scaling up strategies from technology transfer to empowerment with focus on agroecology
TRANSCRIPT
Scaling up strategies
from technology transfer
to empowerment with focus
on agroecology
Ricardo Quirós Zúniga
Latin America Regional Office
March 2015
We Effect background
• Started in 1958 with the aim of reducing the gap between rich and poor in the world.
• Over 60 Swedish organisations with cooperative roots as members.
• Operates in 24 countries on four continents, fighting poverty and injustice and helping people to help themselves.
• Partnered with over 160 local organisations around the world.
The context: Where are we?
Projects X Country
Guatemala 5
Honduras 4
El Salvador 4
Nicaragua 4
Bolivia 7
Paraguay 6
P. Regionals 4
Total 34
Budget 56 %
Development Objective:
Contribute to a sustainable and just world
free from poverty.
Programme Objective:
Empower small farmer organisations to
address the needs and rights of their
women and men members in a sustainable
manner.
RD Programme Objectives
We Effect
provides
technical and
financial
support
Organisations
strengthen
their
capacities
To advocate for
public policies
to defend the
rights of their
members
Poverty and
injustice
reduction
To provide
services to their
members
Theory of change
Target group:Organised small farmers or potentially organised (with or without land) in poverty conditions
• Special focus on rural women
• Special interest in regional
organisations (apex organisations)
• Social movements at national level
can play a special role for advocacy
and defence of the sector
With whom are we working?
• Special attention to the small
scale farmers (family farming/
campesino).
• Importance of agriculture in
rural poverty reduction.
Main issues in rural development
and agriculture
• Food production for self-consumption and domestic markets
(as well as for income generation)
• Support organisational capacities for access to/ and defence
of land and territory
• Promote the Entrepreneurial Development and Added Value/
Value Chain Approach under the social economic model
(cooperative DNA)
• Strategic alliances for financial services
Main issues in rural development
and agriculture
Why Agroecology?
“Governments and international agencies urgently
need to boost ecological farming techniques to
increase food production and save the climate.”
Olivier De Schutter
Former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Several reasons
Economical:
• It implies a reduction in production costs for families
• It reduces dependence on external agricultural supplies
• It promotes local economy (local markets)
• It generates community employment
Why Agroecology?Partners Opinion
Why Agroecology?Partners Opinion
Social:
• It builds capacity in the people to investigate, experiment and promote their own knowledge
• It recognizes and values ancestral/ traditional knowledge
• It promotes direct links between producers and consumers
• It recognizes and values women’s role in agriculture
• As a concept/approach, agroecology is coherent with food
sovereignty
Ecological:
• It strengthens the capacity for productive systems to adapt to climate change
• It helps mitigate greenhouse emissions
• It improves water management
• It reduces the ecological footprint of production
• It strengthens adaptive capacity and resilience of farming
systems
Why Agroecology?Partners Opinion
Scaling Up process
Before 2008, we were supporting farmers´organisations mainly in a conventional production model:
• Fertilization with external inputs (agrochemicals)
• Classic technical assistance
• Improved/ hybrid seeds
• Supporting some organic experiences (coffee and vegetables)
Scaling Up process
2008: Food price crisis (high price inputs)
• Starts a reflection process on the conventional agriculture model
• Special emphasis on alternative ways of fertilizing and seeds
Scaling Up process
2012: Coffee rust/ Roya crisis promotes a complete change of the plantation model, even in organic farms.
• New and resilient coffee varieties
• New fertilization model: bio fertilizers, compost, green and cover crops, nutrients cycle
• Biological control of disease and blights: use of MM and EM, Beauveria b., others
• Agroecological management: diversification, agroforestry, shadow management, etc.
Scaling Up process
2014: Drought Crisis
a food security emergency
• Water harvesting systems
• Resilient crops
• Post-harvest storage: grain banks
• Native seeds: seeds banks
• Soil fertility management
Agroecological practices
Improving soil fertility
CompostVermicompostBio fertilizerCover cropsAgriculture in terracesGreen manure
Cropping system
Poly culturesCrop associationsAgroforestryCrop-livestock mixtureSuccessional agriculture systems
Biological pest control
Micro organism (EMand MM)Entomopathogenscontrol (Bauveria, Trichodermas, lecanicidium)Insect repellents
Natural resources management
Water harvestingEnergy managementWaste recyclingSeed banksBiomass use
Our scaling Up process
In Latin America
Successful scaling up of agroecology depends heavily on
human capital enhancement and community empowerment
through training and participatory methods that seriously take
into account the needs, aspirations and circumstances
of smallholders.
Miguel Altieri
Our scaling up process
• Re-educate the
technical assistants:
agronomist, agricultural
engineer
• Create an elite group of
farmer promotors
(farmer to farmer
method)
• Carry out practical
training and workshops
in the communities
First, a conceptual and political discussion:
awareness of the farmer organisations’ leaders
Our scaling up process
• Setting up reference/demonstration farms
• Exchanges between farmers, organisations, countries, regions
• Production of promotional materials: videos, books, adapted to the farmers skills
• Agroecological schools in farmers’ hands
• Farmer centres for research and promotion of agroecology
Scaling up methods: tips
• Individual VS collective: the role of the
organisation
• Use local resources and appropriate technology
• Be simple and pragmatic, not a forbidden
method
Scaling up methods: tips
• Respect the rhythm: process of transition – with gradualism
• Link with strategic allies: NGO:s, Universities, experts,
municipalities, companies, ecological movements, consumer
associations
• Influence politics and opinion leaders
• Promote changes in the public policies or new legal frameworks
Scaling up barriers
• Lack of support from governments: no investments, no
technical assistance, no research, no incentives, etc.
• Lack of research from Universities and specialized institutes
• Commercial pressures of the agrochemical companies and
the distribution stores
• Lack of legislation and legal frameworks
• Lack of information and training services
• Absence of territorial vision
Conclusions
• Agroecology cannot scale up if the
conditions of injustice, poverty and
inequity remain in the rural world.
• Society and consumers have more
awareness about health and environment.
• New instruments, legal reforms and public
policies should be adopted to promote a
real scaling up of agroecology.
• Strategic alliances have to be found for
development research, training and other
actions to promote the process.