Meet the farmers and governments working together to get us on track for 1.5°C
By Ruth Richardson, Executive Director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food & Pete Richie, Executive Director, Nourish Scotland
If we are to get on track for a 1.5°C world and avoid runaway climate chaos, we need profound, systemic changes across key sectors like food and agriculture. For farmers and food producers to be at the forefront of climate action, in the way we need them to be by protecting biodiversity and restoring nature, they must be supported in the transition and made central to government-led discussions on policies and programs.
There are already big questions about this type of representation at next week’s COP26 and what this means for participation, governance and — frankly — ambition. Fortunately, there’s already a groundswell of farmers, food producers and governments working together, in dialogue, and taking transformative action.
As thousands of people march worldwide today, calling for climate justice and transformative action, here are just a few examples of farmers and governments already working together to initiate change:
1.) Scotland, U.K. In the Southwest of Scotland, farmers from different industries are joining local government officials for monthly online conversations on topics such as land use and climate change. Through these connections, farmers and local authorities are seeing tangible pathways for integrated food systems transformation, such as how to increase organic ingredients in school lunches, or how to feasibly use the agroforestry method within current incentives systems. The network is creating a space for farmers’ voices to be heard at COP26, particularly around the valuable contributions to be made to carbon sequestration through livestock production.
2.) Kenya, Africa In 2019, Kenyan-based organic farmer Sylvia Kuria and her team set up an organic shop in Nairobi called Sylvia’s Basket. Sylvia wanted to cut out the middleman to reach consumers directly and support other small scale organic farmers in accessing reliable markets for their produce. Sylvia’s Basket now supplies fruits and vegetables to over 100 households in the area and the farmers supplying produce to the shop have seen their income double. Sylvia wants to change the food narrative in Kenya from one focused on monocropping to one that promotes more organic food and agroecological farming practices. Sylvia’s Basket is part of a multi-stakeholder platform of the Kiambu county lobbying for the formulation of an agroecological policy framework for the region and, in turn, contributing to the multi-stakeholder platform for Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Kenya.
3.) India, South Asia In India’s Andhra Pradesh state, the local Department of Agriculture is implementing the non-profit Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) initiative, which aims to improve smallholder livelihood security, health, climate mitigation and ecosystem integrity, in part by supporting farmers to avoid the use of chemicals, which significantly reduces their costs. The government-backed model builds the long-term health of ecosystems and people through ecological practices and is currently working in 3,780 villages across the state, with 700,000 farmers enrolled across 13 districts; and knowledge is predominantly passed on via peer-to-peer networks.
4.) United States of America AGree Economic and Environmental Risk Coalition is managed by Meridian which connects leaders across diverse sectors to build trust, develop creative solutions, and take legislative and regulatory action. Coalition members include: farmers; researchers; former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) leadership; and representatives from farmer-based, environmental, and conservation NGOs. A great example of how this group worked together for change is around the 2018 Farm Bill negotiations when the Coalition successfully lobbied for provisions that improve agricultural data collection and the adoption of cover crops, both of which were included in the bill’s final text. Since farm bill passage, the Coalition has worked to strengthen USDA guidance on cover crops, which are important for soil health and water quality, especially in a climate-changing world.
5.) Fiji, Oceania An archipelago of more than 300 islands, Fiji has an abundance of freshwater resources and arable land to grow crops. Despite these favourable conditions, the country imports 80% of its rice from Vietnam and Thailand and produces just half of the total food its population requires. However, Fiji was able to accelerate a shift to organic agriculture, locally-grown food, and self-sufficiency when the pandemic disrupted supply-chains. In March 2020, The Farmer Support Program, created by the Ministry of Agriculture, encouraged farmers to boost their production of crops that have shorter life cycles and provide free seeds to other farmers.
Following the success of these initiatives, the Ministry of Agriculture is looking to boost domestic production of rice and has reached out to more than 1,000 Indigenous villages offering free rice seeds of Indigenous and improved varieties, as well as some machinery, storage, and financing. Research shows us that mono-culture seeds are less resilient in the face of climate change and more prone to disease. (Find out more about Fiji’s Covid-19 response here)
6.) Ecuador, South America Communities in rural Quito, Ecuador, have been exploring their food sovereignty and power in the system. Only 5% of the area’s food requirements are produced in Quito so to better their food autonomy and improve the environment that supports their livelihoods, citizens and farmers have been in dialogue to understand the obstacles and needs. This has been invaluable, and one such success was the creation of a community farmers market that sells agroecological products, set up by an organisation called Yunta Zambiceña during the Covid-19 pandemic. These enabled women farmers, who could no longer travel to sell their agroecological products locally — shortening supply chains, empowering the community, and bettering their climate resilience.
To find out more, visit Fork to Farm Dialogues.
