Session 3.3 agrofrestry for improved nutrition shono

AGROFORESTRY FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

a missing link in the discussion on global food and nutritional security

Mr Kenichi Shono and Ms Michela ConigliaroForestry Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)Session: Improving nutrition through agroforestry (11 February 2014)

AGROFORESTRY FOR IMPROVED NUTRITION, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERSa missing link in the discussion on global food and nutritional security

KEY FACTS

FAOSTAT 2010 www.fao.org/hunger

• Nearly 870 million people suffer from chronic undernourishment, 827 million of which are in developing countries.

• By 2050 food production should increase 60% to meet projected demand.

• Food price is globally raising, making poorest people even more food insecure.

• With the exception of North America and Europe, the average world daily fruit consumption is under the WHO recommended daily intake.

• Millions of people depend on trees to increase the nutritional diversity and quality of their diets.

• About 2.4 billion people use wood fuel for cooking, mainly in developing countries.


AGROFORESTRY CONTRIBUTION TO FOOD SECURITY

When correctly designed and implemented, agroforestry practices enhance food security by:• Supplying direct food • Providing shade allowing diversification of crops• Supporting animal production• Improving soil fertility and crop productivity• Diversifying and enriching diets • Providing goods and products that increase incomes and access to food

Agroforestry practices could play a crucial role in help millions of people escape poverty, hunger and environmental degradation.

Particularly in developing countries, agroforestry can thus play a crucial role in enhancing smallholder farmers’ livelihoods by strengthening the 4 pillars of food security…


Food availabilityCultivating a wider variety of tree species

makes fruits available year-round, during the ‘hunger gap’ and allow encountering

the nutritional needs of people

Food accessibilityEconomic access to food through income

generated by the production of agroforestry products

Food system stability Ecosystem services performed by trees

enhance the resilience of food production systems, also supporting

staple crop yields

Food useProviding food for home consumption, as

well as charcoal and woodfuel for proper processing and cooking of food

…health: medicines for self treatment; more nutritionally balanced diets.

…well-being: easy access to resources; provision of ecosystem services; incomes.


The potential of agroforestry to contribute to sustainable development has been recognized in international policy meetings (UNCCD, UNCBD, UNFCCC) justifying increasing investments in its development.

...DESPITE THIS...

The many ways in which agroforestry systems contribute to people’s livelihood are still poorly understood, underestimated, and inadequately reflected in most national strategies.

The development of agroforestry is often impeded by legal, policy and institutional arrangements, its environmental benefits are mostly unrewarded, and investment often discouraged by the long time between adoption and returns.



AGROFORESTRY IMPLEMENTATION: MAIN CONSTRAINTS

Concerning contribution to smallholder farmers’ food security and nutrition, the main challenges for agroforestry include:

INSECURE TENURE:• Discourages investment and protection• Lack of clarity leading to conflicts

LACK OF INTERSECTORAL COORDINATION• Disjointed and duplicated policy actions• Segregation of agri and forests in land use planning and regulations

INADEQUATE SERVICES FOR SMALLHOLDERS• Inadequate access to information, technology, finance, market and other resources

THE GENDER GAP• Women often collect fodder, forest foods and fuelwod• Gender gaps in access to land, credit, technology, employment, markets

LACK OF DATA, LIMITED USE OF EXISTING KNOWLEDGE• Lack of data on the role/contributions to food security• Underutilized traditional knowledge


AGROFORESTRY IMPLEMENTATION: OPPORTUNITIES

Actions required to increase the role of agroforestry in supporting food security:

• Promote agroforestry as an investment.• Increase access to credit, technology, extension services and insurance. • Agroforestry education and training for smallholder farmers.• Engage in good governance of rural activities, with no advantage given

to strong stakeholders.• Promote agroforestry through enabling policies.• Appraise and reform unfavorable regulations.• Guarantee land and tree tenure to small farmers.• Elaborate new agricultural policies that acknowledge the role of trees in

rural development and do not penalize small farmers.• Organize intersectoral coordination for better policy coherence. • Strengthen access to markets for tree products.• Formulate policy based on local small farmers’ needs and rights.• Promote research on tree domestication. • Promote assessment of tree resources and benefits provided.


FAO’S ROLE IN IMPLEMENTING AGROFORESTRY

FAO supports and promotes adoption and implementation of agroforestry practices developing policy, legal and institutional conditions that facilitate its adoption and recognize its contribution to national development.

Agroforestry is promoted through multisectoral approaches and is in the heart of many FAO initiatives (i.e. watershed management, landscape restoration, waste water reuse, non wood forest products and enterprises, urban agriculture, etc.)

POLICY GUIDELINES PROMOTING AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES

TOOLS AND METHODOLOGIES FOR ASSESSING AGROFORESTRY RESOURCES

PROJECTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES

KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND AWARENESS RAISING ACTIVITIES


POLICY GUIDELINES

Advancing Agroforestry on the Policy Agenda – A guide for decision makers

• A Guide designed for policy makers, adviser and other technocrats to assist countries to support conditions optimizing agroforestry’s contribution to national development.

• Result of a multi-institutional collaboration involving specialists from various disciplines and coordinated by FAO with ICRAF, CATIE and CIRAD.

GUIDELINES:1. Spread the word. Raise awareness of the benefits.2. Revise the context. Reform unfavourable regulations3. Secure the land. Clarify land-use policy goals.4. Create a new approach. Elaborate new agricultural policies.5. Organize and synergize. Intersectoral coordination.6. Provide incentives. Create clear context fro PES.7. Develop markets. Strenghten farmers’ access to markets.8. Communicate the know-how. Enhance stakeholder informat.9. Include the stakeholder. Policy based on local people’s needs.10. Govern wisely. Engage in good governance of rural activities.


TOOLS AND METHODOLOGIES

Trees outside Forests Assessment methodology

• Developed by FAO in collaboration with IRD, ICRAF and CATIE .

• Aimed to provide countries with a user-friendly and accessible methodology to gather quality and reliable data on the presence and roles of trees outside forest at local, regional and national level for tree resource planning, managing and monitoring purposes.

METHODOLOGY:• remote sensing analysis • easily accessible free (Google) maps• can be applied in any site• requires minimal training and software.

APPLICABILITY:• It can provide a useful tool to assess the contribution of

tree systems on farmlands, and provide a crucial background information towards the implementation of agroforestry practice.



RELATED INITIATIVES: AFRICA

The Great Green Wall (GGW) for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative

• Ambitious programme to fight desertification in around 20 countries through the regeneration of millions of hectares of drylands including the Sahel.

• A mosaic of sustainable land use practices combining agriculture, agroforestry, rangelands management, trees and sustainable forest management and landscape restoration based on:

Activities that improve ability of a system - human or natural - to absorb, accommodate or recover from the effects of a shock or a stress.

Diversified production to reduce economic risks (e.g. crops, agroforestry, pastoralism) Safety-nets (e.g. sustainable use of agroforestry systems, rangelands, production, use

and/or sale of wild and agricultural products collected from the landscape) Additional employment (off-farm labour, small forest enterprises, women, youth).


FIELD PROJECTS: ASIA PACIFIC REGION (1)

Capacity Building, Extension, Demonstration and Support for the Development of Market-Oriented Agroforestry in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam

• Phase I (2004-2007), Phase II (208-2013)

• Focus on development of market-oriented agroforestry system

• Capacity building for gov’t officials and farmers

• Facilitated issuing of land use certificate by local authorities

• Improved marketing capacity through

o Formation/strengthening of farmers’ cooperatives

o Establishment of village enterprises

o Market research information system

• Improved access to microfinance

• Positive contributions made to the project aim of reducing poverty in rural areas of Vietnam

Technical Assistance for Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme



• Nepalese Government programme supported by IFAD since 1992

• Goal - sustained reduction in poverty of 44,300 poor households

• Impoverished communities allocated leasehold forestry plots (1 ha per family)

• Leasehold plots managed to meet subsistence and income needs

• FAO providing TA with Finnish support, focusing on: o Rehabilitation of degraded lands with plants

yielding fodder, food, fuelwood and high value NTFPs o Livestock developmento Capacity building of LFUGs (technical, financial, marketing, etc.)

• Positive contributions to food security and livelihoods while addressing the rights of poorest and marginalized communities

Technical Assistance for Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme in Nepal

Forestlands degraded by shifting cultivation Initial planting with “broom grass” Cinnamomum seedlings in community nursery

Agroforestry landscape Goats provided by the project Women collect fodder, fuelwood and water



Testing applicability of Trees outside Forests Assessment methodology to rice production landscapes in Southeastern Asia

• Project aimed to assess tree contribution to increase economic, environmental and social sustainability in rice production landscapes.

• Developed under I Phase of the FAO pilot Regional Rice Initiative for Asia (2013).


OBJECTIVES:

• Test applicability of the methodology to rice production landscapes and produce a guide

• Raise awareness on trees’ role in rice production landscapes• Build national capacity to apply the methodology


KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND AWARENESS RAISING

1st FAO International Conference on Forests for Food Security and Nutrition

• May 2013, FAO, Rome

• Aimed to increase understanding of the crucial role that forests, trees on farms and agroforestry systems can play in improving the food security and nutrition of rural people, especially in developing countries.

• As outcomes, it proposed ways to integrate this knowledge in policy decisions at the national and international levels.


Thank you for your kind attention

Contacts

Ms Susan Braatz, [email protected] (FAO) Ms Michela Conigliaro, [email protected] (FAO) Mr Kenichi Shono, [email protected] (FAO)


Documents

Session 3.3 agrofrestry for improved nutrition shono