Experts want climate change campaigns to include agriculture

As the world faces the rising effects of climate change, there is an urgent need to rally the population and governments towards promoting environmentally friendly farming practices (agroecology).

The challenge is pressing in developing countries, where industrial agriculture characterised by monocultures and the heavy use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides poses significant threats to the environment, soil, and ecosystems.

These are part of the recommendations contained in the recently released ActionAid International's 2024 report, titled: How the Finance Flows: Corporate Capture of Public Finance Fuelling the Climate Crisis.

The report indicates that taxpayer money in developing countries is being extracted and given as subsidies to fossil fuel and industrial agricultural companies while some of it goes into terms of tax reliefs or tax exemptions.

It further shows that the industrial agriculture sector has benefited from publicly financed subsidies worth a staggering $238 billion a year on average, in the years between 2016 and 2021 globally.

Impact

Speaking at the report launch on September 23, during the Climate Action Justice Week for Action, the ActionAid International Uganda's Country Director, Mr Xavier Ejoyi said many farmers engaging in commercial and industrial agriculture are practicing monoculture [single crop varieties] and use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides to increase productivity without considering its impact on the environment and the entire ecosystem.

“Industrial agriculture not only depletes natural resources but also contributes to the pollution of water bodies, affecting aquatic life such as fish because the synthetic fertiliser and pesticides used can easily get their way into water bodies,” Mr Ejoyi said.

Mr Ejoyi elaborated that these chemicals are causing climate change and called upon the farmers to adopt agroecology that is eco-friendly.

Agro-ecology

Agroecology also known as ecological agriculture is a way of farming and managing crops, livestock, forests, and fisheries that is viable, long-lasting, resilient to climate change, and offers various other environmental, social, and cultural benefits such as addressing food and water scarcity, and poverty.

According to Mr Ejoyi agroecology’s key principles include recycling nutrients and energy on the farm, rather than introducing external chemical inputs, integrating crops and livestock, diversifying species and genetic resources; and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agroecosystem, rather than focusing on individual species.

The main agroecology approaches include integrated pest and nutrient management, conservation tillage, agroforestry, aquaculture, water harvesting, and livestock integration.

He said that although farmers need profits, they should not forget that they need to protect the environment they are operating in and encourage the use of crop rotation, and indigenous seed as well as organic fertilisers and pesticides.

Action Aid International recommended in the report, that public finance should be redirected to support transitions from climate-destructive fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, towards people-led climate solutions that safeguard people’s rights to food, energy, and livelihoods.

“The fossil fuel and industrial agriculture industries are the two sectors most responsible for causing the Climate change that is devastating lives across the Global South and pushing the planet to the brink,” the report reads.

Food security

 Agroecological farming approaches are increasingly recognised as key technical interventions that are required to feed the world in an era of climate change.

Ms Apiny emphasised that agroecological farming approaches provide multiple benefits to farmers, local communities, ecosystems and consumers.

She noted that agroecology does not only provide mitigation and adaptation benefits, but also needs of smallholder peasant farmers, especially women farmers, who do not usually have a lot of money to invest in expensive agriculture inputs.

The report by ActionAid International also indicates that agroecology is also a key strategy for protecting the livelihoods revealing that 1 in 4 people on the planet depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

“In contrast to the erosion of farming livelihoods being accelerated by the industrialisation of agriculture, land that is host to agroecological and smallholder farming systems provides livelihoods, food security and more thriving rural economies for many more families,” the report states.

In the same reports, it is indicated that agroecological practices can produce impressive results for farmers particularly when climate impacts strike.

“Agroecological approaches mean that farmers are more likely to gain a harvest even in the face of erratic and changing weather patterns such as failed rains, flooding and pest attacks,” the report states.

Adding that; “By avoiding the need to burn fossil fuels to produce synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, as well as averting the emissions and soil loss when fertilisers are applied and avoiding the aggressive deforestation associated with industrial agriculture and intensive livestock production, agroecological approaches are an important mitigation strategy for the food sector.”

Agroecological approaches work well with the ecosystem instead of being against it unlike commercial agriculture where expensive agrochemicals and seeds are used which harm to soils, biodiversity and the climate.

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