to expedite implementation in agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa."

Agroinnovations podcast Episode 51 (part 1)

posted by Bertie

Agricultural Innovations' Frank Aragona interviewed ILEIA's Frank van Schoubroeck. After a somewhat hesitant start an interesting conversation unfolded about exchanging good farming practices, the possibilities of smallholder farmers to contribute to innovations in agriculture, the role of big development institutions like the World Bank, the need for good governance, and lots of other things concerning small-scale farming. Also, Frank & Frank ask and explain some questions you might have about LEISA (LEISA? Who or what's LEISA?).
Click here to listen to the Agroinnovations Podcast Episode 51 (part 1).

Sustaining sustainability: a cautionary tale

posted by Karen

I read with interest Lindiwe Majele Sibanda's blogpost about achieving sustainable development in Africa. Her answer to this issue? Invest in agriculture. Sounds simple.

She rightly points out that in recent decades agriculture has been way down the development agenda, with agriculture's share of aid dropping from 17% to a dismal 3%. Then she highlights the emergence of various continent-wide plans as African governments, donors and international policy makers have again begun to prioritise agriculture in recent years. All good so far. Finally she highlights her support for a new plan, Farming First, which calls on world leaders to to apply its six "interlinked imperatives" in policy and practice:

• Safeguard natural resources
• Share knowledge
• Build local access
• Protect harvests
• Enable access to markets
• Prioritise research imperatives

Still looks good. Then I notice that much overused word which now (unfortunately) makes me immediately question and dig deeper into what I'm reading: sustainable. Farming First talks about sustainable agriculture, sustainable value chains, sustainable development. Maybe it's a personal gripe of mine, but this doesn't sit well with me when I see that the website is endorsed by the International Fertilizer Industry Association and Crop Life International. Trouble is, Monsanto have started running full page adverts in the Economist claiming that they are "all about....sustainable agriculture". What next, McDonalds being all about healthy eating? (hold on, haven't they already started down that track?)

Anyway, my point is that a word that many people in development and agriculture accepted and used (including LEISA Magazine and ILEIA) is now being hijacked. It is used in so many different contexts, and to mean so many different things that it is becoming difficult to use meaningfully. Does sustainable mean sustained use of fertilizers? In LEISA Magazine we recently questioned the sustainability of organic farming (click Two Views), while we also publish about the judicious use of phosphorus ("Kick-starting legumes"), as well as alternatives to agrochemicals (Ecological Pest Management). All under the banner of promoting sustainable agriculture, but many legions away from Monsanto's understanding of this phrase.

We, as readers, users and producers of information, need to be aware of this - that while we may agree on the destination (reduced poverty and hunger in Africa) the routes we endorse are different and further complicated by ambiguous use of once-trusted terms. Is "sustainability" really sustainable in this sense? 

A story from Ghana

posted by Bertie

"We produce in abundance here... One hectare we can produce five, six tonnes here and we have over two thousand hectares here just on this project....

Ghana's Roosting Bird
(Click title to view video)
Pangea Day Film directed by
Jemma Gander and Miriam Rowe

...We can't consume it by ourselves. But still, the foreign rice is coming more and this one is lying here....
We can't compare our rice to the US rice because the marketing, the promotion of that rice... But if we harvest and the harvested rice will stay over one year before it will be marketed then where will the farmer be getting money to sustain himself? Send his children to school and maintain his family?"