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Much o the ood produced in the Asia-Pacifc region is produced by individual armers, the majority o whom are small armers.
For long-term ood security consider providing active State support or the participation o small-scale ood producers in a new green ood
revolution that gives high priority to revitalizing small-scale ood production based on ecologically viable systems.
UN- ESCAP: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Asia and the Pacifc
Bee Aruure
Indias small-holder armers (those owning less than 2.0 ha o armland) comprise 78 percent o the countrys armers, but own only
33 percent o the total cultivated land; they nonetheless produce 41 percent o the countrys ood-grains.
Their productivity is ... higher than that o medium- and large-size arms. Moreover, their marketable surpluses are increasing. In the nations
ood-security interest, such increase must be sustained. Those eatures notwithstanding, small-holder amilies, together with
the amilies o land-less agricultural workers, constitute the bulk o Indias hungry and poor.
UN-FAO: Smallholder Farmers in India:Food Security and Agricultural Policy
A Greener Revolution
In Arica, a large proportion o the labour orce is employed in agriculture (6080 per cent) and the majority o these armers
(many o whom are women) are smallholders with arms o less than 2 hectares
Arguably, the most sustainable choice or agricultural development and ood security is thereore to increase total arm productivity in situ, in the
developing countries that are the most in need o greater ood supplies. Attention must ocus on the ollowing:
i) The extent to which armers can improve ood production and raise incomes with low cost locally-available technologies and inputs (this is
particularly important at times o very high uel and agro-chemical prices)
ii) Whether they can do this without causing urther environmental damage
UNEP-UNCTAD: Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Arica
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In 2009, the FAO estimated there to be over a billion hungry people in the world,1
with another 2 billion suering rom malnutrition.2 With an expanding global
population, declining soil ertility, water scarcity and increasing costs or uel
and agri-chemicals, the question on the minds o armers, scientists, and policy
makers around the world is: how can we sustainably increase ood productionin a way that benets the armers, the economy and the environment?
Smallholder arms arms o 2 ha or less are the most common type o arm
in the world: out o 525 million arms worldwide, about 90% are smallholder
arms.3 About 2.6 billion people in developing countries make their living rom
agriculture,4 and 1.5 billion o those people live on small arms thats almost
one out o every our people in the world.5
Smallholders are the most productive armers in the world, supplying more than
hal the global ood supply rom a small portion o the armable land available.6
They are able to do this because they make the most efcient use o the land,
and plant many dierent crops, rather than the monocultures avored by large-
scale mechanized arming. Examples o small arm productivity include:
Latin America, where farms averaging 1.8 ha represent about 30% of
the cultivated land, but provide about 40% o the domestic agricultural
output.7
India,where78%ofthefarmersaresmallholdersandproduce41%ofthe
countrys grain on only 33% o the land.8
Asia,wherethemajorityofthemorethan200millionricefarmersfarmlessthan 2 ha, yet produce the bulk o the Asian rice crop.9
Africa,wherethe33millionsmallfarmsrepresent80percentofallfarmsin
the region, and smallholders produce most o the ood.10
However,accordingtotheIAASTD,over800millionofthepoorestandhungriest
people in the world live in smallholder communities.11 Small increases in
productivity could make a large dierence in establishing ood security and
alleviating poverty in these places.
The usual method or increasing productivity has been to expand into new
land when the old ceases to produce, but that is rapidly becoming impossiblein developing countries, as the expanding population is already occupying
almost all o the arable land.
Instead, recent reports rom a wide range o international agencies, including
the IAASTD, the World Bank, the UN-FAO and other UN agencies, advise that
the best way to increase output or small armers is to increase the productivity
o the existing land under cultivation, rather than expanding into wild lands
that provide balance or the agricultural systems.12 They also agree that sus-
tainable agriculture is the key to increasing productivity or the small armers
o the world. The question is, what is truly sustainable?
The worldstill aces a undamental
ood security challenge The great
technological progress o the past hal
century has not led to major reductions
in hunger and poverty in developing
countriesthe majority o the
chronically hungry are small armers
in developing countries
UNEP-UNCTAD:
Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Ari
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B i o i n t e n s i v e A g r i c u l t u r e : A G r e e n e r R e v o l u t i o
According to the UN, sustainable agriculture can be dened as a system o agri-
culture involving a combination o inter-related soil, crop and livestock produc-
tion practices; discontinuance or reduced use o external inputs that are poten-
tially harmul to the environment and/or the health o armers and consumers
and emphasis on the use o techniques that integrate and are adapted to loca
natural processes.13 The principles o this type o agriculture are:
Economic sustainability through improved soil management and crop
rotation which raises yields, reducing reliance on machinery, chemical ertilize
and pesticides.
Environmental sustainability through protecting, recycling, replacing and
maintaining the natural resources base such as land (soil), water and wildlie
and avoiding synthetic chemicals known to harm the environment, soi
structure and biodiversity.
Social sustainability through more extensive use o available labor, at least
forsome techniques, thuscontributingtosocial justiceandculturalcohe
sion.13,14
In 2007, FAO ofcial Nadia Scialabba stated that sustainable organic agriculture is
A holistic production management system that avoids the use o synthetic ertilizers
and pesticides, and genetically modifed organisms, minimizes pollution o air, soi
and water, and optimizes the health o plants animals and people. The benets rom
this type o agriculture are its reliance on ossil-uel independent, locally-available
resources that incur minimal agro-ecological stresses and are cost-eective.15
provide a nutritionally complete dietand a sufcient level oincome;
produce a large diversity o crops or biodiversity and ood security;
use as small an area as possible, capitalizing on the established efciency
o small scale production;
use open-pollinated seeds, placing ownership o seeds with armers and
communities, and encouraging adaptation o seeds to local needs;
use low-tech human powered tools to minimize the need or economic cap
ital and the use o natural capital (earth resources);
be usable to smallholder armers regardless o their economic status; and
be culturally acceptable, and o a nature that can be passed on to uturegenerations.
A sustainable agricultural method should not:
rely heavily on ertilizers or soil amendments (including compost and
manure) that cannot be produced by the arm itsel;
rely on arm machinery;
require non-renewable resources, such as petroleum;
diminish the natural resources available to the armer, community or globa
community, but instead replenish them and, to the extent possible, enrich
them.
16
Feeding over 6 billion people and over 9
billion by 2050 will require a wide range o
creative, sustainable agricultural systems
which not only provide ood, but also actorin the economic value o nature-based
services such as orests, wetlands, and soil
organisms that underpin agriculture.
Simply applying the industrial agricultural
models o the twentieth century into the
twenty-frst as a single, global solution
will not serve us well.
UNEP-UNCTAD: Organic Agriculture and
Food Security in Arica
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Many countries tried to promote large-scale arming, believing that smallholder arming is ineicient, backward
and resistant to change. The results were unimpressive and sometimes disastrous. State-led eorts to intensiy
agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Arica, particularly in the colonial period, ocused on large-scale arming
but they were not sustainable. In contrast, Asian countries that eventually decided to promote small amily arms
were able to launch the green revolution.
World Bank:
WorldDevelopmentReport2008:AgricultureforDevelopment
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Organic agriculture is a step in the direction o sustainability; the same reports
that encourage sustainability encourage organic production. However, wheth-
er organic methods are implemented using mechanized or manual labor can
make a big dierence in the outcome.
The yields o U.S. mechanized chemical agriculture and U.S. mechanized or
ganic agriculture are approximately equivalent. Using either o these methods
to raise all the ood necessary to support the developing world, large scale or
small scale, assuming a vegan diet (no animal products in the diet), would take
7000 square eet (2134 meters) per person.
However, i, as recommended by the previously mentioned reports, an appro-
priate quantity o arable land is let in a wild state to preserve the ecosystems
that maintain the balance necessary or a healthy lie on the planet, by 2014 as
little as 4500 square eet (1372 meters) per person may be unctionally avail-
able or many low income people or arming in developing countries, where
approximately 90 percent o the worlds people will live.
Thereore, i conventional US mechanized agricultural approaches eithe
chemical or organic were to be used by many low income people, as little as
64% o the ood necessary to eed a them might be produced.16
Organic and near-organic agricultural methods
and technologies are ideally suited or many
poor, marginalized smallholder armers
as they require minimal or no external inputs,use locally and naturally available material to
produce high-quality products, and encourage
a whole systemic approach to arming that is
more diverse and resistant to stress.
UNEP-UNCTAD: Organic Agriculture and
Food Security in Arica
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Biologically intensive agriculture is a prolic and sustainable method or grow-
ing ood which has its roots in the history o humankind: it was practiced 5000
years ago in Ethiopia, 4000 years ago in China, Japan and Korea, 2000 years ago
in Greece, and 1000 years ago in the Mayan culture. In 2009 it was the method
eatured in the primary case study in the UNEP-UNCTAD report Organic Agricul-ture and Food Security in Arica, with positive results.
Using Biointensive agriculture in its modern, scientically proven orm, at in-
termediate-level yields, with a reasonable buildup o soil quality and armer
skill, on approximately 4000 square eet (317.6 square meters) per person it is
possible to raise:
Acompletevegandiet,plus
All the carbonaceous and nitrogenous compostmaterials necessary to
maintain ertile soil, and
Amodestincome.
Per pound o ood produced, as compared with conventional mechanized ag-
riculture, the Biointensive method has the capacity to use:
66%lesswater,
50-100%lesspurchasednutrients*,
94-99%lessenergyinallforms,whileproducing
Substantiallyincreasedyields,and
A100%increaseinsoilfertility!
The Biointensive method is organic, sustainable, low-input, high-yield agri-
culture, and is already being implemented by small armers in 141 countries
around the world. It truly has the potential to combat hunger and establish
ood security, and to be the greener revolution this planet needs. 16
*Purchasedfertilizersusedarepredominantlylocallyavailablenutrientsinorganicfertilizerform.
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1. FAO, State o Food Insecurity in the World(2009)
2. Gardner and Halweil, Undered and Overed: The Global Epidemic o Malnutrition, Worldwatch Paper
150 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2000)
3. International Assessment o Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology (IAASTD),
Agriculture at a Crossroads(2008)
4. Ibid.
5.WorldBank,WorldDevelopmentReport2008:AgricultureforDevelopment(2007)
6.UNHighLevelTaskForceontheGlobalFoodSecurityCrisisComprehensive Framework or Action
(2008)
7. E. Ortega, Peasant Agriculture in Latin America (Joint ECLAC/FAOAgricultureDivision,Santiago,
1986)
8.UN-FAO:Smallholder Farmers in India: Food Security and Agricultural Policy(2002)
9. M. Altieri, Small arms as a planetary ecological asset(2008)
10. M. Altieri,Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty. Monthly Review (2009)
11.IAASTD,(2008)
12.IAASTD,(2008);WorldBank,World Development Report 2008;
UN-FAO, ESCAP an UNCTAD publications reerenced previously.
13. UN Sustainable Development Innovation Bries (May 2009)
14. Kassie, M. and Zikhali, P. Brie on Sustainable Agriculture. UN Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable
Land
Management & Agricultural Practices in Arica: Bridging the Gap between Research & Farmers(2009)
15. ISIS report: FAO Promotes Organic Agriculture. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FAOPromotesOrganicAgri-
culture.php
16. Inormation in these sections developed by Ecology Action, Willits CA
Front Cover: Mural image rom the Inter-American Institute or Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) Center,
Costa Rica.
The majority o images in this perspective paper courtesy o Amy Melious and Cynthia Raiser Jeavons.
Research and design: Shannon Joyner
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Ecology Action5798 RidgEwood RoAd
willits, cAlifoRniA 95490
www.gRowBiointEnsivE .oRg
UsA: (707) 459-0150
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