Dears,
Please find below, on behalf of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, ICBA, our contributions to the online FSN consultation.
With best regards,
Diletta
1) Impact of COVID-19 outbreak in NENA region
- How does/did the COVID-19 outbreak exacerbate the challenges faced by small-scale family farmers (SSFF)?
The COVID-19 outbreak had a major impact on small-scale family farmers. Restrictions to movement and the lockdown imposed by authorities in several countries reduced their physical access to markets, both to sell their products and to purchase agricultural inputs (mainly seeds and fertilizers). Similarly, potential buyers changed their consumption habits switching to a daily consumption of fresh food to preserved food when possible, with a consequent drop in the demand for SSFF’s fresh produce. Farmers whose production is linked to export markets suffered from the restricted capacity to ship products from one country to the other. And farmers who normally hire seasonal laborers or have family members hired somewhere else for specific tasks (land preparation or harvest to list a few examples) struggled in finding available work force or moving.
- And what are the main areas of interventions that could efficiently build SSFF resilience and ensure sustainable livelihood?
Improved food storage and food processing facilities in areas where SSFF can have easy access could be one of the solutions on a medium term, while trainings on basic domestic food processing techniques should be proposed on short term. On a longer term, in the view of a probable second outbreak, local authorities could coordinate with farmers and act (or identify someone on their behalf) as intermediary between sellers and buyers so that fresh products can reach the consumers by respecting all safety measures and guarantee safety for all the actors involved in the transaction.
- Can you share success examples in the region?
Although the restrictions to movement in NENA region has hampered ICBA from implementing an immediate response to the challenges faced by SSFF during the pandemic, the center is actively working with local partners to plan future steps.
A success story of how a local women’s cooperative in Morocco transformed raw quinoa in value-added products, with a longer shelf life, could be read on our website: https://www.biosaline.org/news/2019-06-20-6821
2) Sustainable transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems
In order to meet the needs of a growing population, it is essential to accelerate the transition toward more sustainable food systems with special consideration to the degradation of the already scarce natural resources and climate change impact in the NENA region.
- Can you give brief description of key CC impact factors on productivity of main farming systems in the region?
Droughts, a hazard the region is particularly vulnerable to, are predicted to increase in severity, intensity, duration, extent and frequency in the NENA region. The impacts of droughts can linger long after the event if mitigation responses are not prompt and adequate. The case of rainfed agriculture is the most revealing example of drought impacts. Specifically, for the most vulnerable communities such as agro-pastoralists, droughts result in lack of grazing and losses in herds and overall wealth. Similar adverse impacts on wealth are experienced by cereal and fruit tree growers due to the reduction in crop yield or even complete failure. In all cases, these impacts can continue to be experienced in subsequent years if livestock, seed supplies or fruit trees cannot be recovered. One consequence of drought is also the outmigration of farm labour, usually to urban areas, in search of employment opportunities and a cash income that can be sent back to support the family. It is often young men that leave, with women and older/younger family members remaining to continue to tend the land or animals. However, the devastation brought about by long-term droughts can force entire families and communities to migrate both within and outside country borders, as various capital stores of wealth – animals, seed, savings – are depleted or lost.
It should be emphasized that women in the North Africa region are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of drought. In general, male-dominated agricultural tasks, like harvesting and threshing of cereals, decrease during drought due to the reduced yields. Conversely, rural women’s workloads tend to increase, as they often take on more productive responsibilities on-farm or off-farm in order to compensate for the decreased household income. Droughts also compel women to walk longer distances in search of water for their households and fields. This may include fetching water from wells where water is not certified as safe, which leads to higher incidence of diarrheal diseases and malnutrition, particularly among children, as well as seeking water in remote areas that may not be secure, putting the women at risk of gender-based violence.
Increased salinity in the NENA is another indirect impact of CC when caused by inappropriate irrigation practices that result in waterlogging, as well as by seawater intrusion into coastal farming areas due to a combination of rising sea levels and over-pumping. Higher salinity results in declining agricultural productivity or loss of it in such areas. Mitigation and prevention of salinity is therefore important to further agricultural development in the region, particularly when it transitions from traditional rain-fed agricultural systems to intensive irrigated agriculture.
- How can innovation and digital solutions accelerate such transition of the agi-food systems?
It is necessary to propose holistic solutions towards more sustainable food systems that lie in equipping smallholder farmers with technologies and skills that can improve agricultural productivity while conserving and improving the natural resource base. These technologies and skills may include: soil and water management practices that improve fertility and mitigate/avert salinization; low-cost, water and energy-efficient small-scale irrigation technologies; best management practices that improve the productivity of existing cropping systems; and adapted innovative climate-smart crops with high tolerance to drought and salinity, and high nutritional and economic value (e.g. quinoa, legumes, ...).
GIS and remote-sensing technologies can be deployed for a wide range of purposes, and have the potential to be largely utilized because they require data that does not involved ground-level tasks. ICBA have developed models to monitor evapotranspiration, drought, vegetative productivity, and other key indexes to better understand how environmental resources are utilized, as well as to flag any critical changes that could indicate losses in productivity and changes to the geoclimatic setting in key areas. Our work also involves drones, which facilitate small-scale high-resolution mapping of agricultural activities on individual farms. Moreover, with an ever-increasing expansion of drone capabilities and technologies, ICBA scientists aim to explore the possibility of seeding, pollination, and farming using automated drone systems. And finally, ICBA in-house GIS capabilities utilize all available open-source spatial data layers related to global vegetative cover to provide insight into the environment and agricultural productivity globally. For instance, available satellite imagery can be used to gain insight on the location and productivity of farms, as seen in the image below.
All these digital solutions can gather data that help monitor the transition toward more sustainable food systems, analyze the progress and plan for future.
More on digital solutions during COVID-19 could be read at: https://www.biosaline.org/blogs/2020-06-18-7143
- How can the UNDFF provide tools and measures that help SSFF facing the climate and socioeconomic challenges?
UNDFF should advocate for the development of effective and implementable drought policies and plans for the countries of the North Africa region. Alongside actions centred on preparedness and mitigation efforts, these policies and plans should include actions and incentives to promote adaptive capacity and resilience building at the level of communities and economic sectors, including transition to drought-resilient cropping systems and/or water management practices. Response efforts that are solely reactive and crisis-led result in higher costs to people.
Given the wide range of experience both within countries and among regional partners, there could be real value added in the sharing of knowledge, experience and practical steps taken so far as a way to prompt the enhancement of drought management and resilience in the region. With this greater capacity development and technology transfer, drought management and climate change adaptation capabilities to manage future droughts would be strengthened. UNDFF could take the lead on knowledge sharing.
3) Towards an inclusive and equitable growth
Improving the productivity and sustainability of small-scale family farmers alone will not be sufficient to achieve the UNDFF milestones or SDG goals in the NENA region. The engagement of adolescents and youth, women and individuals in vulnerable situations such as migrants, will be critical to long term, inclusive and equitable growth.
- Based on your experience, what are effective strategies, instruments or mechanisms to ensure adequate access to services, resources and social protection among marginalized or vulnerable groups, including in humanitarian contexts?
ICBA, in partnership with Mercy Corps and other organizations, implemented a USAID funded project in Jordan named Water Innovation Technologies. The project aims to save 18.5 million cubic meters of water over a time lapse of five year and targets mainly stone fruits farmers, in Jordan’s Northern governorates, who overirrigate their crops. The project adopted a Market System Development (MSD) approach, meaning project staff members do not intervene directly in the installation of new irrigation systems and farmers do not receive any free devices. Rather, the project team facilitates farmer adoption by supporting suppliers and linking them to potential clients. Empowering suppliers through trainings, advocacy for flourishing business environments, better access to loan facilities, market linkages, etc. is a strategy to avoid market distortions usually provoked by free aid and too generous subsidies. The MSD approach to work with existing market actors ensures the sustainability of the actions even once the project is over.
- Despite the informality of the agriculture sector, any support for smallholder family farming can and should go hand in hand with the promotion of the Decent work Agenda. Family farmers are engaged in arduous and sometimes hazardous work to cut costs and compensate for the farm’s low productivity to an extent of involving children too, based on your experience please give three priority actions to enable decent employment for rural smallholders, youth and women and to eliminate child labour in family farming.
This aspect is not directly covered by ICBA work, although we understand the huge importance of eliminating child labour in family farming.
4) Enabling environment for the implementation of UNDFF
Building an enabling environment for the implementation of UNDFF regional action plan means that there are adequate resources and that governance and institutional arrangements are effective and inclusive.
- How do you define roles of Governments, development agencies, farmers’ organizations, civil society and private sector in implementing the UNDFF in the region?
Governments and development agencies should be the priority players in enabling policy environment to strengthen family farming (this includes the provision of funding), while farmers’ organizations and civil society should interiorize the importance of supporting youth ensure the generational sustainability of family farming while promoting gender equity in family farming and the leadership role of rural women. Private sector will have a key role in ensure the socio-economic inclusion of SSFF, while knowledge should be created at all levels and all actors should work towards the sustainability of family farming and the safeguard of biodiversity, the environment and culture.
- What are the bottlenecks –any of the above institutions may encounter in achieving the UNDFF implementation in the region and how to overcome them? E.g. in terms of policies, financial resources, technical capacities, etc.
In addition to the bottlenecks already listed above, work overload of local governments’ representatives and the difficulty in having them participating in key meetings and activities should be taken into consideration. Planning in advance could help overcome this challenge. Availability of funds is also key and actors should combine their effort to increase awareness on UNDFF initiative and fundraise for it.
5) Partnerships
Partnerships associated with sustainable development initiatives can create synergies to address interconnected challenges that need to be addressed. With the aim to implement the UNDFF action plan in its seven pillars in the NENA region,
- How can innovative partnerships be built and established? And how/what existing initiatives would you propose to replicate or scale up?
AWLA (Arab Women Leaders in Agriculture) is an innovative way to gather people from different institutions together and build a solid partnership. AWLA is a fellowship program launched by ICBA in collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, which aims to develop women researchers who can make a positive impact in their workplaces, communities and countries. AWLA is an occasion for Arab women researchers to strengthen their intellectual collaboration by exchanging ideas, good practices and stories on the difference women can make in agriculture. We strongly recommend scaling up this initiative because of its success in creating cooperation among individuals belonging to different background and working in different institutions. It is by meeting physically, spending time together and work on a common aim that partnership is established.
More on AWLA could be found here: https://www.awlafellowships.org/
Diletta Ciolina