TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
24 June 2021
Third World Network
www.twn.my
Dear Friends and Colleagues
Using Agroecology to Build Back Greener and More Resilient Food Systems
Besides the severe health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the global economy to contract at a rate not seen since the Second World War and has led to a severe increase of poor and food insecure people as well as a sharp projected decrease of production of agricultural goods. A recent paper from FAO uses its ‘10 elements of Agroecology’ framework to provide examples of how agroecological approaches can contribute to transforming food systems and developing a greener, more resilient and more inclusive “new normal”, focusing on the Asia-Pacific region.
Agroecology can be seen as a key part of the global response to this climate of instability, having the capacity to reconcile the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainability. Agroecological principles can help to increase the resilience of food systems by increasing the diversity within production systems, replacing external inputs with ecological processes, and efficient use and recycling of the resources in the system. Moreover, sale and distribution of products in agroecological systems is based on strong farmers’ organizations and direct connections between producers and consumers. These short and established supply chains ensure stable markets for both sellers and buyers during times of disruption, such as a pandemic.
Agroecology also provides the framework needed to build back a greener and more sustainable agricultural system after a crisis. The reduction of external inputs, the movement of production closer to consumers, and the increase of agro-biodiversity can contribute to reducing and reversing the environmental degradation caused by current food systems. Moreover, by creating decent jobs and protecting the wellbeing and livelihoods of people working in the agricultural sector, agroecology also contributes to strengthening the social systems supporting food production and the wellbeing of producers.
Therefore, FAO recommends that investments need to be made in two major areas to up- and out-scale the use of agroecology and support a greener future for post-pandemic agriculture: (1) Education and research (at all levels including universities, vocational schools and farmer field schools) on well-integrated sustainable agricultural practices and agroecology in order to create a new generation of professionals in the agricultural sector who are equipped with the knowledge, skills and competences required to support and lead to a “systems thinking” that enhances the agroecological transition; and (2) The development and expansion of schemes that allow for the fair compensation for positive externalities (and penalties for negative ones) associated with agricultural production, including fair market access.
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COVID-19 BUILDING BACK GREENER AND MORE RESILIENT
Contributions of agroecology to a “new normal” in Asia and the Pacific
FAO
1 March 2021
http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1379484/
Abstract
In addition to the severe health crisis it created, the COVID-19 epidemic also caused the global economy to contract at a rate not seen since World War II. It has also led to a severe increase of poor and food-insecure people. The effects of the pandemic on agriculture have been exacerbated by the way in which the current industrial farming system is set up. Integral to the common vision of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for sustainable food and agriculture, agroecology echoes the goals of the 2030 Agenda and can be seen as a key part of the global response to this climate of instability, offering an original approach to meeting significant increases in our future food needs while ensuring that no one is left behind. As recognized by the World Bank and FAO-led global agriculture assessment (IAASTD, 2019), and the landmark reports from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES, 2018, 2019), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2019) and FAO (2019a), agroecology has the capacity to reconcile the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability. This paper is a contribution to the regional dialogue on how to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. It first highlights some of the impacts of the pandemic on agriculture and food security in the Asia-Pacific Region. Then, mobilizing the framework of FAO’s ten elements of agroecology, it provides selected examples of how agroecological approaches can contribute to transforming food systems and to developing a greener, more resilient and more inclusive “new normal”.
Conclusions
First, agroecological principles offer valuable approaches that can help to increase the resilience of food systems and therefore represent a coping strategy to mitigate the immediate disruptions caused by a pandemic such as COVID-19. Resilience of agroecological systems is achieved by increasing the diversity within production systems, replacing external inputs with ecological processes, and efficient use and recycling of the resources in the system. Moreover, sale and distribution of products in agroecological systems is based on strong farmers’ organizations and direct connections between producers and consumers. These short and established supply chains ensure stable markets for both sellers and buyers during times of disruption, such as a pandemic.
Second, agroecology also provides the framework needed to build back a greener and more sustainable agricultural system after a crisis. Besides ample benefits for farmers, agroecological production systems can also help reduce the negative externalities associated with large-scale conventional and specialized agricultural production. The reduction of external inputs, the movement of production closer to consumers, and the increase of agro-biodiversity contribute to reducing and reversing the environmental degradation caused by current food systems, such as contamination of soils and waterbodies with agrochemicals, eutrophication resulting from the excessive use of mineral fertilizers, greenhouse gas emissions caused by transporting agricultural goods around the globe, and accelerating loss of agricultural and wild biodiversity. Moreover, by creating decent jobs and protecting the wellbeing and livelihoods of people working in the agricultural sector, agroecology also contributes to strengthening the social systems supporting food production and the wellbeing of producers.
Therefore, investments need to be made to up- and out-scale the use of agroecology and thus support a greener future for post-pandemic agriculture. There are two major areas where investments are specifically needed. First, education and research (at all levels including universities, vocational schools and farmer field schools) on well-integrated sustainable agricultural practices and agroecology must be vastly expanded in order to create a new generation of professionals in the agricultural sector who are equipped with the knowledge, skills and competences required to support and lead to a “systems thinking” that enhances the agroecological transition. Second, there is a great need to develop and further expand schemes that allow for the fair compensation for positive externalities (and penalties for negative ones) associated with agricultural production. These schemes include, among others, direct payments for ecosystem services, fair market access, and certification of products produced according to agroecological principles.