Biointensive Agriculture (a Greener Revolution)

7/27/2019 Biointensive Agriculture (a Greener Revolution)

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P e r s p e c t i v e s f r o m E c o l o g y A c t i o n


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B i o i n t e n s i v e A g r i c u l t u r e : A G r e e n e r R e v o l u t i o1


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Much o the ood produced in the Asia-Pacifc region is produced by individual armers, the majority o whom are small armers.

For long-term ood security consider providing active State support or the participation o small-scale ood producers in a new green ood

revolution that gives high priority to revitalizing small-scale ood production based on ecologically viable systems.

UN- ESCAP: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Asia and the Pacifc

Bee Aruure

Indias small-holder armers (those owning less than 2.0 ha o armland) comprise 78 percent o the countrys armers, but own only

33 percent o the total cultivated land; they nonetheless produce 41 percent o the countrys ood-grains.

Their productivity is ... higher than that o medium- and large-size arms. Moreover, their marketable surpluses are increasing. In the nations

ood-security interest, such increase must be sustained. Those eatures notwithstanding, small-holder amilies, together with

the amilies o land-less agricultural workers, constitute the bulk o Indias hungry and poor.

UN-FAO: Smallholder Farmers in India:Food Security and Agricultural Policy

A Greener Revolution

In Arica, a large proportion o the labour orce is employed in agriculture (6080 per cent) and the majority o these armers

(many o whom are women) are smallholders with arms o less than 2 hectares

Arguably, the most sustainable choice or agricultural development and ood security is thereore to increase total arm productivity in situ, in the

developing countries that are the most in need o greater ood supplies. Attention must ocus on the ollowing:

i) The extent to which armers can improve ood production and raise incomes with low cost locally-available technologies and inputs (this is

particularly important at times o very high uel and agro-chemical prices)

ii) Whether they can do this without causing urther environmental damage

UNEP-UNCTAD: Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Arica

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In 2009, the FAO estimated there to be over a billion hungry people in the world,1

with another 2 billion suering rom malnutrition.2 With an expanding global

population, declining soil ertility, water scarcity and increasing costs or uel

and agri-chemicals, the question on the minds o armers, scientists, and policy

makers around the world is: how can we sustainably increase ood productionin a way that benets the armers, the economy and the environment?

Smallholder arms arms o 2 ha or less are the most common type o arm

in the world: out o 525 million arms worldwide, about 90% are smallholder

arms.3 About 2.6 billion people in developing countries make their living rom

agriculture,4 and 1.5 billion o those people live on small arms thats almost

one out o every our people in the world.5

Smallholders are the most productive armers in the world, supplying more than

hal the global ood supply rom a small portion o the armable land available.6

They are able to do this because they make the most efcient use o the land,

and plant many dierent crops, rather than the monocultures avored by large-

scale mechanized arming. Examples o small arm productivity include:

Latin America, where farms averaging 1.8 ha represent about 30% of

the cultivated land, but provide about 40% o the domestic agricultural

output.7

India,where78%ofthefarmersaresmallholdersandproduce41%ofthe

countrys grain on only 33% o the land.8

Asia,wherethemajorityofthemorethan200millionricefarmersfarmlessthan 2 ha, yet produce the bulk o the Asian rice crop.9

Africa,wherethe33millionsmallfarmsrepresent80percentofallfarmsin

the region, and smallholders produce most o the ood.10

However,accordingtotheIAASTD,over800millionofthepoorestandhungriest

people in the world live in smallholder communities.11 Small increases in

productivity could make a large dierence in establishing ood security and

alleviating poverty in these places.

The usual method or increasing productivity has been to expand into new

land when the old ceases to produce, but that is rapidly becoming impossiblein developing countries, as the expanding population is already occupying

almost all o the arable land.

Instead, recent reports rom a wide range o international agencies, including

the IAASTD, the World Bank, the UN-FAO and other UN agencies, advise that

the best way to increase output or small armers is to increase the productivity

o the existing land under cultivation, rather than expanding into wild lands

that provide balance or the agricultural systems.12 They also agree that sus-

tainable agriculture is the key to increasing productivity or the small armers

o the world. The question is, what is truly sustainable?

The worldstill aces a undamental

ood security challenge The great

technological progress o the past hal

century has not led to major reductions

in hunger and poverty in developing

countriesthe majority o the

chronically hungry are small armers

in developing countries

UNEP-UNCTAD:

Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Ari

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B i o i n t e n s i v e A g r i c u l t u r e : A G r e e n e r R e v o l u t i o

According to the UN, sustainable agriculture can be dened as a system o agri-

culture involving a combination o inter-related soil, crop and livestock produc-

tion practices; discontinuance or reduced use o external inputs that are poten-

tially harmul to the environment and/or the health o armers and consumers

and emphasis on the use o techniques that integrate and are adapted to loca

natural processes.13 The principles o this type o agriculture are:

Economic sustainability through improved soil management and crop

rotation which raises yields, reducing reliance on machinery, chemical ertilize

and pesticides.

Environmental sustainability through protecting, recycling, replacing and

maintaining the natural resources base such as land (soil), water and wildlie

and avoiding synthetic chemicals known to harm the environment, soi

structure and biodiversity.

Social sustainability through more extensive use o available labor, at least

forsome techniques, thuscontributingtosocial justiceandculturalcohe

sion.13,14

In 2007, FAO ofcial Nadia Scialabba stated that sustainable organic agriculture is

A holistic production management system that avoids the use o synthetic ertilizers

and pesticides, and genetically modifed organisms, minimizes pollution o air, soi

and water, and optimizes the health o plants animals and people. The benets rom

this type o agriculture are its reliance on ossil-uel independent, locally-available

resources that incur minimal agro-ecological stresses and are cost-eective.15

provide a nutritionally complete dietand a sufcient level oincome;

produce a large diversity o crops or biodiversity and ood security;

use as small an area as possible, capitalizing on the established efciency

o small scale production;

use open-pollinated seeds, placing ownership o seeds with armers and

communities, and encouraging adaptation o seeds to local needs;

use low-tech human powered tools to minimize the need or economic cap

ital and the use o natural capital (earth resources);

be usable to smallholder armers regardless o their economic status; and

be culturally acceptable, and o a nature that can be passed on to uturegenerations.

A sustainable agricultural method should not:

rely heavily on ertilizers or soil amendments (including compost and

manure) that cannot be produced by the arm itsel;

rely on arm machinery;

require non-renewable resources, such as petroleum;

diminish the natural resources available to the armer, community or globa

community, but instead replenish them and, to the extent possible, enrich

them.

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Feeding over 6 billion people and over 9

billion by 2050 will require a wide range o

creative, sustainable agricultural systems

which not only provide ood, but also actorin the economic value o nature-based

services such as orests, wetlands, and soil

organisms that underpin agriculture.

Simply applying the industrial agricultural

models o the twentieth century into the

twenty-frst as a single, global solution

will not serve us well.

UNEP-UNCTAD: Organic Agriculture and

Food Security in Arica

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Many countries tried to promote large-scale arming, believing that smallholder arming is ineicient, backward

and resistant to change. The results were unimpressive and sometimes disastrous. State-led eorts to intensiy

agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Arica, particularly in the colonial period, ocused on large-scale arming

but they were not sustainable. In contrast, Asian countries that eventually decided to promote small amily arms

were able to launch the green revolution.

World Bank:

WorldDevelopmentReport2008:AgricultureforDevelopment

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B i o i n t e n s i v e A g r i c u l t u r e : A G r e e n e r R e v o l u t i o

Organic agriculture is a step in the direction o sustainability; the same reports

that encourage sustainability encourage organic production. However, wheth-

er organic methods are implemented using mechanized or manual labor can

make a big dierence in the outcome.

The yields o U.S. mechanized chemical agriculture and U.S. mechanized or

ganic agriculture are approximately equivalent. Using either o these methods

to raise all the ood necessary to support the developing world, large scale or

small scale, assuming a vegan diet (no animal products in the diet), would take

7000 square eet (2134 meters) per person.

However, i, as recommended by the previously mentioned reports, an appro-

priate quantity o arable land is let in a wild state to preserve the ecosystems

that maintain the balance necessary or a healthy lie on the planet, by 2014 as

little as 4500 square eet (1372 meters) per person may be unctionally avail-

able or many low income people or arming in developing countries, where

approximately 90 percent o the worlds people will live.

Thereore, i conventional US mechanized agricultural approaches eithe

chemical or organic were to be used by many low income people, as little as

64% o the ood necessary to eed a them might be produced.16

Organic and near-organic agricultural methods

and technologies are ideally suited or many

poor, marginalized smallholder armers

as they require minimal or no external inputs,use locally and naturally available material to

produce high-quality products, and encourage

a whole systemic approach to arming that is

more diverse and resistant to stress.

UNEP-UNCTAD: Organic Agriculture and

Food Security in Arica

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P e r s p e c t i v e s f r o m E c o l o g y A c t i o n8


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Biologically intensive agriculture is a prolic and sustainable method or grow-

ing ood which has its roots in the history o humankind: it was practiced 5000

years ago in Ethiopia, 4000 years ago in China, Japan and Korea, 2000 years ago

in Greece, and 1000 years ago in the Mayan culture. In 2009 it was the method

eatured in the primary case study in the UNEP-UNCTAD report Organic Agricul-ture and Food Security in Arica, with positive results.

Using Biointensive agriculture in its modern, scientically proven orm, at in-

termediate-level yields, with a reasonable buildup o soil quality and armer

skill, on approximately 4000 square eet (317.6 square meters) per person it is

possible to raise:

Acompletevegandiet,plus

All the carbonaceous and nitrogenous compostmaterials necessary to

maintain ertile soil, and

Amodestincome.

Per pound o ood produced, as compared with conventional mechanized ag-

riculture, the Biointensive method has the capacity to use:

66%lesswater,

50-100%lesspurchasednutrients*,

94-99%lessenergyinallforms,whileproducing

Substantiallyincreasedyields,and

A100%increaseinsoilfertility!

The Biointensive method is organic, sustainable, low-input, high-yield agri-

culture, and is already being implemented by small armers in 141 countries

around the world. It truly has the potential to combat hunger and establish

ood security, and to be the greener revolution this planet needs. 16

*Purchasedfertilizersusedarepredominantlylocallyavailablenutrientsinorganicfertilizerform.

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1. FAO, State o Food Insecurity in the World(2009)

2. Gardner and Halweil, Undered and Overed: The Global Epidemic o Malnutrition, Worldwatch Paper

150 (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2000)

3. International Assessment o Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology (IAASTD),

Agriculture at a Crossroads(2008)

4. Ibid.

5.WorldBank,WorldDevelopmentReport2008:AgricultureforDevelopment(2007)

6.UNHighLevelTaskForceontheGlobalFoodSecurityCrisisComprehensive Framework or Action

(2008)

7. E. Ortega, Peasant Agriculture in Latin America (Joint ECLAC/FAOAgricultureDivision,Santiago,

1986)

8.UN-FAO:Smallholder Farmers in India: Food Security and Agricultural Policy(2002)

9. M. Altieri, Small arms as a planetary ecological asset(2008)

10. M. Altieri,Agroecology, Small Farms, and Food Sovereignty. Monthly Review (2009)

11.IAASTD,(2008)

12.IAASTD,(2008);WorldBank,World Development Report 2008;

UN-FAO, ESCAP an UNCTAD publications reerenced previously.

13. UN Sustainable Development Innovation Bries (May 2009)

14. Kassie, M. and Zikhali, P. Brie on Sustainable Agriculture. UN Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable

Land

Management & Agricultural Practices in Arica: Bridging the Gap between Research & Farmers(2009)

15. ISIS report: FAO Promotes Organic Agriculture. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FAOPromotesOrganicAgri-

culture.php

16. Inormation in these sections developed by Ecology Action, Willits CA

Front Cover: Mural image rom the Inter-American Institute or Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) Center,

Costa Rica.

The majority o images in this perspective paper courtesy o Amy Melious and Cynthia Raiser Jeavons.

Research and design: Shannon Joyner

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Biointensive Agriculture (a Greener Revolution)