Climate change and peasant agriculture: agroecological adaptive responses

Miguel A Altieri University of California, Berkeley Sociedad Cientifica LatinoAmericana de Agroecologia (SOCLA) www.agroeco.org/socla

The planet confronts 3 interrealted crisis

Economic-financial crisis Energy Crisis Ecological Crisis (climate change represents only one dimension)

Problem? Linear thinking..

System undersatnding

Root Causes of food insecurity and hunger

Food system controlled by a group of multinational corporations
Grain Merchants and retailers (ADM, Cargill, Bunge) Seed and biotechnology Companies (Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont) Supermarkets (Walmart, Carrefour) ADM, Cargill, Bunge- control 80% of grain; Monsanto 1/5 seeds

Average food prices

Profits of food multinationals

Producers
By-pass

Food Empires
Peasant markets

Consumers

Climate change
The IPCC warns that warming by 2100 will be worse than previously expected with a probable temperature rise of 1.8 to 4 degrees C and a possible rise of up to 6.4 degrees C. Hazards include increased flooding in low-lying areas, greater frequency and severity of droughts in semi-arid areas, and excessive heat conditions all which can limit crop growth and yields.

Impacts on small farmers

Most climate change models predict that damages will be shared mainly by small farmers, and particularly rainfed agriculturalists in the Third World. where yields could be reduced by 50 percent by 2020. Agricultural production is projected to be severely compromised especially in drylands. About 70% of Africans depend directly on dry and sub- humid lands for their daily livelihoods. Overall reduction of 10% in maize production to 2055 equivalent to losses of $2 billion per year, affecting principally 40 million poor livestock keepers in mixed systems of Latin America and 130 million in sub-Saharan Africa.

Existing models give approximations

Most models predicting a decrease in food security in developing countries assume scenarios of severe climate change and very little capacity for farm-level adaptation to changes. Existing models at best provide a broad-brush approximation of expected effects and hide the enormous variability in internal adapting strategies among rural communities. Many farmers cope and even prepare for climate change, minimizing crop failure through diversification, soil and water management techniques This points at the need to re-evaluate indigenous technology as a key source of information on adaptive capacity centered on the selective, experimental and resilient capabilities of farmers in dealing with climatic change.

The agricultural challenge for the next decades

Food production must increase substantially and sustainably but using the same arable land base, with less petroleum, less water and nitrogen, within a scenario of climate change, social unrest and financila crisis. This challenge cannot be met with the existing industrial agricultural model and its biotechnological derivations

Features of an agriculture for the future

De-coupled from fossil fuel dependence Agroecosystems of low environmental impact, nature friendly Resilient to climate change and other shocks Multifunctional ( ecosystem, social, cultural and economic services) Foundation of local food systems

Productivity

Low external inputs, high recylcling rates, crop livestock integration

Alta

High inputs, industrial monocultures

High Eficiency
Low external inputs, diversified with low levels of integration
Baja

Low

Specialized systems with low external inputs

Medium-Low

Medium

Alta

Baja

Agroecosystem Diversity

Resilient practices used by traditional farmers

Complex and integrated land use systems use of drought tolerant local varieties Mixed cropping Agroforestry Wild plant gathering and opportunitic weeding water harvesting, soil conservation, reforestation and a series of other traditional techniques.

Key features of diverse traditional farming systems

Traditional farmers have developed farming systems adapted to the local conditions enabling farmers to generate sustained yields meeting their subsistence needs, despite marginal land endowments, climatic variability and low use of external inputs Part of this performance is linked to the high levels of agrobiodiversity exhibited by traditional agroecosystems which in turn positively influences agroecosystem function Diversification is therefore an important farm strategy for managing production risk in small farming systems.

Levels of Diversity
Genetic Diversity: the variety and variability of animals, plants and microorganisms that are used for food production and agriculture Species diversity: the diversity of crop/ animal and species that support production (soil biota, pollinators, predators, parasitoids, etc) Ecosystem diversity: the diversity of the landscape matrix surrounding agroecosystems

BEE-KEEPING

DOMESTIC ANIMALS SILVICULTURE

HUNTING
YUCATEC MAYA HOUSEHOLD

FISHING

GATHERING AGRICULTURE + HORTICULTURE

USEFUL PRODUCTIVE BIODIVERSITY

Weeds (quelites) as food crop

.

San Bartolo del Llano, Ixtlahuaca, Mxico. Quelites. 74 quelite species all useful. Used as food, fodder, medicinals, etc. 4.5 kg quelite/family/month. One hectare of milpa produces 1,5 t/ha of quelite and represents 25% of the total value of maize ( approx 200 dollars).

Edible insects
Ramos y Pino (1989). More than 70 edible species in Mxico (8 orders, 28 families). More than 27 species of chapulines . The great majortiy are collected the maguey worms are collected= incipient domestication?

Gusanos de maguey blanco (Aegiale hesperiaris) y rojo (comadia redtenbacheri)

Chapulines

Escamoles (Liometopum spp.) Hormiga chicatana (Atta spp.)

In Yuanyuang terraced region there was a totally different picture.

Traditional Landscape arrangement in agricultural watershed.

Andenes : 122, 882 ha - Papa dulce - Oca, Olluco, Mashua - Tarwi

Restos Camellones: 102, 442 has. Recuperados: 4, 720 has

Stability of polycultures
Polycultures exhibit greater yield stability and less productivity declines during a drought than in the case of monocultures. Studies on the effect of drought on enhanced yields with polycultures by manipulating water stress on intercrops of sorghum and peanut , millet and peanut, and sorghum and millet, showed that all the intercrops overyielded consistently at low levels of moisture availability (<297 mm of water applied over the cropping season)

Los maces indgenas de Mxico

Grfica de distribucin de algunos tipos de maz segn altura y precipitacin

45

Maiz de cajete

Agroecological definition of resiliency

Resiliency is the propensity of a system to maintain its organizational structure and productivity after a perturbation. This perturbation or shock can consist of frequent stressful events, cumulative or unpredictable. Resiliency exhibits two properties: resistance to shock and capcity to recover after the shock. A resilient agroecosystem is able to still produce food after suffering the effects of a storm, hurricane or drought, or given a sudden increase in the cost of petroleum or external input scarcity.

Diversity and resiliency

Agricultural diversification can enhance the resiliency of agroecosystems y protect production capacity in various ways, including protection of crops against extreme weatehr effects and fluctuations in temperature and precipitation Agroecologically managed systems possess an advantage asa they possess characteristics of vegetational complexity linked to the resilient capacity of theses systems to climate change

Evidence I ( Huracan Mitch-Central America)

In Central America, diverse farms with soil conservation practices ( mulch, living or dead barriers, terraces, etc) resisted more the imapct of hurricane Mitch in 1998 than farms managed under monoculture (Holt-Gimenez 2002). Although damage was significant throughout, agroecologically managed farms conserved more soil and vegetational cover, suffered less erosion, mud-slides and economic

Evidencia II ( Huracan Ike-Cuba)

Areas under industrial monoculture suffered more damage and exhibited less recovery than diversified farms. After the hurricane average loss in diversified farms was about 50% compared to 90-100% in monocultures Productive recovery was about 80 90%,and was noticeable 40 days after the hurricane

% de dano incial a fincas por el Huracan Ike (2008) la coopertaiva Rafael Zaroza en Sancti Spritus,Cuba, escala 1 bajo, 3 alto, ) segun grado de integracion agroecologica ( 1 baja, 3 alta).

% estimado de recuperacion de fincas a los 60, 120 y 180 dias despues de Huracan Ike (2008) en CCS Rafael Zaroza Sancti Spritus segun nivel de integracion agroecologica ( 1 bajo, 3 alto) comparada con el promedio de la cooperativa entera.

Cultivos de cobertura
Centeno (Secale cereale) - 80 kg.ha-1 Veza (Vicia sativa) - 60 kg.ha-1 Rabano forrajero (Raphanus sativus) - 15
kg.ha-1

Soil water storage under various soil covers

Contribucin porcentual de la agricultura campesina a la produccin nacional total en diversos rubros

Agroecological strategies

Polycultur es Animal integration

Organic amendments

Green manures Rotations

Fernanditos Farm
Coco Pltano Remolacha Malanga Col Frijol Zanahoria Boniato Maz Tomate Papa Pimiento Papaya Cebolla Porcino

LER

1.76

Area (ha) Energy (GJ/ha/ao) Proten (kg/ha)/ao People fed by produced energy
(Pers/ha/ao)

40 90 318 21 12.5

People fed by produced protein

(Pers/ha/ao)

Energy efficiency output/input

11.2

Finca Del Medio Jos A. Casimiro Sancti Spritus

Area (ha) Energy (GJ/ha/ao) Proten (kg/ha)/ao People fed by produced energy
(Pers/ha/ao)

10 50.6 867 11 34

People fed by produced protein

(Pers/ha/ao)

Energy efficiency

30

Agroecological principles underlying productivity, sustainablity and viability of agroecoystems

1. Spatial and temporal genetic and species diversity at farm and landcape level 2.Crop and animal integration 3. Biologically active soils and high biomass recyling rates

4. Optimization of the use of space (Agroecological design)

1: org.=conven.

< l: conven. mayor que org. >1: org. mayor que conven.

Casi 300 estudios comparativos de agricultura orgnica/agroecolgica y agricultura convencional

Food Sovereignty
Peoples right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.

The pillars of food sovereignity

Agroecological strategies

Social movements

Land reform Access to land, water seeds

State support Markets. Credit, extension Research, etc.

Ecology Anthropology Sociology Etnoecology Biological Control Ecological economics Basic agricultural sciences Principles Specific technological forms

AGROECOLOGY

Traditional Farmers knowledge

Participatory research in farmers fields

AGROECOLOGY

FOODSOVEREIGNITY

ENERGYSOVEREIGNITY

TECHNOLOGICAL SOVEREIGNITY

RESILIENCY