Page 46 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 20

Food Health

wand to deal with all climate related technologies, inputs and credit. permaculture, agro-forestry, organic
issues in agriculture. Showcased as Several local initiatives exists which farming, biodynamic farming and
something innovative, CSA is how- combine acquired-scientific-knowl- zero budget natural farming, make it
ever just a rebranding and a continu- edge with traditional wisdom but optimal in soil carbon sequestration
ation of industrial Green Revolution governments in Asia have shown and thus a powerful tool to help
practices which have contributed little interest to support them and mitigate climate-related risks.
greatly to the global climate dilem- are instead falling for false-solutions
ma we are in now. Perhaps to no packaged as climate-smart by the Small farmers across the world are
one’s surprise, the same actors who corporate sector. continuously adapting their way of
promoted the Green Revolution, living and farming, enabling them
like the World Bank, are now im- The same way the Green Revolu- to withstand the climate breakdown
posing CSA as a solution to climate tion demanded the imposition of and minimize GHG emissions.
change, with the same failed logic. agrochemicals as a precondition to After experiencing climate impacts
In the climate negotiations, CSA was access loans and technical support, - drought, irregular rains, hailstorm,
promoted as one of the eight focus CSA is now imposing transgenics reduced monsoon and increased
areas of the Low Carbon Technol- and biotechnology. Companies al- pest attacks – small farmers are
ogy Partnerships Initiative (LCTPi) ready notorious for provoking disas- developing their own strategies to
of the World Business Council trous social impacts on farmers and combat the climate crisis. These
for Sustainable Development communities, driving land grabbing include:
(WBCSD), which brought together or promoting GM seeds, are now water harvesting systems,
all the major multinational food and self-proclaimed ”climate-smart”. better irrigation techniques that
agriculture related corporations to include drip irrigation,
influence the climate negotiations in the use of traditional seeds, bio-fer-
Paris and beyond. Evidence from the ground: tilisers and bio-pesticides,
Peasants solutions to the climate mulching, multiple cropping and
CSA has an inclination for ge- crisis mixed cropping practices,
netically engineered (GM) crops, gathering information on timely
especially those that are salt, flood In the longest-running side-by-side weather reports,
and frost resistant, a fact that is comparison of organic and chemical proper planning of agricultural
consistent with its predecessor’s farming system trail (FST) docu- practices,
architects. Prof. MS Swaminathan, mented by the Rodale Institute, over biodiversity conservation and
father of India’s Green Revolution, 27 years of organic practices in- the increased use of solar energy.
affirms that “GM technology helps creased soil carbon by almost 30%. Most of the time, they have done it
us to produce varieties which are Soils rich in carbon conserve water so successfully that it has gone un-
climate-smart.”22 A belief that has and support healthier plants that noticed. When locust pests swarmed
also been picked up by the Food are more resilient to drought stress, India in 2020, affected state govern-
and Agriculture Organisation of pests and diseases. Globally, organic ments ordered aerial sprayers and
the United Nations (FAO), which agriculture could sequester nearly drones to sprinkle chemicals, but
has come out and said that biotech- 40% of current CO2 emissions. small farmers had already designed
nologies, both low-and high-tech, their own zero fossil fuel local tech-
can help small-scale producers, in There are enough local communi- niques to drive away pests, like with
particular, to be more resilient and ty-based evidences which indicate the use of drums and loud sound
to adapt better to climate change.23 that peasant-based agroecological producing techniques.
This statement from the FAO is be- approaches have immense mitiga-
ing hailed by GMOs defenders as an tion and adaptation potential and As an alternative to hybrid and
acknowledgment of “climate-smart” can make significant contributions GMO seeds, which can perform
biotech crops. towards reducing GHG emissions. better only with fossil fuel based
Agroecology uses low fossil fu- chemical inputs, several seed
This obsession of CSA with new el-based inputs and has a better car- networks conserving indigenous
technologies ignores tried and tested bon footprint than industrial agricul- varieties have sprung up across
traditional farming techniques and ture-based practices. The wide array South Asia and South East Asia,
indigenous seed varieties, while it of agricultural practices that are which offer climate resilient seeds to
creates dependency on climate smart part of agroecology which include deal with harsh weather conditions.

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