To quote the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food – Hilal Elver – in 2015 “There is a need to encourage a major shift from current industrial agriculture to transformative activities such as conservation agriculture (agroecology)”.
The IPES on Sustainable Food Systems reinforced this need to transition to agroecological systems stressing “This transition is viable and necessary whether the starting point is highly specialised industrial agriculture or forms of subsistence farming in poor developing countries”
This argument is not new. The former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter in his 2010 report emphasised the benefits of using low external input, sustainable agriculture in poor countries. He cites many examples of approaches which will improve productivity where it has been lagging behind and raise incomes for the poorest smallholders, while at the same time preserving ecosystems. These include:
- agroforestry where multifunctional trees are incorporated into agricultural systems;
- water harvesting in dryland areas which allows for the cultivation of abandoned and degraded lands, and improves the water productivity of crops. For example, In West Africa, stone barriers built alongside fields slow down runoff water during the rainy season, allowing an improvement of soil moisture, the replenishment of water tables, and reductions in soil erosion. The water retention capacity is multiplied five- to ten-fold, the biomass production multiplies by 10 to 15 times, and livestock can feed on the grass that grows along the stone barriers after the rains;
- the integration of livestock into farming systems as this provides protein for the family and manure to fertilise the soil.
Compassion in World Farming believes that diversified agroecological systems, including silvopastoralism, combined with:
- a predominantly plant-based diet, and,
- a significant contraction in dietary animal sourced foods in high-consumption countries and convergence to a healthy low level elsewhere
is the solution for a sustainable food and farming system to feed the existing and predicted human population with a healthy and nourishing diet. Planetary boundaries will respected and the SDGs successfully delivered.
This position is elaborated further in the attached document that accompanied our major international conference addressing these matters; Olivier de Schutter was a key speaker at the event.
CIWF welcomes the proposal and supports the UN and the HLPE in identifying a key need for a report into Agroecology and offers any assistance it can give the process.
Angela Wright