Page 49 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 20

Food Health

which is normally extracted from
the ground using diesel/electric
pumps. This technique, howev-
er, ends up depleting the ground
water supply. Farmers have there-
fore adopted SRI (Systematic Rice
Intensification) methods. With SRI,
a single rice sapling is sown instead
of in bunches, requiring a lesser
amount of seeds and the rice fields
do not have to be kept continuously Gobinda Bhog native Rice variety, farming through SRI Method. Photo:
flooded. This reduces the required DRCSC
amount of water, which in turn re- households and farmers in many fertilisers and pesticides, the staples
duces GHG emissions. But in West regions of South Asia. And the of conventional agriculture. As
Bengal, villagers are not stopping climate adaptation examples across Chukki Nanjundaswamy, women
there. They are also harvesting rain- the region go on. farmer leader of Karnataka Rajya
water. By digging ponds, villagers Ryot Sangha (KRRS) and founder
are able to gather enough water not But can agroecology feed the of India’s agroecology school, Am-
only to irrigate their crops- minimis- world? ritabhoomi, said, “The impact of
ing ground water pumping- but also climate change is definitely pushing
for fish farming. The whole struc- It is clear that the agricultural sector farmers to adopt agroecology or
ture is optimised and creeper vegeta- is being hit hard by the vagaries other alternative cropping systems.
bles are planted on all sides of the of nature and climate catastrophe Today there is absolutely no lack
pond. As the water level goes down, around the world, a reality that of evidence to prove the positive
different kinds of seasonal vegeta- seems to be the more threatening impacts of agroecology, indigenous
bles and pulses, even boro rice, are in several Asian countries, where seed varieties and agro-diversity in
grown. This adaptation practices has large populations could be on the dealing with climate stresses. It is
been developed to build long-term brink of food insecurity and hunger. time for governments, international
resilience to climate impacts.
A valid questions may be whether institutions like FAO and agribusi-
agroecology and food sovereign- ness to realise the major role that
Similar climate adaptation practices ty-based agricultural models are peasant agroecology and food sov-
and strategies have been found in capable of producing enough to ereignty play in dealing with climate
indigenous communities in other feed the growing population? The change. It is time for them to stop
parts of Asia. Biodiverse multi crop response lies in the abundance of promoting false technologies and
cultivation in the same plot has been examples we highlighted above. false solutions like Climate Smart
used for generations in Sabah, Ma- Biodiverse and sustainable agricul- Agriculture.”
laysia, which minimizes the risk of ture based alternatives are available
crop failure due to changing weather in almost every region of Asia. Not People across Asia are mobilising to
patterns. While in Bangladesh, in- only do these offer credible solu- put forward real alternatives to face
digenous communities are building tions to climate change, but these the climate crisis, initiatives based
floating vegetable gardens or ‘Baira alternatives are also quite impressive on their right to self-determination,
Cultivation’ in the flood prone areas in offering the right solutions to community building and food sover-
of the country, while others practice assure our food security. eignty. Their example is impressive
the shifting cultivation method and and inspiring. But, for those in high
move to new locations less suscep- With the increasing and devastating places, it shouldn’t remain table talk
tible to climate shifts. In Nepal, impact of climate change, more and or be treated as interesting exot-
new rice varieties like Aryan and more farmers are adopting alter- ic ventures. They must become a
Makawanpure have been introduced native farming systems not only to road map- in Asia and the rest of
that are less dependent on water. In make their farms more resilient to the world -to get us all out of the
Vietnam, farmers plants hedges on climate stress but also to cut their terrible mess created by industrial
the coast to diffuse tropical storm cost of production by avoiding agriculture and corporate greed.
waves. Whereas harvesting rainwa- the use of hybrid seeds, synthetic
ter has become quite common for

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