{"id":11429,"date":"2019-07-18T19:57:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T17:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/?p=11429"},"modified":"2019-07-22T15:13:49","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T13:13:49","slug":"opinion-agroecology-as-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navdanyainternational.org\/pt-br\/opinion-agroecology-as-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Agroecology as Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Timothy A. Wise – Triple Crisis, 17 July 2019 | Source<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, the High Level Panel of Experts of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its much-anticipated report on agroecology. The report signals the continuing shift in emphasis in the UN agency\u2019s approach to agricultural development. As outgoing FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva has\u00a0indicated<\/a>, \u201cWe need to promote a transformative change in the way that we produce and consume food. We need to put forward sustainable food systems that offer healthy and nutritious food, and also preserve the environment. Agroecology can offer several contributions to this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commissioned report,\u00a0\u201cAgroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Two years in the making, the report makes clear the urgent need for change. \u201cFood systems are at a crossroads. Profound transformation is needed,\u201d the summary begins. It stresses the importance of ecological agriculture, which supports \u201cdiversified and resilient production systems, including mixed livestock, fish, cropping, and agroforestry, that preserve and enhance biodiversity, as well as the natural resource base.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not surprising, of course, that those with financial interests in the current input-intensive systems are responding to growing calls for agroecology with attacks on its efficacy as a systematic approach that can sustainably feed a growing population. What is surprising is that such responses are so ill-informed about the scientific innovations agroecology offers to small-scale farmers who are being so poorly served by \u201cgreen revolution\u201d approaches.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0recent article<\/a>\u00a0from a researcher associated with a pro-biotechnology institute in Uganda was downright dismissive, equating agroecology with \u201ctraditional agriculture,\u201d a step backwards toward the low-productivity practices that prevail today. \u201cThe practices that agroecology promotes are not qualitatively different from those currently in widespread use among smallholder farmers in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa more broadly,\u201d writes Nassib Mugwanya of the Uganda Biosciences Research Center.\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>I have come to conclude that agroecology is a dead end for Africa, for the rather obvious reason that most African agriculture already follows its principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing could be further from the truth. As the new expert report shows, and as countless ecological scientists around the world can attest, agroecology brings much-needed innovations to prevailing smallholder practices. With a long track record of achievements in widely varying environments, the approach has been shown to improve soil fertility, increase crop and diet diversity, raise total food productivity, improve resilience to climate change, and increase farmers\u2019 food and income security while decreasing their dependence on costly inputs.<\/p>\n

The failing policies of the present<\/strong><\/p>\n

The predominant input-intensive approach to agricultural development can hardly claim such successes, which is precisely why international institutions are actively seeking alternatives. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is the poster child for the promotion of input-intensive agriculture in Africa. At its outset 13 years ago, AGRA and its main sponsor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, set the goals of doubling the productivity and incomes of 30 million smallholder households on the continent.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence that approach will come anywhere near meeting those worthy objectives, even with many African governments spending large portions of their agricultural budgets to subsidize the purchase of green revolution inputs of commercial seeds and synthetic fertilizers.\u00a0National-level data<\/a>, summarized in the conclusion to my book\u00a0Eating Tomorrow,<\/em>\u00a0attests to this failure:<\/p>\n