The COP 20 side event was
co-organized by CECOEDECON, Beyond Copenhagen, Action aid International and Practical
Action. Since there was no discussion on agriculture in COP 20/SBSTA, the side
event hoped to get the attention of the country parties and negotiators as well
as CSO participants on the issue of agriculture. The objective of the side
event was to convey to the audience that the in the din of the climate smart
agriculture, the agro-ecology is getting completely neglected, and the worst
affected are women. Women have shown leadership in adapting to climate change
and enhancing agro-ecology but the policymakers have failed them by
prioritizing mitigation over the urgent needs of adaptation.
Opening the discussion moderator
Ajay Jha said that women farmers have huge contribution in agriculture and food
security and economy of the countries especially in South Asia, Africa and
Latin America. Women have shown leadership in enhancing adaptive capacity of
the agriculture through approaches which is ecologically sustainable and less
dependant on external inputs, however, they face a number of challenges including
that of climate change and policy design, lack of access and ownership being
one of the most important among them. He emphasized that in South Asia where
more than 65% women workforce is engaged in agriculture, less than 6% of them
have land ownership. He added that in view of the fact that the cost of
agriculture is rising steeply, agroecology also makes business case. Chris
Handerson, from Practical action provided overall concept of agro-ecology, scenario
of positioning of agro-ecology in agriculture and case studies of women
farmers. He said that lot of farmers are adopting agro ecological approaches,
and therefore, it is not something new being proposed. However, he added that
existing system was loaded against small farmers, which presents a compelling
need for policy reform and financial support. He recommended increased public
investment in research, investment to agro ecological approaches and also hoped
that a reformed market will also support agro ecological approaches.
Manu Srivastava from CECOEDECON
provided case studies from Rajasthan India on experiments to enhance agro-ecology
and improved water management, and loss and damage in agriculture due to disasters.
She cited case studies from villages in Rajasthan (Paragpura & Bapugaon)
where farmer led water harvesting structures and management have been able to
bring the water table up and as a result farmers are able to draw two crops in
a desert like condition. She also shared the findings of the loss and damage
study from Uttarakhand climate disaster (June 2013), and emphasized that
farmers were measly compensated for the loss and crops and land due to
disaster. She underlined that loss and damage due to disaster cannot be
compensated by adaptation alone, and needs separate treatment otherwise the
gains from adaptation may be reversed.
Teresa Andersson from Actionaid
international shared the position of agriculture in climate change mitigation.
She lamented the mitigation focus in agriculture and false solutions being
proposed. She added that agriculture is being discussed in multiple platforms
in the climate negotiations (ADP, SBSTA, NAPs etc.) but none of them addressing
the agro-ecology, which has been shown as the most resilient way of food
production reports after report. She also strongly opposed the Global Alliance
on Climate Smart Agriculture, which she said was a corporate driven and
dominated platform with agribusiness corps like Yarra, Syngenta, Mc Donalds and
Walmart.
An animated discussion followed
the presentations where participants shared destruction of food systems due to
climate change impacts, strategies adopted by women farmers and policy response
etc. participants shared coffee being affected in Ethiopia, Potatoes being
badly hit in Kenya and drought and extreme flooding in Asian countries. In
famers/women farmers strategies participants shared Roof collection of water
and other water harvesting technologies, women reviving traditional seeds in
Kenya. In Peru women have responded by multilayer coffee farming, mulching,
terracing and using home made fertilizers, growing traditional species of
potatoes. In Gambia, women have started preferring compost over fertilizer and
using traditional early maturing variety of seeds over HYV. Participants also
provided examples of lack of ownership of land, economic and trade policies and
lack of incentive as major policy gaps in promoting agro-ecology.
The moderator summed up the
discussion with few conclusions.
- The current trend in agriculture is posited against enhancing agro-ecology, however, farmers and women have been experimenting with certain adaptations on their volition.
- Adaptation and agro-ecological approaches have been largely beneficial to the farmers, but it was not equally shared with farming community so that each farmer could benefit.
- Adaptation too has a limit, and that brings the role of policies and incentivizing adaptation.
- The climate negotiations by their focus on mitigation are not responding to the needs and aspirations of small farmers.
- There is a need to stand up a resist false solutions and package of practices like Climate Smart Agriculture.
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