Photo credit: Cathryn Kloetzli
1. Puspa R. Tiwari, PROLINNOVA, Nepal says:
“While talking about funding towards agriculture, I think it should be directed towards development of efficient food systems. For example niche to large scale food systems which helps to feed people in the particular region by reducing fuel consumption in transportation of goods. It reduces greenhouse gases which helps to bring climate resilient food system through decreasing climate extreme event vulnerability.”
2. Johan Staal, Agriprom, Netherlands says:
“I would like agricultural funding to be directed to collection and distribution centres and cooling facilities. I believe a major issue is the problem for small farmers to market their products and have access to large buyers in Europe for instance. Any country with sufficient production should have cooling warehouses where product can be collected, stored, loaded and distributed. Tanzania, for instance, has enough land for cash crop production but no infrastructure.”
3. Kevin Kamp, CARE, USA says:
“Funding should be directed towards the empowerment of small farmers, in particular women and youth, with the goal of building greater knowledge, social and financial capital to engage in more sustainable, intensified and diversified farming practices. Farming practices should focus on knowledge intensive agriculture systems which are more resilient, environmentally sustainable, locally appropriate and economic viable as opposed to chemically intensive. Funding should be directed at farming systems which address the multifaceted needs of farming households including food which supports appropriate feeding practices, income and markets which generate capital accumulation at the lowest possible levels.”
Photo credit: Bernard Pollack
4. Steve Osofsky, Wildlife Health Policy, USA
“Full examination of opportunities that might enable the delinking of trade in livestock products from geographically defined animal disease status zonation is to be encouraged, as modern approaches to the management of transboundary animal diseases could potentially enable expanded international trade in livestock products from, for example, southern Africa to proceed safely while reducing the need for some of the disease control fences that currently preclude the connectivity required for transfrontier conservation success as currently envisioned by many SADC (Southern African Development Community) countries. Science-based shifts away from older disease management paradigms should result in an enabling environment for enhanced and diversified livelihood opportunities and regional economic growth related to benefits to and from both the livestock and environmental conservation sectors. Economic development that is based upon a diversified portfolio, including both livestock and wildlife activities, increases opportunities for resilience to threats like food insecurity and climate change.
The development of Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) to further the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development through the harmonization of transboundary natural resource management is a priority for SADC. Altogether, SADC’s existing and proposed transfrontier parks and TFCAs cover approximately 1,200,000 sq. km.- a huge area by any standard. A key economic driver behind TFCAs is nature-based tourism that seeks to maximize returns from marginal lands in a sector where southern Africa enjoys a global comparative advantage. Nature-based tourism (photographic safaris, trophy hunting, etc.) now contributes about as much to the gross domestic product of southern Africa as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries combined – a remarkable and relatively recent development documented by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. However, the management of wildlife and livestock diseases (including zoonoses – diseases transmissible between animals and people) within the larger transboundary landscapes is an emerging policy issue of major concern to livestock production, associated access to export markets, and other sectors, including public health. Livestock farming is, an important traditional way for communities in sSA to build and maintain wealth, not to mention attain food security. Essentially, the TFCA concept and current internationally accepted approaches to the management of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) are largely incompatible. The TFCA concept promotes free movement of wildlife over large geographic areas, whereas TADs are controlled by vast fences to prevent movement of susceptible animals between areas where TADs occur and areas where they do not, and to similarly restrict trade in commodities derived from animals. This incompatibility between (a) current regulatory approaches for disease control and (b) the vision of vast conservation landscapes with fewer major fences needs to be reconciled now that SADC countries have chosen to pursue TFCA initiatives in the interest of regional risk-diversification of land-use options and livelihood opportunities. The AHEAD (Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development) Program works at the wildlife / livestock / human interface and strives to catalyze win-win opportunities related to food security, biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation and enhanced livelihood diversification- all of which enhance resilience in the face of climate change. Thanks very much for all that you are doing on a critical set of issues.”
5. John Vickrey, USA
“Thank you for the opportunity to comment on agricultural funding in Africa. First, there is no single program to fit all food aid problems in Africa. Second, wealthy countries need to fund workable agricultural economic systems and move away from creating food aid dependency. Supporting local, sustainable farms and connecting farmers to reliable markets is paramount. Funding, at least in the interim, should be used to develop reliable food distribution systems from the farm to the local consumer. The long term solution is to connect local farms larger markets. Third, putting more effort into sustainable technologies is critical. We have idle college students who could be inventing the next wave of low cost, sustainable, agricultural equipment and shipping it to the third world. Can you imagine the excitement, sense of accomplishment students would get from partnering to solve real world problems? Worldwatch could educate and coordinate these efforts. Start by funding “Development Labs” in colleges.”
6. Michael Levenston, City Farmer – Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture, Canada
More funding should be given to urban agriculture groups who are working to open up vacant lands in cities for growing food. These can be groups working to start up more small household gardens, larger commercial market gardens, or allotment gardens where many people can grow food.
photo credit: Bernard Pollack
7. Vasan, India says:
“I am not sure whether i am the right person to answer this particular question about agricultural funding, for i am not aware of anything about Africa and the sub-Sahara region. But, by and large, i can answer this question based on the requirements of agricultural and allied agricultural practices in any dimension of climatic, geological and topographical conditions. Water: Rain water runoff should be checked completely by creating SMALLER WATER BODIES depending on the amount of rainwater the area receives, catchment area and storage area. This avoids the dependency on sub-surface or ground water resources where power is necessary to lift the water. Surface water utilisation is a must where water is replenished and we can convert more land as wetlands where crops can be grown throughout the year maintaining the required cropping pattern and not affecting the fertility of the soil. Areas which cannot be converted into wetlands can be used to afforestation programme maintaining both bio-diversity and allied agricultural activities to produce forest crops like honey, spices and other forest related crops and orchards.
Marketing: For marketing, we have to revive and restore our original practice(as for as our country – India is concerned), a de-centralised approach. All the villages surrounding a town or city used to be a self sustainable one except match boxes and salt whose production is restricted to the climatic and geological conditions suitable for their production. So, funding for creation of smaller water bodies and offering a de-centralised marketing infrastructure is a must for the Government.”
8. Excellent Hachileka, IUCN, Zambia says:
“More funding should go to small-scale irrigation along major river basins and conservation farming with agro-forestry for adapting agriculture to increasing rainfall variability, dry spells and shortening farming seasons in sub-Sahara Africa.”
9. Royce Gloria Androa, Uganda says:
“Invest in post-harvest handling processes and technologies that use solar energy for reducing losses by using cold stores for transportation from the gardens to the market, and in cooperatives and private/ public partnerships to handle post-harvest losses appropriately invest in abiotic/ biotic stress factor — develop resistant germ-plasm for major food security crops — invest in water management (drip irrigation, micro sprinklers and treadle pumps)”
10. Pam Allee says:
“I’m not a farmer or any sort of expert and I haven’t traveled extensively for about a decade. But I can tell you that we here in the more fortunate North American continent have our hands full encouraging sustainable gardening and farming practices – no synthetics, no GMO’s, no monocultures, no processing or transporting things all over. I guess my vote would be for more education– world-wide, especially in the “developed” nations–regarding the fact that food is exported for money from the same areas where people are hungry. I like the idea someone mentioned of developing food security, not food “aid.” I’m guessing that if you take this question to many places and ask people on the ground what they need, you will get many different answers–perhaps with common themes, but still, answers that require solutions tailored by and for the people and lands involved.
11. Dennis Calvan says:
“I would like to see more funding for Community-Based Coastal Resources Management, where fishing communities are at the center of the development process. This is very important since the Philippines is considered to be the epicenter of global marine diversity. Around 2 million Filipinos are directly engaged in fishing but more than 60 percent of these fisherfolks are living below the poverty line. CB-CRM will facilitate participatory engagement of resource users in the planning, implementation and monitoring.”
12. Salibo Some, ASUDEC, Burkina Faso says:
“To halt the current tragedy of the commons that is core cause of ecological bankruptcy being experienced mostly in the Sahel area, including Burkina Faso, any investment in agriculture should focus at enabling the bulk of small holding farmers to have legal ownership of the lands they use. This will serve as key incentive to improved environmental stewardship and to improved family planning in the countryside. Land mapping and distribution should encourage farmers’ adoption of good practices against land degradation and food production. Also, it should result in the long time cattle herders settling for a more rational, environment friendly farming system. Although improved land policy is primordial, I am tempted to add that the current socioeconomic marasmus in African countries necessitates that this proceeds jointly with or be followed by a livestock development program aiming to raise income rapidly for the vast bulk of poor villagers.”
To read more responses, see:
Part 1: Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), & Pierre Castagnoli (Italy)
Part 2: Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), & Pascal Pulvery (France)
Part 3: Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (USA), & Amadou Niang.
Part 4: Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), & Ron Gretlarson
Part 5: Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), & Monty P Jones (Ghana)
Part 6: Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), & Rob Munro (Zambia)
Part 7: Tom Philpott (USA), Grace Mwaura, & Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran
Part 8: Peter Mietzner (Namibia), Madyo Couto (Mozambique), & Norman Thomas Uphoff (USA)
Part 9: Tilahun Amede (Ethiopia), Shree kumar Maharjan (Nepal), & Ashwani Vasishth (USA)
Part 10: Mary Shawa (Malawi), Wayne S. Teel (USA), & Bell Okello (Kenya)
Part 11: Mark Wells (South Africa), Pashupati Chaudhary (USA), & Megan Putnam (Ghana)
Part 12: David Wallinga (USA), Ysabel Vicente, & Esperance Zossou (Benin)
Part 13: Susi Basith (Indonesia), Diana Husic (USA), & Carolina Cardona (Togo)
Part 14: Rachel Friedman, Jennifer Geist (USA), & Lowden Stoole
Part 15: Antonio Requejo, Alexandra Spieldoch (USA), & Daniele Giovannucci (USA)
Part 16: Mary Njenga (Kenya), Mabel Toribio, & Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada)
Part 17: Dale Lewis (Zambia), Chris Ojiewo (Tanzania), & Molly Mattessich (USA)
Part 18: Gregory Bowman (USA), Lucila Nunes de Vargas, & Caroline Smith
Part 19: Tesfom Solomon (Sweden), Sahr Lebbie (USA), & Jenny Goldie (Austrialia)
Part 20: Steven Sweet, Vicki Lipski, & Viola Ransel
What is your answer? Email me at Dnierenberg@Worldwatch.org or tweet your response to @WorldWatchAg
Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainability, currently serves as Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. Her knowledge of factory farming and its global spread and sustainable agriculture has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and
other publications.
Danielle worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is currently traveling across Africa looking at innovations that are working to alleviate hunger and poverty and blogging everyday at Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet. She has a regular column with the Mail & Guardian, the Kansas City Star, and the Huffington Post and her writing was been featured in newspapers across Africa including the Cape Town Argus, the Zambia Daily Mail, Coast Week (Kenya), and other African publications. She holds an M.S. in agriculture, food, and environment from Tufts University and a B.A. in environmental policy from Monmouth College.
