The Global Alliance for the Future of Food recently released the report “The Politics of Knowledge: Understanding the evidence for agroecology, regenerative approaches, and indigenous foodways”. Lauren Baker, the director of programmes at the Global Alliance, spoke to Irene Mugo
Briefly, what are the findings of this report?
Combining perspectives from 15 countries, the report highlights alternatives to industrial agriculture, which are urgently needed. The industrialised food system is one of the biggest stressors facing our planet and contributes almost a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is connected, of course, to the effects of climate change that we’re seeing playing out in East Africa and around the world, be it the drought in Somalia, locust swarms, or changing weather patterns. These consequences and the structural inequities across the food system compound the impacts on vulnerable communities.
So, can agroecology help?
Agroecology, regenerative approaches, and indigenous foodways are system-level solutions that are already delivering positive health and nutrition outcomes, a sense of purpose and dignity, social justice, and climate action for millions of people worldwide.
The report notes that evidence supporting agroecology and regenerative approaches is abundant but not prioritised in government policies or budgets. What needs to be done?
The onus is on national and regional policymakers and legislators to identify and act on barriers in their context. Farmers in Africa, for example, often have no choice but to buy proprietary seeds, fertiliser, pesticides and other agricultural inputs from a small group of powerful companies. This inhibits farmers from building long-term resilience — for their livelihood, their land, and their community.
In this case, we suggest governments make decisions based on local evidence generated by research programmes that involve farmers and food provisioners, indigenous people and women. While certain sustainable farming practices are universal, the ones most applicable are whatever has been tried and tested for generations by communities themselves. This holistic view is at the core of agroecology.
Proponents of industrial agriculture argue that the world’s hunger crisis needs all modern technology we can muster, including using inorganic fertiliser to scale up food production. How scalable is agroecology?
There are two things to call out here. First is the myth that agroecology is effective only at a small-scale and incapable of meeting global demands for food. An abundance of examples, including in Africa, prove otherwise.
For example, ENDA Pronat in northern Senegal used agroecological practices to transition over 24,000 acres of arable land, which resulted in more diversified crop production for local and regional markets.
In Malawi, the farmer-led organisation Soils, Food and Healthy Communities has spent 20 years fortifying soils, sharing knowledge, and improving health and nutritional outcomes alongside more than 15,000 farmers. The results show that when a range of diverse crops are grown under agroecological systems, farms can be up to 80 per cent more productive than conventional farms.
Furthermore, household food security, farmer incomes, and community support systems have all improved under these agroecological practices.
Measuring success is about more than just the size of farms and yield-per-acre. These two examples prove that we should be much more ambitious and courageous in our reach.
By recognising the value of this diverse evidence, it’s our hope that funders, researchers, and policymakers alike will challenge their assumptions and take action towards agroecology, regenerative agricultural practices, and indigenous food pathways at a time when they’re needed more than ever.
