One of the most persistent questions in the debate between industrial agriculture and agroecology is whether the latter can produce enough food to feed the world.
This is the puzzle a new book seeks to answer.
Taking agroecology to scale: learning from the experiences of natural farming in India,
Some of the strategies discussed in the book are farmer-to-farmer dissemination, the social capital of women's self-help groups and their federations, and the support of the government.
The Andhra Pradesh model applies nine key principles of agroecology. They are keeping green cover for as long as possible, no tilling or keeping soil disturbance at minimum, crop diversity (eight -12 different plants in one area), use of biostimulants to speed up soil regeneration and integrating animals into the farming system.
Still other principles are: Organic matter addition through mulching, indigenous seeds which are more adapted to local conditions and do not need chemicals to thrive, pest-management by understanding their life cycle and avoiding all chemicals – be they pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers.
AFSA General Coordinator Million Belay says Andhra Pradesh is significant because it was a pioneering green revolution state in India.
“Not only did this (revolution) harm the farming environment but has resulted in unsustainable debt for many farmers. But now, the Andhra Pradesh's Community-Managed Natural Farming initiative has become a shining example of how hundreds of thousands of farmers can break away from the grip of the green revolution and restore life to the land,” Dr Million says in the foreword.
Alternative organic nutrients
The book stresses the holistic approach of ecological farming, noting most agroecology practices in Africa focus more on replacing chemical inputs with organic inputs rather than restoring the health of the soil. “In Andhra Pradesh, for the replacement of chemical fertilisers, the emphasis is on restoring the health of the soil rather than providing alternative organic nutrients.”
Natural farmers manage a diverse farming ecosystem, learning from and cooperating with many in their local environment.
The book extols natural farming’s potential for increasing crop productivity and net incomes, reducing dependency on external inputs, increasing resilience to climate events, and improving health.
“The Covid lockdowns revealed more profound flaws in our broken food systems, dependent on wealthy corporations and governing systems, more interested in profits than people's health,” the book notes and celebrates “millions of ordinary citizens worldwide who showed surprising resilience by growing their own food, often without chemical inputs.”
The Andhra Pradesh model took off in 2016, initially working with men. With the slow rate of transformation, however, the programme was steered towards women’s self-help groups which created a multiplier effect.
So successful is agroecology in Andhra Pradesh that the government has put it at the centre of its food production. The more than 50-million-people State now plans to make all its food growers natural farmers by 2030.
“It is hoped that increased investment in participatory agroecological research and cocreation of knowledge will result from sharing and discussing the contents of this booklet on farms, in communities and in the meeting rooms of those at all levels of food systems governance and their donors,” said Rose Hogan, Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Adviser at Trócaire which supported the publication.
Vijay Kumar, Executive Vice-chairman, Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), Andhra Pradesh, India, says the world has changed drastically over the past two years and it has brought to the forefront the need for climate-resilient, pandemic resilient and sustainable food systems.
“Our work through the Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming programme (APCNF) has addressed some major gaps in scaling up agroecology, a nature-friendly and people-friendly technology of natural farming.”
The launch of the book comes just a few days to the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
COP27 will run from 6th to 18th November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and African voices are increasingly getting louder in calling for agroecology to be placed at the centre of the talks.
AFSA – an assembly of agroecology movements on the continent – has termed agroecology the continent’s surest path to food autonomy and an essential climate adaptation and mitigation measure.
