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MeetingOrganic Agriculture and Access to Food
International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security - Rome, 03 - 05 May 2007
2007Also available in:
No results found.Access to food involves entitlements for producing or acquiring food, which are discussed in this paper under three main headings: Access to productive natural resources including land, water, agroforestry, biodiversity, seeds and other genetic resources, and environmental services: using organic agriculture, resources for productivity and long-term sustainability are managed simultaneously; these include resilience under environmental stress and climate change. Efficient use of loca l resources is also more financially sustainable for farmers, reducing costs and improving net incomes. Access to diverse types of knowledge, including traditional and indigenous knowledge, current best practices for organic agriculture from other locations, locally relevant research and sitespecific observation: knowledge engages the power of human creativity, skills and experience towards more reliable access to food, leveraging all local assets towards the community’s most criti cal needs. Access to domestic and international markets in which fair prices and stable, long-term contracts can be obtained: market opportunities are most often realized through the formation of effective farmer groups, which can leverage their efforts towards both improving local food supplies and maximizing returns from surpluses. Increasing production to meet expanding markets improves local labor markets and returns on labor costs. In addition, fair and meaningful urban, non-f arm employment opportunities are urgently needed to ensure access of urban poor people to food entitlements. -
Book (stand-alone)Sustainable management of Miombo woodlands
Food security, nutrition and wood energy
2018Also available in:
No results found.The Miombo woodland is a vast African dryland forest ecosystem covering close to 2.7 million km2 across southern Africa (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The woodlands are characterized by the dominance of Brachystegia species, either alone or in association with Julbernardia and Isoberlinia species. It is estimated that the woodlands – through their numerous goods and services which include various non-wood forest products (NWFPs) (e.g. insects, mushrooms, fruits, tubers, medicine, fodder, honey, seeds) and woodfuels, which, for simplicity, will be referred to as non-timber forest products, or NTFPs, throughout the publication – sustain the livelihoods of more than 100 million rural poor and 50 million urban people. The charcoal sector alone employs vast numbers of rural people and offers additional income to many poor rural families. Communities moreover rely directly on the woodlands for food and nutrition. NWFPs add vital micro- and macronutrients to local diets and contribute to diversified food systems, while woodfuel is essential for cooking and sterilizing, thus ensuring proper nutrient absorption and providing clean water for drinking. Forests and trees, if managed sustainably, are an important source of resilience for rural people in the Miombo woodlands, supporting households to absorb and recover from climatic or economic calamities and contributing to resolving the underlying causes of food insecurity, undernutrition and poverty by providing nutritious edible products and woodfuel for cooking in addition to conserving biodiversity and water resources, buffering extreme weather conditions and preventing land degradation and desertification. Generally speaking, it is now accepted that forests managed for both timber and NTFPs retain more biodiversity and resilience than forests managed solely for one aspect, e.g. timber and exotic timber plantations. However, a growing population in high need of agricultural land and unsustainable use and overharvesting of natural resources in parts of the Miombo woodlands, combined with climate change impacts (e.g. drought, fires), leave insufficient time for many trees and associated species to regenerate naturally, posing a serious threat to the products and services of the woodlands, and to the livelihoods depending on them. Compounding the problem and hindering development of the Miombo ecosystem, are: i) lack of an enabling policy environment; ii) unsustainable management; iii) limited willingness and ability to pay for and access to energy-efficiency technologies; iv) inadequate awareness and information, including technical capacity; v) high poverty levels; and vi) limited access to microcredit facilities. With the Committee on World Food Security’s endorsement of the recommendations presented in the High Level Panel of Experts Report on Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition in late 2017 – which include promoting multifunctional landscapes, integrated food-forestry systems, and research on associated linkages, among other things – forests and trees are expected to play a greater role in future land-use decisions and related policies. This paper provides an overview of these linkages in the context of the Miombo woodlands, in the hope that future land use, policy decisions and financial investments are shaped to support the contributions of forests and trees to the health and livelihoods of communities in the ecoregion. The following key messages were formulated: • Forests and trees, if managed sustainably, are an important source of resilience for rural people in the Miombo woodlands, supporting households to absorb and recover from climatic or economic calamities and contributing to resolving the underlying causes of food insecurity, undernutrition and poverty by providing nutritious edible products and woodfuel for cooking in addition to conserving biodiversity and water resources, buffering extreme weather conditions and preventing land degradation and desertification. • Current data bases referring to the value of the Miombo must be analysed and used as evidence to improve policy-making. • Miombo woodlands may be dominant (spatially), but they have not been addressed as a single unit but as part of the region’s forests. They form part of the overall forestry strategies and no specific mention in the conventions does not suggest that their importance is underplayed. • The management of Miombo will require some changes in management structures, especially in providing benefits emerging from trade in forest products to local managers. • Local forest managers should play a greater role in allocating resources for feedstock for charcoal production. -
Book (series)Adoption of climate technologies in the agrifood sector. Methodology 2017
Also available in:
No results found.The food production and supply chain consumes about 30 percent of total end-use energy globally, and contributes to over 20 percent of total annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (excluding emissions or sinks from land use change). A growing worldwide population, changing diets and growing economic development will all serve to increase competition for land, water and energy resources – which already face problems of environmental degradation and, in some cases, scarcity. To address these challe nges, agrifood systems at every scale, from the small family farm to the vertically integrated corporate farm level, will have to become more efficient by using less land, water, fertilizers, energy and other inputs to produce more food more sustainably, and with greater resilience to weather pattern changes and extreme events. Technology adoption is bound to play an important part in this adjustment process. There are significant regional variations in the ability to respond to these challenges . In particular, countries that face food insecurity naturally put concerns over GHG emission reductions or other environmental issues in second place. Still, in specific situations technology adoption can help reduce a country’s environmental footprint and go hand in hand with both improved food security and rural development. The goal of this document is therefore to provide guidance in assessing options for GHG emission reductions and decoupling the agrifood industry from its dependency on fo ssil fuels in a context where various goals are important: increased crop productivity, efficient use of water, improved livelihoods for the rural poor, and sustainable development. As a contribution to quickly expanding literature on the subject, the present document provides a practical methodology to enable a country or funding agency to assess and monitor the market penetration of sustainable climate technologies and practices in agrifood chains. Market penetration is defined as a measure of the adoption of an agrifood technology or practice in a specific market. The guidelines are useful not only to estimate the current market penetration, but also – and more importantly – to assess the potential for further adoption and to reduce GHG emissions efficiently. The methodology therefore takes into consideration important features of each technology including: market potential, technical and non-technical barriers to adoption and unit cost in terms of US dollars per tonnes of carbon di oxide equivalent (USD/tCO2eq). The result is a characterisation of a set of technologies and practices which can lead to identification of “best bet” options to reduce emissions from the agrifood sector on the basis of local conditions. Moreover, the results include a discussion of policy areas that may need reform, and specifically what can be the drivers to promote adoption of such best bet technology options.
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