ROLE OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IN

PREVENTING AND REVERSING LAND DEGRADATION

By Sue EdwardsInstitute for Sustainable Development,

EthiopiaAlso representing IFOAM

Land degradation

Soil erosion and desertification are the physical expressions of land degradation, while the social and economic impacts are degraded lifestyles and pernicious poverty. An understanding of how to maintain healthy soil is essential to reverse and prevent land degradation. Healthy soil carries a good plant cover and enables rain water to infiltrate and recharge both soil water and underlying aquifers.

What is IFOAM?

• IFOAM, the (International Federation Of Organic Agriculture Movements) has its head office in Bonn, Germany

• Its mission is leading, uniting and assisting the organic movement in its full diversity

• The goal is the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially and economically sound systems that are based on the Principles of Organic Agriculture

What is organic agriculture?

• Organic agriculture is a whole system approach based upon a set of processes resulting in sustainable ecosystems, safe food, good nutrition, animal welfare and social justice. It is more than just a system of production that includes or excludes certain inputs, particularly agro-chemicals, because it builds on and enhances the ecological management skills of the farmer, the fisher folk and the pastoralist. Practicing organic or agro-ecological agriculture requires ecological knowledge, planning and commitment to work with natural systems, rather than trying to change them.

Organic agriculture and mitigating climate change

• In 2004, IFOAM commissioned a scoping study on “The Role of Organic Agriculture in Mitigating Climate Change”.

• It looked at the possibilities of reducing greenhouse gases (GHG)

• Organic agriculture is a systematic strategy, which may reduce GHG emissions and enhance sequestration of carbon

• The strategy includes basic principles to be followed, compulsory standards to be respected, suitable production technologies, and a system of inspection and certification to guarantee adherence to the process

Basic principles

• To encourage and enhance biological cycles within the farming system

• To maintain and increase long-term fertility in soils

• To use, as far as possible, renewable resources in locally organized production systems

• To minimize all forms of pollution

Emission Reductions

• Carbon dioxide through:– Avoidance of shifting cultivation– Reduction of fossil fuel consumption

• Methane– Soil management to increased oxidation of methane,

also grasslands and forests– Compost and biogas– Animal husbandry, particularly locally produced and

appropriate feeds, and controlling grazing– Paddy cultivation with aeration periods

• Nitrous oxide – produced by all forms of nitrogen– No synthetic N fertilizer is used – Nitrogen comes from within the system thus

avoiding overdoses and high losses– Animal stocking rates are limited– Diets for dairy cows lower in protein and

higher in fibre, and use of crops (sunflower seeds) that reduce NO2 emissions

• Biomass as a substitute for fossil fuel– Directly as a crop– Processing slurry in biogas

• Agroforestry– Shade trees in plantation crops– Fuel wood plantation– Trees in cropland– Living fences– etc

Can organic agriculture combat poverty?

• An example from northern Ethiopia

• Despite the fact that Ethiopia is also known as the ‘water tower’ of the Horn of Africa, it is better known for the images of emaciated children and the high rate of soil erosion

• Can this be reversed?

MAP OF ETHIOPIA WITH REGIONAL BOUNDARIES

• The popular image is a ‘desert’ – dry, with very little vegetation, and very large numbers of free-ranging livestock

Why the degradation?

• Efforts at State building destroyed local organization in most of the country starting from in 2nd half of the 19th century

• Development efforts started only in the 1960s and largely ignored smallholder (peasant) farmers despite the fact that 90% or more of the food comes from them

• The 1974 ‘revolution’ and its impact on land resource use

• The land was mined, and there were no inputs in technologies or ideas to help the farmers improve their productivity

• The Sasakawa-Global 2000 approach uses high external inputs, out of reach for most smallholder farmers both economically and ecologically

The existing strengths

• Farmers control their own seeds and there is still a wealth of agro-biodiversity and farmers’ traditional knowledge

• Traditional methods for managing and using land resources, e.g. grazing land, farms are still in place in many communities

• Local community members work together, and this is being strengthened through the present policy of decentralization

The components of the project, or ‘basket of

choices’• Making and using compost (ISD initiative)• Trench bunds for catching both soil and water

(BoA initiative)• Planting small multipurpose trees – particularly

Sesbania – and local grasses (ISD and BoA initiative improved by farmers)

• Halting gullies (at farmers demand)• Making communal ponds (farmers initiative)• Making and using bylaws to control access and

use of local biological resources and control grazing (ISD initiative)

Adi Nefas in 1997 and 2003

Zeban Sas grazing area in 1996 – starting the rehabilitation work

Zeban Sas grazing area in October 2003

Pond

Adi NefasAll the components being used in October 2003

Rehabilitated gully

Sesbaniatrees and long

grasses

Composted fields of tef, wheat and barley

Faba Bea

n

Training on CompostTraining on Compost

Impact of compost on yields

• Sampling technique (FAO method for monitoring food security)

• Samples were taken with the farmers.

• Fields were selected and 3 one-metre square plots were cut and threshed, and the straw and grain weighed with the farmers.

10 Birr is equivalent to 1 Euro, or 8.5 Birr equals 1 USD.

Table 1: Grain yields (in kg/ha), expenses and returns (in Birr) for Adi Nefas in 2003 (7

years)

Crop Input YieldGross income

Fertilizer cost

Net income

Faba Bean Compost 4391 13173 0 13173

Check 2287 6861 0 6861

Finger Millet Compost 2650 4505 0 4505

Check 833 1416 0 1416

Maize Compost 5480 8768 0 8768

Check 708 1133 0 1133

Teff Compost 1384 3875 0 3875

Fertilizer 1033 2892 377 2515

Check 739 2069 0 2069

Wheat Compost 2250 5625 0 5625

Fertilizer 1480 3700 377 3323

Check 842 2105 0 2105

Barley Compost 1633 3266 0 3266

Check 859 1718 0 1718

Crop Input YieldGross income

Fertilizer cost

Net income

Faba Bean Compost 2900 8700 0 8700

Fertilizer 1100 3300 377 2923

Check 766 2298 0 2298

Finger Millet Compost 2000 3400 0 3400

Fertilizer 1433 2436 377 2059

Check 500 850 0 850

Maize Compost 2000 3200 0 3200

Fertilizer 1133 1813 377 1436

Check 680 1088 0 1088

Table 2: Grain yields (in kg/ha), expenses and returns (in Birr) for Adi Gua’edad in 2003 (1st year)

Crop Input YieldGross income

Fertilizer cost Net income

Barley Compost 2193 4386 0 4386

Fertilizer 1283 2566 377 2189

Check 900 1800 0 1800

Wheat Compost 1020 2550 0 2550

Fertilizer 1617 4043 377 3666

Check 590 1475 0 1475

Teff Compost 1650 4620 0 4620

Fertilizer 1150 3220 377 2843

Check 390 1092 0 1092

Table 2: continued

10 Birr is equivalent to 1 Euro, or 8.5 Birr equals 1 USD.

Crops not usually given chemical fertilizer

Finger MilletFaba BeanField PeaThese are usually not given much attention, but

with compost, high yield increases have been obtained.

It is interesting to see that the ‘checks’ for faba bean and field pea in Adibo Mossa in 2002 were nearly the same as the compost treatment.

They were growing on previously composted fields and were benefiting from the residual effect of the compost

Faba Bean with and without compost

Yields have risen from less than 500 kg/ha on non-compost treated fields to around 2,500 kg/ha when compost is applied.

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

Finger Millet/ Adi Nefas/02

Finger Millet/ Guroro/02

Faba Bean / Adi Abo Mossa/98

Faba Bean / Adi Abo Mossa/02

Field Pea / Adi Abo Mossa/98

Field Pea / Adi Abo Mossa/02

Yield (kg/ha)

Compost

Check

Yields (kg/ha) for faba bean, field pea and finger millet in 3 sites - 1998

Indicators of Sustainability

• Maintaining or increasing agricultural biodiversity: for example, Ziban Sas was growing only wheat and barley mixed together and a little teff, but now other crops e.g. maize and faba bean, are also grown.

• Reduced weeds: weed seeds, pathogens and insect pests are killed by the high temperature in the compost pits, but earthworms and other useful soil organisms establish well.

• Increased moisture retention capacity of the soil: if rain stops early, crops grown on composted soil resist wilting for about two weeks longer than those grown on soil treated with chemical fertilizer.

• Disease and pest resistance: as seen through the problem of shoot fly on teff and root borer on faba bean in Tahitai Maichew and La’elai Maichew respectively, crops are more disease and pest resistant.

• Residual effect: farmers who have used compost for one or two years can obtain high yields from their crops the next year without applying compost afresh.

• Economic returns: farmers have been able to stop buying chemical fertilizer, but they still get even higher yields.

• Flavour: food is said to taste better.

Ethiopia and Organic Production

• In March 2006, the Ethiopian Government passed a law setting out a framework for organic farming.

• The results of the farmers in Tigray in producing and using compost indicate that the aim for Ethiopia having a substantial number of farmers producing organically could be realized.

Protection and promotion of sustainable livelihoods

• Developing bylaws has been an essential part of the community decision making and implementation.

• These statutes were developed by consensus to govern the activities of each member as well as that of the whole community in order to manage the land under the usufruct right of each member and the community so that the whole environment in which the community lives and its productivity are improved sustainably.

Other examples from Africa

• SEKEM in Egypt, led by Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish

• Organic cotton farmers in Benin

• NOGUM and EPOPA in Uganda and Tanzania >2% of production is organic

• Dried fruits and vegetables from over 600 producers, mostly women, Burkino Fasso

A farmer of the future