Speaking at a recent conference in Dakar, our colleague Paulo Petersen from Brazil noted that the key to sustainable agriculture is farmer autonomy. To achieve this, he added, “we need to create political space for multifunctional peasant farming and build social and ecological resilience.” We hope that this issue will help our readers to appreciate the strong link between family farming and resilience, and between the family and their farm.

In contrast to what many believe, family farming is not outside, but part of the global economy. However, it relates to it in a different man- ner than other types of agriculture. In more and more places, young family farmers are discovering a future in agriculture by working with, rather than against, nature. Family farmers also connect with urban consumers, building new local and regional food systems that are transparent, healthy, fair, efficient and sustainable.

Throughout 2014, Farming Matters will highlight different aspects of family farming: agrobiodiversity, resilience, landscapes and nutrition. A common thread running through all these themes is gender. Men and women play different, but complementary, roles and strengthen the farm as a multifunctional system. But sometimes their roles can clash. This can happen when farmers move to more entrepreneurial modes of farming with a focus on specific cash crops and value chains. This may have negative implications for women’s autonomy with respect to food production, and for food security at the household level.

Many studies have shown that more income for the head of the family does not automatically turn into more nutritious food for the family. It may even lead to the reverse. Therefore, women need to be centre stage in the IYFF, and in decision-making on the future of our global food system.

Edith van Walsum
director ILEIA

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We would like to underline that the character and intrinsic value of this international year are being shaped by family farmers themselves. They work diligently for their valuable and important rural way of life, which is marked by a special bond with nature. They, together with the World Rural Forum, convinced the international community of the need to dedicate a year to family farming.

The IYFF is our opportunity to promote universal recognition of the role of women and men family farmers, who provide food to humanity in a sustainable way. We must use the IYFF to get our governments to agree on policies that respond to the demands of family farmers worldwide, such as access to land and water, improving the status of women and youth, access to markets and credits, and strengthening farmer organisations. In summary, we must support the right of peoples to produce a large part of their own food, guaranteeing their food security as a step towards achieving food sovereignty.

In many countries, national IYFF committees of agricultural and rural organisations are doing exactly this. They are designing a large number of activities, events, lectures, research, meetings, festivals and policy proposals calling for priority support for family farming. We encourage you make contact with and participate in your own national IYFF committee, through your farmer organisations, through us, or through our allies in the AgriCultures Network, to make your voices heard by governments.

Let’s seize the IYFF 2014 to achieve a substantial improvement at all levels of the rights and the lives of so many millions of women and men farmers, indigenous peoples, traditional fishermen, herders and landless laborers.

José Antonio Osaba and Laura Lorenzo are members of the World Rural Forum, which was instrumental in the campaign for the International Year of Family Farming. The authors co-ordinate global civil society activities for the IYFF (www.familyfarmingcampaign.net). E-mail: llorenzo@ruralforum.net

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The organisations working together in this programme all work with family farmers who make a living by using, conserving and regenerating the agricultural biodiversity they have as a base. The possibility of reversing high dependence on agrichemical inputs on a large scale, particularly among family farmers who work in close-knit networks, is illustrated by the experiences of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Small-scale family farmers in Andhra Pradesh constitute the vast majority of farmers in the state, and are facing a deep and protracted crisis. Over the past eighteen years, more than 35,000 farmers have committed suicide – many because of enormous debts due to high costs of cultivation with heavy a dependency on external inputs. Pests are an issue, all farmers agree on that. However, CSA realised that for many farmers, the main problem was not pests but their addiction to pesticides. Pesticides are expensive, are harmful to the health of farmers and their families, create ecological problems and, most importantly, do not solve the problem. The more pesticides you use, the more you disturb the ecosystem, and the worse the pest problem gets. Many family farmers in Andhra Pradesh have experienced this firsthand. It became clear that there was a pressing need for a solution to this problem. Farmers, NGOs and government jointly rolled out an effective strategy to widely spread the use of Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM)

Non-Pesticidal Management

A radical change was needed: the first step in stopping pests is to stop using pesticides and adopt integrated cropping systems and local resource-based practices. CSA works with family farmers, building on their knowledge, to make this change happen. NPM was developed during the early 1980s and has proven to be effective in different parts of the state. The basic philosophy behind NPM is to train farmers to better understand insect biology and behaviour and the crop ecosystem, building on their own knowledge and skills.

For family farmers, who live on their land and have a close relationship with all the crops they cultivate, NPM is a logical strategy. Their physical proximity to the land means that family farmers often have an intimate understanding of it and its workings. In addition farming families are well aware of the hazards posed by exposure to these chemicals which can immediately affect all family members, through the air, their skin and their food.

In 2004, CSA set up Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) in twelve villages in Andhra Pradesh to help farmers develop their knowledge about pest management. Through these FSSs. family farmers learnt to understand their agro-ecosystems and plan their crop cycles accordingly. Today the programme covers about 11,000 villages.

Andhra Pradesh used to have the highest pesticide consumption rate in India, but today it has one of the lowest. The villages that have given up chemical pesticides have not seen a pest outbreak in the last six years, and their yields have not decreased.

Different paths of scaling up

In development circles, one of the major questions that continuously arises is how to scale up best practices. The enormous change in attitudes towards pesticides in Andhra Pradesh provides a good illustration on how this can be done. By expanding, adapting or sustaining successful initiatives and the underlying philosophies, CSA has been able to reach many people in different places and over time. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we reuse the wheel and learn from the practice of inventing. Without this process, a number of valuable experiences would remain scattered as “islands of success”.

Success stories can be scaled up in different ways. They can spread spontaneously, or projects can be directly replicated by NGOs or government, or be propelled by grassroots movements spreading particular ideas and methods wider. In CSA’s experience, two successful strategies for scaling up took place: collaboration between NGOs and the government, and scaling up by farmers themselves, as they adopt the concept of NPM and adapt it to their local conditions.

From farmer to farmer

Punukula is a small tribal village in Andhra Pradesh’s Khammam district, which has acted as a beacon of hope for all the distressed farmers in the state. Punukula formally declared itself pesticide free in 2003. All of its farmers adopted alternative pest management strategies and became the navigators for a new development paradigm. They developed a simple and affordable method of preventing pests, based on understanding the pest’s life cycles, and have since become experts in disseminating this technology in their region. Their success was widely recorded in the media and convinced the state Minister of Agriculture to scale up the approach.

In this example, the state government became motivated to scale up alternative farming practices after observing that they were being successfully adopted by farmers. Yet it is also an example of a bottom-up scaling up strategy. The wide spread of NPM in the state can be attributed to horizontal expansion from farmer to farmer. As people live and work on the land, farmers readily share new knowledge within and between communities. They understand other farmers’ situations and can explain concepts and ideas in their own language. CSA enabled farmers to teach others in their communities and beyond. The small and labour-intensive scale of most operations, the closely knit social networks and the proximity to each others’ farms means that this method works well in family farming communities.

Women played a particularly important role in this process, contributing to rapid change in hundreds of villages. Women’s self-help groups were at the forefront of the grassroots movement that took charge of their farming, built their own capacities and found a way out of the agrarian distress they had been experiencing. In the programme supported by CSA, farming is seen as a livelihoods issue rather than as a mere technology issue. Women clearly understood the benefits of non-chemical farming, which brought them economic, social and health benefits. As more and more women’s groups heard about this programme they began  to demand that it be initiated in their villages too, and convinced their men that chemicals are not needed for farming.

Rolling out NPM

The growing demand for NPM among farmers put substantial pressure on the state government to scale up such models. This eventually this led to the establishment of a scaling-up programme called “Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture”.

Often governments claim that farmers are not interested in shifting away from pesticide use. Yet the successful farmer-to-farmer spread of NPM in Andhra Pradesh provided hands-on experience about the feasibility of scaling up NPM. Family farmers are ready to change, whether or not the government is ready. Farmers take up NPM approaches when they see and experience the lasting benefits, even if such an approach is not supported by government extension programmes. Fortunately in the case of Andhra Pradesh, government departments were willing to support CSA’s approach.

The roll-out began with CSA piloting the programme with partner NGOs, after which the State Department for Rural Development helped to further replicate it. This collaboration showed that scaling up sustainable poverty eradication initiatives on such a large scale requires all the partners to be actively involved. The success of this collaboration depends on the actors sharing similar or complementary objectives: CSA’s goal to mainstream an alternative solution to pesticide use overlapped well with government’s aim to improve livelihoods through cost reduction in farming. Based on the lessons in Andhra Pradesh, the national level “Women Farmers Empowerment Programme” has been implemented in several states across the country.

Joint ownership with the government has given the programme the potential for becoming more than an island of success. The partnership with the state government has expanded the programme’s reach and has influenced policy at a state and national level. The state government has also benefitted from tapping into the expertise of NGOs, who act as innovators, developing and testing solutions, whereas governments are often tied to established procedures and often unwilling to take risks or adopt innovative approaches. One key issue here is that such collaboration requires trust and mutual acknowledgement between the partners involved, in order to dispel fears of being co-opted or one party having exclusive control.

Effective upscaling: the clue to sustainability

The sustainability of any farming practice or innovation might be judged based on the potential for scaling up of that practice. Many thousands of farmers have reported that ecological practices for managing pests, diseases and soil productivity are effective and successful. Equally there is a wealth of evidence about how this model is economically viable and increases farmers’ self confidence. Reportedly, farmers who had mortgaged their lands to meet their debts are now able to reclaim ownership over their land. Out-migration has reduced and farming is once again a dignified occupation. Finally, women farmers have proven again that when they are in the driver’s seat, their development approaches are more eco-sensitive, equitable, sustainable and have a longer term perspective.

Author
Zakir Hussain is Programme Manager at the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) in Tarnaka, Andhra Pradesh, India (e-mail: zakir@csa-india.org). G.V. Ramanjaneyulu is the Executive Director at CSA (e-mail: ramoo@csa-india.org). G. Rajasekhar is leading the seeds initiative at CSA (e-mail: rajasekhar@csa-india.org). G. Chandra Shekar is Head of Knowledge Management at CSA (e-mail: sekhar@csa-india.org

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In 2003, African Heads of State made a commitment to invest at least 10% of their national budgets into agriculture by 2015. Many countries are still far from reaching this percentage. And those who have, such as Burkina Faso, are investing in biotechnology, large-scale use of chemical fertilizers, mechanisation, irrigation, pesticides and genetically modified seeds. These investments do not meet the priorities of family farmers, especially those of women.  With recurrent food crises and a growing number of vulnerable people facing hunger more and more voices are calling out for a drastic change in agricultural policies.

Therefore the International Year of Family Farming in 2014 is very timely. It stresses the need for appropriate investment in sustainable family farming. What type of farming needs to be supported?

For generations, family farmers in Burkina Faso have coped with famine by innovating and diversifying food production. They protect biodiversity, soil and water and improve productivity by using agro-ecological practices such as mulching, using organic manure, building rock barriers that catch water, and cleverly managing local seeds.

Alimata is one of these farmers. She is a leader in Tiguili village, in the east of the country. The land her family granted her is largely barren and eroded. Her yield used to barely cover her family’s needs. However, with perseverance and using agro-ecological practices, she is now self-sufficient and produces enough food for her family all year round, even generating some surplus to invest in other activities.

Supporting family farmers like Alimata will both protect them and help them reach their full potential. Appropriate policies and measures should include:

• secure and easy access to resources, such as credit and land;
• support for farmers who practice agro-ecological techniques;
• access to fair markets, including adequate roads and transportation, and protection against dumping;
• better inclusion of women farmers in financial and technical support schemes, in country level planning and budgeting; and
• appropriate facilities for food storage and processing, to add value and avoid post-harvest losses.

Family farming can feed the world and strengthen resilience. The International Year of Family Farming brings hope to many small scale farmers, who are counting on firm steps at international, national and local levels.

Author
Fatou Batta is the Groundswell International Co-coordinator for West Africa and also a member of the “We are the Solution! Celebrating African Family Farming” campaign of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). E-mail: fbatta@groundswellinternational.org

This was Fatou Batta’s last column. The editors of Farming Matters would like to thank Fatou for her inspiring contributions.

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In June 2013, our group of students visited the Mediterranean village of Benidoleig, located in Alicante, Valencia. In search of inspiring locally led experiences, we came across José Manuel Bisetto. He is the leader of a grassroots initiative for healthier living, entitled “Agricología”. José Manuel (33) has a PhD, but decided to follow his childhood dream and become a peasant.

Uniting a farmer community

On the land that belonged to his grandfather, whose son was not interested in farming, José Manuel coordinates shared organic vegetable gardens. Since 2006, once abandoned plots are once again being cultivated, using locally available ecological resources and generating high quality products. These activities connect neighbours to each other and to their environment and provide healthy food. Each of the fifty plots on this new farm feeds one family. One hundred boxes of organic vegetables are sold every week at a price between 5-10 Euro, which is affordable for consumers and fair for the farmers. This income makes the farm self-sustaining and allows for further developments.

The people who work these plots also exchange knowledge, tips and seeds and help each other. Trust and reciprocity are cornerstones of this new way of farming, which increases people’s feelings of responsibility for their own food and community. “Agricología primarily offers an opportunity to farm, to create a centre where people can experiment with organic gardening,” José Manual explains. “We provide a different and innovative way of engaging in agriculture, that brings people in touch with nature. We have found that it is very motivating for people to get access to healthy and affordable food.”

Alongside food production, José Manuel’s multifunctional farm also offers educational facilities to help children to reconnect with soil, plants and animals. José Manuel invests in relationships with other like-minded people: colleagues, officials at the municipality, as well as scientists at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. He continuously tries to develop the initiative, integrating aspects such as food forests, bioconstruction and medicinal plants. Agricología has become a centre for experimentation and training in organic farming and the environment through visits, adult training and extracurricular activities. It is now a reference and pollinator for various other projects in the area.

Re-peasantisation in Spain

José Manuel’s initiative is part of an emerging trend of the “re-peasantisation” of rural Spain, something that is happening amidst a context of economic crisis but also the continued general decline of agricultural activities. In Valencia, only four percent of the economically active population is employed in the agricultural sector, and 90% of this group are older than forty.

Since the end of Franco’s dictatorship in 1975, the country has been striving for citizen-led democracy. Although the state invested heavily in technology transfer programmes that provided pesticides, fertilizers and mechanisation services for over half a century, they generally did not meet the needs of rural families. As a result, farming was not regarded as attractive anymore.

Spain is one of Europe’s major organic food producers, but most of the produce is exported. In recent years, a number of small organic initiatives have started to spring up various places, usually initiated by small groups of people going back to rural areas in search of a better quality of life and an income. This phenomenon of re-peasantisation can be seen throughout Europe.

Learning from positive examples

Local initiatives, such as José Manuel’s, are potential seedbeds for change. Interdependence around healthy food, based on trust and reciprocity, give way to new networks and new patterns of food production and local markets. This contributes to local employment, health and sustainability. We also see that it creates bridges between all the people involved, including farmers, businessmen, universities, NGOs and the government.

What can we learn from José Manuel’s experience about such self-organised change, or change that is borne from practice? First, it responds to a need and a local context. The initiative in Benidoleig makes use of three elements of the local context: it was built on one of the many available pieces of abandoned land, it responded to a situation of youth unemployment, and it used existing local knowledge about vegetable production.
Secondly, it helps us understand that change often happens unplanned and “in the social wild”. It is unpredictable and may happen in a creative way, outside the conventions of research and policy centres. Who would have thought that José Manuel and his community would take up vegetable gardening collectively? His initiative generated various novelties. For example, by creating new markets, creative agro-ecological food production systems, collective working spaces and shorter food supply chains. People got involved in all of these activities with different intentions, and not necessarily with the aim to go exactly in the same direction. As such, we learn that self-organised change cannot be guided, monitored or planned: it may even be incoherent.
While planning for these initiatives might be impossible, it is important to acknowledge their merits. Each of them emerges out of real needs, intentions and perspectives. Having demonstrated that they can provide a basis for social cohesion and positive change, they deserve greater public attention and support.

Author
Vincent Delobel is an MSc student of Development and Rural Innovation at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and a young farmer at the organic goat farm Chèvrerie de la Croix de la Grise, in Tournai (Belgium). E-mail: vincent.delobel@wur.nl

The story of Agricología
“After finishing my PhD, I lived and worked abroad for a while. But I missed life in my childhood village. When I returned, I started looking for a way to innovate in agriculture. I wanted to practice a type of agriculture that provided leisure and entertainment – a social and cultural kind of farming where people can share enthusiasm, effort and fellowship. So in 2006 I created Agricología, where we seek a balance between ecology, environment, social participation, culture and tradition.
 
Recently, we have started to work in other municipalities that are interested in the Agricología approach. For example, I am working on the revival of Moscatel grapes in a nearby ecological village. In co-operation with the Polytechnic University of Valencia we are looking for ways to sell the grapes locally, reducing food kilometres and CO2 emissions. Also, in primary schools I teach children about organic gardening, animals, the environment and various other aspects of food production.
 
During the start-up phase, other people in the village regarded me as a weirdo. Why would a person with a PhD on innovation go back to the field? Most families in the region try to send their children to school so they can engage in other professions than agriculture. But I was very interested in returning to the land and starting a farm. Even though I have not formally studied agriculture, my grandfather taught me about vegetable farming since I was a child.
 
My goal was to give life to this land that was so heavily mistreated by all kinds of pesticides and herbicides; that had become unproductive, lifeless. And look at it now. All kinds of living animals, micro-organisms and trees live on this land, which at the same time is a social and educational space for the community. Now, after 7 years, I am starting to receive appreciation and support from the local community.
 
There were other difficult moments. As Agricología is different and innovative, local bureaucrats did not have anything to compare it to and created many administrative hurdles. Rules that are developed for large companies make it difficult for local, sustainable projects like Agricología, even though it has clearly given the village a boost through increased tourism and trade.
 
To others who want to undertake a similar initiative, I would recommend to first develop a good plan that includes your goals and vision of the project, as well as the technical, economic and political viability. Along the way you will find both barriers and support. When you bump against these barriers and you fall, get up and continue. Proof that this strategy works, is the flourishing of Agricología and the various awards that it has won.
 
I feel a strong need to share experiences like mine across Europe, knowing that in different places there are young people with initiatives that, without although they may not speak the same language, are united in the wish to keep the villages and rural communities that our ancestors passed on to us alive. We have to come together to train people to keep our culture and traditions alive, because if they are gone, much of our heritage will also be lost.”

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“We know how people don’t learn: by keeping daylight and oxygen out of the room, by making them listen for more than 15 minutes, and by making them sit down. Yet this is how every classroom in the world is organised.” Kicking off with these words, 85 professionals from ministries, research institutes, educational institutes, NGOs and small private companies were inspired to think critically about the context of learning. What works? How does new knowledge become attractive for farmers and practitioners? The expert meeting practically explored some answers to these questions.

Different tools and concepts can help take learning to the next level. Some training experts shared their experience by (re)introducing methods such as using comic strips as a communication vehicle, making a message clear to a large range of audiences in a simple way. Or how about the use of simulations, or role-plays, to learn entrepreneurial skills? By acting out real-life situations and recording, reviewing and discussing them, people learn about verbal and non-verbal communication and commercial skills. For instance how would you, as the leader of a co-operative, respond to unreasonable requests and pressure from large companies? And how are such encounters experienced by the other party? In this way, students do not learn from the teacher, but the group learns from their own and others’ responses and experiences.

Another lesson explored was the importance of long-term support in developing knowledge. A long-term presence in the region has many advantages over a short “in-and-out” training. Some shared their experiences with translating a traditionally once-off publication into a coaching track. A publication does not have to be a final destination, but can be used to develop new research and projects. Also we must not forget to focus on people’s needs: clients should be co-producers of the services they receive. Their responses and needs should be part of service delivery, including knowledge building.

More than anything, the expert meeting embodied the drive towards innovation by bringing different actors together. Listening to others and taking a new perspective on learning lies at the heart of innovation. As one speaker at the meeting reminded us “real renewal comes from outsiders at the fringes of the existing system”.

Author
The expert meeting was organised by Agri-ProFocus, a Dutch network promoting farmer entrepreneurship in developing countries, in collaboration with some of its members: MDF Training & Consultancy, the International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA) and HAS University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch. Agri-ProFocus regularly organises gatherings for its members to share knowledge and make contact. For more information, contact info@agri-profocus.nl

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Over the centuries, the Kabekwa have developed a farming system based on local knowledge and resources. They have continued and improved their farming practices for centuries, based on what we now call agro-ecological principles. While innovations are ongoing, this continues to be the basis of their farming system, even though the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has become widespread in the world around them. Their living conditions make external inputs an illogical choice: more than 40% of Kabekwa families are in remote areas with difficult access for vehicles and remote markets.

Farming with nature

The Kabekwa are the second-largest indigenous ethnic group in Costa Rica, their population is currently estimated to be around 14,000. They mostly live in the Talamanca mountain range, in the heart of the country, and manage more than one million hectares of stunning ever-green and ever-humid vegetation. This area lies immediately adjacent to one of the most important biological zones of all Central America, the Indigenous Reserve of Chirripó.

Rosalinda and Juan García Pérez and their 11 children live on this reserve, three hours from Grano de Oro, the main village and closest road access. They use and manage a fenceless 80 hectare parcel that they inherited from their ancestors. Farming is their main activity. Juan and Rosalinda cultivate coffee, bananas, cassava, beans and many other crops. They also take care of chickens, pigs and a horse. The youngest children harvest fruit from the surrounding patches of forest. The eldest son (17 years old) transports the produce daily to the nearest market on a horse, the only available means of transport other than walking. He sells the surplus produce in order to buy the few things that are not produced in the farm, such as rice and oil.

The situation of Juan, Rosalinda and the other Kabekwa is extraordinary, as they have abundant access to natural resources, are highly self sufficient and, as a result, enjoy very good health. Lacking access to chemical inputs, such as fertilizers, they have continually built on their agro-ecological farming practices. One example is maintaining soil fertility using the nitrogen-fixing properties of various trees and bean crops.

Beans are the basis of traditional dishes and they have become the cornerstone of the community’s system of crop rotation. The farmers leave the crop residues on the soil to decompose and be recycled with the residues turning into nutrients that are readily available for new crops. This practice closes a nutrient loop (one of the principles of agro-ecology), and imitates nature: it is very similar to what happens to leaf litter in the surrounding forests. The farming families of the Kabekwa also value and stimulate tree diversity, as attested by the abundance of Poró trees (Erythrina poeppigiana) in the farms. The farmers encourage this nitrogen-fixing tree to grow in their fields, because the leaves and branches provide abundant nitrogen-rich organic matter that feed the crops and the soils.

Meaning and self-fulfilment

Using little or no outside inputs for their farming activities, the Kabekwa not only produce enough food, medicine and income but, in the process, they also develop and enjoy many physical and social skills that contribute to their overall quality of life.

Family farmers like the García Pérez family use and develop their creativity and intelligence in finding ways to adapt to new circumstances and explore alternative income sources. For example, they introduced cattle and cash crops, such as cocoa and coffee, which meant altering their traditional agricultural systems. Curiosity, creativity and intelligence led some families to start experimenting with planting coffee in places where the canopy of existing native fruit and timber trees would protect the coffee shrubs.

Learning and teaching play a central role. The Kabekwa culture has a tight social cohesion and all family members play a role. The elders teach the youngest how to maintain the balance in the family and in the farm, how to stay in good health and how to identify what plants will cure a given disease. The inexperienced respect the experienced, but the experienced also value those who will continue their legacy, since young minds are essential for the community to come up with diverse solutions towards attaining food, fibre and medicinal self-sufficiency.

While playing around on the farm and surrounding land, the children of the Kabekwa constantly learn how to recognise edible plants and when and how to harvest each species. A lot of manual labour is needed to maintain the farm and, while helping out, the youth grow strong and develop innovative ways of dealing with challenging situations on the farm.

Classic agronomy often leaves out the human aspect of farming systems or treat it as a marginal dimension. Yet, the Kabekwa demonstrate how agro-ecology can provide multiple dimensions of meaning and self-fulfillment to the work and life of farmers.

Authors
Georges Félix is a member of the Latin American Scientific Society for Agroecology (SOCLA). He is from Puerto Rico and is currently doing a PhD at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. E-mail: georges.felix@wur.nl
Cristian Timmerman, from Chile, is a post-doctoral fellow on Philosophy of Life Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

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Andersen and T. Winge (eds.), 2013. Routledge, Oxon. 214 pages.
The diversity of crops enriches our lives with different tastes, smells, nutrients and colours. These traits can equip farmers to meet challenges of marginal soils, crop pests and diseases, drought and changing environmental conditions. Farmers not only conserve this diversity but also continuously adapt the crops to changing environmental conditions, keeping their knowledge of these crops alive. To do this effectively farmers need the right to save, use, exchange and sell  seeds, to participate in decision making and benefit sharing, and to have their traditional knowledge protected. This book looks at success stories, spanning across a whole range of countries and continents, on how these rights have been realised. It looks at the future challenges and ways forward.

Towards co-creation of sciences: Building on the plurality of worldviews, values and methods in different knowledge communities.

Haverkort, F. Delgado Burgoa, D. Shankar and D. Millar, 2012. Nimby Books, New Delhi. 291 pages.
When thinking about knowledge, science is usually the first thing that comes to most people’s minds. But there are also local, endogenous, and traditional ways of knowing that successfully guide the lives of many people across the world. These can be considered as expressions of science in their own right. However, they are often thought of as less valid than empirical mainstream science which continues to form the basis of formal education and which receives the lion’s share of public funding. This book presents the worldviews, values, methods and concepts from four different knowledge communities in Ghana, India, Bolivia and the Netherlands. The authors argue that a plurality of sciences is the best option to meet the sustainability challenges of our time.

Women’s rights and the right to food: Report submitted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter

de Schutter, 2012. UN, Rome. 20 pages.
Women should be at the centre of food security strategies, states Olivier De Schutter, not only for their own sake but for that of everyone. When women have the same access to farms’ productive resources as men, yields increase by 20-30%. When they have control over the household budget, their children’s chance of survival increases by 20%. But too often women have a weak bargaining position in the family farm, leading them to be restricted to household tasks. This results in less time for them to seek outside jobs or education, which in turn leaves them ill-equipped for political participation. This report looks at different ways through which access to food can be secured and outlines a strategy to eliminate discrimination against women based on human rights.

The future of agriculture: Synthesis of an online debate

OXFAM, 2013. Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Winnipeg. 94 pages.
With an ever growing pile of reports, papers and books on feeding the world, the time has come to be selective. This discussion paper by OXFAM addresses the issue in a very creative way. It is a synthesis of an online debate, complemented by 23 essays by experts from 16 countries and OXFAM’s own concluding remarks. It addresses issues of who is in control, biofuels, the risks faced by farmers and investments in agriculture. While the debate did not reach a consensus, there were a few points of general agreement. Perhaps the most significant is that “multi-pronged approaches are needed, with much more attention paid to the potential of agro-ecological, biodiverse systems” to address contemporary global challenges.

Trade and environment review 2013: Wake up before it is too late

UNCTAD, 2013. FAO, Rome. 200 pages.
UNCTAD’s message is clear. What we need is a “rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high external-input dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers.” This is because the dominant model of agriculture is failing. Food prices are increasing, agricultural productivity is stagnant or in decline, the global nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions limits have been crossed and one billion people are chronically underfed. So, how can we change that? By shifting towards diverse production patterns that close nutrient cycles and by localising food production as much as possible.

Right to food and nutrition watch 2013: Alternatives and resistance to policies that generate hunger