Nufarmer Africa
International Symposium on
Agro-ecology for Food and
Nutrition Security - FAO
Scientists, policy-makers, food businesses, chefs, funders, and farmers are
contemplating the best way to grow
food, provide nutrition, and increase
incomes for farms—small and large—
all over the world.
I
t’s clear that our current methods of food
production—aren’t working for people or the
planet—nearly 1 billion people are hungry;
another 1.5 billion people are overweight or
obese; half of the world’s topsoil has been lost
over the last 150 years; and the world’s biodiversity is disappearing at 100 to 1,000 times the
natural extinction rate.
The business as usual approach of high input, resource intensive, monoculture cropping
is no longer an option. We need better, holistic,
more agro-ecological and environmentallysmart agricultural practices to nourish the
planet. There is no one-size-fits-all prescription
for a sustainable farm. Instead, agro-ecological
farmers are taking into consideration the surrounding ecosystem and region in which their
farms exist.
In California, on Singing Frogs Farm, Paul
Kaiser grows fruits and vegetables for 110 com-
munity supported agriculture (CSA) members.
On his farm, Kaiser provides a habitat for important pollinators, including bees, by planting
flowering hedgerows throughout his fields.
Farmers in Central America are using agroecological methods including contour cropping
to conserve water, planting leguminous cover
crops that provide a natural source of fertilizer
for maize and cacao, and incorporating trees to
increase resistance to hurricanes. After a hurricane hit Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala
in 1998, farmers using agro-ecological practices
retained 20-40 percent more top soil and experienced less erosion than conventionally managed, monoculture farms in the same region.
Small farms in Africa are implementing ecological pest management, by planting maize
with plants that repel pests and support natural pest predators, which provides economic,
health, and environmental benefits. More than
12,000 farmers in eastern Africa have started
using this method, which also reduces the use
of the synthetic pesticides, reduces soil erosion,
and increases food security.
In the Philippines, the Oray family went
from managing a monoculture of sugarcane
crops to a diverse farm with a variety of plants
and animals. This allowed them to survive the
collapse of sugar prices in the 1980s as well as
improve crop resilience and soil fertility. The
Oray family integrates drought-resistant, indig-
Nufarmer Africa | September/October 2014
enous species on their farm to further mitigate
effects of climate change.
In a recent report, the former U.N. Special
Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter emphasized
how agro-ecology, if sufficiently supported,
could double food production within ten years.
“Scaling up agro-ecological practices can simultaneously increase farm productivity and
food security, improve incomes and rural livelihoods, and reverse the trend towards species loss and genetic erosion. Agro-ecological
practices are best adopted when they are not
imposed top-down, but shared from farmer to
farmer,” explains De Schutter.
The benefits and use of agro-ecological
farming will be further investigated and shared
at the International Symposium on Agro-ecology for Food and Nutrition Security hosted by
the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) on September 18 and 19 at the FAO
headquarters in Rome, Italy. Food Tank is excited to be participating in this event.
The Symposium is bringing together agroecology experts from around the world to
“increase and improve provision of goods and
services from agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
in a sustainable manner.” The symposium will
also allow international agro-ecological initiatives to be displayed to a global audience of
scientists, civil society members, private sector
members, and FAO staff.
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