Sustainability Resources

OPINION: Don't sweep away crop diversity

Anywhere you go in Malawi you find people sweeping the ground clean-floors, sidewalks, bare dirt around homes-even throughout small farms and gardens.

Sweeping soil makes everything look tidy, but it causes major damage, making it vulnerable to erosion and nutrient loss. Not removing organic matter around crops has proven to help farmers get more out of the soil and reduce their dependence on high-cost agricultural inputs that can damage the long-term health of soils.

And it's not only the soil that matters in permaculture, but what is grown in it as well. Permaculture emphasizes the same holistic approach to the food system as it does to soils. Unfortunately, just as top soil is often cleared, crop diversity is being lost in Malawi. By planting a variety of indigenous vegetables-like amaranth, dika, moringa, and African eggplant-along with staple grains, farmers can improve food security while relying on local resources.

Efforts throughout Africa to promote staple crops-high in calories but lacking in essential nutrients-have ignored the importance of indigenous foods. Large-scale production of maize, wheat, and rice are wiping out a vibrant base of indigenous vegetables that have nourished Malawians for generations, and traditional foods are going extinct.

Indigenous crops are often resistant to local pests and climatic fluctuations, making them more affordable and accessible to farmers.

But many Malawians see traditional crops as poor-people foods, while hybrid varieties of corn are seen as sophisticated and modern. The country is well known for the so-called "Malawi Miracle." After the government began subsidising fertiliser for maize, production has tripled, and Malawi has been touted as an agricultural success story.

While travelling through Malawi as part of our research for the Nourishing the Planet project, we visited a home where the yard was anything but swept clean.

Kristof and Stacia Nordin use their home in Lilongwe to demonstrate permaculture to local farmers by incorporating composting, water harvesting, intercropping and other methods that build organic matter in soils, conserve water, and protect agricultural diversity.

The Nordins came to Malawi in 1997 as Peace Corps volunteers, but now call Malawi home. Stacia is a technical adviser to the Ministry of Education, working to sensitise both policymakers and citizens about the importance of using indigenous foods and permaculture to improve livelihoods and nutrition. Kristof is a community educator who trains people at all levels of society in low-input and sustainable agricultural practices.

Kristof complains that maize is not well suited to Malawi because it is susceptible to pests and disease.

"We are not saying stop growing maize. But we try to show people how it can be part of an integrated system, and how integrated agriculture can be part of a balanced diet," says Kristof.

Rivers flow with water from streams, and sustainable agriculture initiatives-like the Nordins' permaculture project-are valuable tributaries in the global effort to eradicate hunger. There is no shortage of innovative ideas in Africa from farmers groups, volunteers, NGOs, universities, and others. And it is a combination of approaches-not one single miracle-that will likely be the most effective.

There are more than 600 indigenous and naturalised food plants in Malawi. As Kristof told Nourishing the Planet, "There's no miracle plant. Just plant them all."

*Danielle Nierenberg is co-project director of the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project (www.NourishingthePlanet.org). Matt Styslinger is a research intern at Worldwatch.

OPINION: Corporate Land Grabs Threaten Food Security

Photo courtesy OakleyOriginals

Yet that is what's happening all over the world, as wealthy countries buy or lease large tracts of land in poorer countries for agricultural production and export. At the same time, financial institutions and agribusiness are chasing land as an investment in the expanding biofuels market. Poor governments are often too eager to comply, offering up what they deem "idle" or "unused" land, but which is frequently inhabited and farmed by indigenous populations.

While no one knows the exact number of these controversial deals (called land grabs by critics), hundreds have been reported in the media. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that up to 49 million acres of farmland were the subject of such negotiations between 2006 and 2009 alone.

Widespread consequences

In conferences and numerous reports, intergovernmental organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have consistently promoted the idea that these deals can be "win-win," where poor countries receive some combination of money, infrastructure, and resources in exchange for their land.

Land rights advocates, farmers' and peasants' groups, and a slew of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have held firmly against this trend. They argue that these land deals spur an assortment of negative consequences, including ecosystem destruction, worker exploitation, loss of livelihoods, food insecurity, and market distortion toward agribusiness and global trade.

A recently leaked World Bank report cited in the Financial Times suggests they may be right: "Investors in farmland are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments," the Times summarized.

True agrarian reform

True agrarian reform is something else entirely, according to 120 organizational signatories of an April statement that called for an immediate end to land grabs. Such change, they argued, includes investment in research and training programs for smallholder farmers overhauling trade policies, supporting regional markets, and promoting "community-oriented food and farming systems hinged on local people's control over land, water and biodiversity."

In meetings with farmers in more than 21 countries in Africa, we at the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project have found smallholder agricultural innovations to be some of the most successful approaches.

In southern Ghana, for example, the Abooman Women's Group raises dairy cows to make yogurt and pasteurized milk to sell to the community. These products help the women earn higher incomes, especially in the off-season. And studies show that supporting women's access to training, credit, and inputs improves not only food security, but health indicators as well.

In Ethiopia, a country rich in fertile land that is the focus of many proposed investment deals, international NGO Prolinnova funds innovative projects like Kes Malede Abreha's water pumps. Using the pumps and hoses to irrigate his fruit trees and farm crops, Mr. Abreha was able to increase his family's income and diversify their crops. Now he trains other farmers.

Such smallholder agricultural innovations can increase yields, improve livelihoods, and protect natural resources all at the same time. There is too much at stake when governments give up land, water, and livestock to large-scale foreign investment. NGOs and funders have an important role to play: to listen and respond to the needs and accomplishments on the ground, and keep local food systems truly local.

Danielle Nierenberg is a senior researcher at the Wordlwatch Institute. Ronit Ridberg is a research intern there.

Source: Worldwatch Institute