Small holder farmers in Senegal are embracing sustainable agriculture practises to boost their productivity and income. Credit: Caroline Mwongera/ Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Jun 10 2022 (IPS)

Onions and rice are a conspicuous part of every meal in Senegal, including the famous Poulet Yassa. However, climate change makes it hard for smallholder farmers to grow enough staple food with extra to sell for income.

Senegal is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change from droughts, flooding, sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and bush fires, according to the Climate Change Knowledge portal of the World Bank.

“For some time, we have been facing climatic risks such as the scarcity of rains that persist more and more, high heat and a decline in productivity leading to food insecurity,” says Coumba Diallo, a smallholder farmer from Gourel Baydi village in the Tambacounda region.

Diallo, 47, is the President of the Kawral Women’s Group of Gourel Baydi, whose members have been trained to farm sustainably to beat climate change while increasing productivity and profits.

A regional project is helping farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change which has made agricultural production a gamble. Under the Adaptation and Valorization of Entrepreneurship in Irrigated Agriculture (AVENIR) project led by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), in partnership with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), smallholder farmers in Senegal are being trained in farming as a business in agroforestry, horticulture and rice.

The AVENIR project aims to improve the social and economic well-being and resilience of farming households in Senegal’s Sedhiou and Tambacounda regions. The two areas in the southwest and east of the country are vulnerable to climate change, experiencing drought spells, flooding, coastal erosion and soil salinity.

Commending the project, Diallo commented that demonstration activities had armed her with the tools to deal with climate change, such as using adapted seeds and learning new agricultural practices to increase her crop yields and income while being more resilient to the climate.

“Learning through practice has helped us to have a better knowledge of adapted varieties, a good mastery of fertility management practices, agroforestry and the drip system to make efficient production with good yields,” Diallo explained.

Another farmer, Clément Sambou, co-founder, and coordinator of Startup-sociale in the Sedhiou Region, says the water salinity, silting, loss of arable land and water erosion are major risks in his region. They are tackling these through the adoption of better agricultural practices.

The AVENIR project encourages women and young people to treat farming as a business by promoting climate-adapted irrigation and agricultural practices. It increases the profitability of agribusinesses in the production of baobab, mango, cashew, onion, okra, ditakh, madd, pepper and rice.

The project will benefit more than 10 000 women and youth from farming households and indirectly impact another estimated 35 000 individuals.

“We want to ensure that farmers have increased their ability to cope with the climate risks they face in the regions where they are producing food,” says Caroline Mwongera, a senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mbene Diagne, a farmer from Thioro Bougou village in the Tambacounda region, has found practical training helpful. It’s boosted his knowledge of soil fertility management technologies, especially with moisture conservation techniques in an excessively hot area.

“There is a very big difference between our practices and those current conveyed through the demonstration sites,” said Diagne (29), vice-president of a group of young modern farmers in Tambacounda.

“With these new technologies, there is a reduction in workload for irrigation with better control of water and working time,” Diagne noted.

Farming is Good Business

The project has focused on adaptation and agribusiness after realizing that horticulture was an easy market entry option for women because of the high demand for horticulture products.

“We wanted to create opportunities for women and young people to engage and sell their produce in the local markets,” says Mwongera. “The varieties we selected for horticulture are locally demanded. For example, onion is a big part of the Senegalese diet,  tomatoes, pepper, and okra. In addition, horticulture is a good fit for women and youth with limited access to irrigated land,  which can measure as small as twenty square metres. ”

The project has promoted salinity and drought-tolerant rice varieties. The Senegalese research organization, ISRA and the Africa Rice Centre developed the rice. For agroforestry, quick maturing mango, cashew and baobab varieties have been introduced.

“If you have food and income, you can cope with climate risks. We want the food system to be diversified. That is why we are focusing on the three commodity groups: rice, agroforestry, and horticulture because that helps you to withstand risks better, says Mwongera. She adds that farmers are also trained to intensify their production to grow short-season crop varieties under irrigation.

Farmers get high-yielding and drought-tolerant seeds and are trained using climate-smart technologies and efficient, affordable irrigation techniques.

Increasing Incomes through Irrigation

Farmers have been introduced to affordable and labour efficient water technologies to save on scarce water resources.

“We are now training farmers to use drip irrigation, which is water efficient and has low labour demand, especially for women,” Mwongera told IPS, explaining that farmers have shifted from manual flood irrigation, sprinklers and watering cans which used a lot of water.

Rice and onions are part of every meal in Senegal, but smallholders often face food insecurity. Now a project helps farms adapt to the impact of climate change, Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

To encourage farmers to use water-efficient technologies, the project has introduced an incentive-based purchase programme (e-voucher) to provide discounts for farmers. Farmers get technologies at a fraction of the value with an option to pay the balance when they produce and sell their crops.

A multi-actor platform brings together local actors, producer organizations, local administration, and researchers to help farmers share information and experiences on climate information services and equitable water resource management to improve their productivity.

Mwongera noted that farmers had poor access to viable markets, which meant they could not increase their production if they had nowhere to sell their produce. There is a need for a market value chain that includes producers, processors, transport providers and the financial sector.

“We need market-led development to enhance resilience and profitability of farmers,” says Mwongera noting that the project was also teaching farmers about integrated soil management, proper composting and using climate information services.

“We also provide weather information using SMS and integrated voice through a service provider who gets weather forecasts from the National Agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology of Senegal (ANACIM). Farmers use this information to plan when to plant and what varieties to plant,” said Mwongera.

Climate change threatens Senegal’s social and economic development, which is vulnerable to droughts, floods, and high temperatures, which impact the agricultural sector. Agriculture employs 70 percent of the country’s workforce and contributes about 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Top climate scientists have warned of the urgency of reducing carbon emissions as human-induced climate change affects all development sectors, including agriculture. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather has reduced food and water security, hindering efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals.

“Increasing weather and climate extreme events have exposed millions of people to acute food insecurity and reduced water security, with the largest impacts observed in many locations and/or communities in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Small Islands and the Arctic Jointly,” scientists said. They noted that sudden food production losses and access to food compounded by decreased diet diversity had increased malnutrition in many communities, especially small-scale food producers and low-income households.

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Siamese Rosewood trees on a farmland in Lao PDR - Credit_NAFRI, Laos

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia , Nov 30 2021 (IPS)

The famed Rosewood forests of the Greater Mekong region in Southeast Asia produce dark, richly grained timbers zealously sought after worldwide by manufacturers of luxury furniture, flooring and musical instruments, among other products. But their high value has also made them a major commodity in transnational organized crime.

Now a strategic partnership of international and national government research organizations is leading an expert endeavour to ensure their survival.

“The Rosewood species are among the most valuable species in the world. They are worth tens of thousands of dollars per cubic metre, but because of illegal logging, they were almost wiped out in the Indochina landscapes,” Riina Jalonen, a scientist working with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, told IPS. The collaborative research-for-development initiative pursues research and innovative solutions to the major global challenges of land degradation, biodiversity loss and poverty around the world.

For the past three years, the Alliance has joined with national partners in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam as well as the University of Copenhagen and the Chinese Academy of Forestry to spearhead ways of conserving the genetic diversity of Rosewoods. The project, which is also working to support planting and restoration of Rosewood timbers and galvanize a strong reliable supply of seeds and seedlings, is led by the University of Oxford and funded by the Darwin Initiative in the United Kingdom.

Collecting seed of Burmese Rosewood (Dalbergia oliveri) in Cambodia – Credit_IRD, Cambodia

Chaloun Bountihiphonh at the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute in Vientiane, Lao PDR, has witnessed a turnaround in the fortune of the species since the project began in 2018. “The status of the Rosewood Dalbergia populations have improved and now cover more than 60 percent of their natural habitat, and a seed network has been established. And communities of the project have been strengthened in their awareness of the importance of Rosewoods and the additional income that they can get from seed collection,” Bountihiphonh told IPS.

The Greater Mekong subregion, comprising the countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and China, boasts immense biodiversity, including 20,000 plant species and 1,200 species of birds. The region’s forests provide the natural habitats for wildlife, but also prevent soil erosion and landslides, create essential levels of atmospheric moisture and combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And local communities, including many indigenous peoples, depend on the forests for shelter, sustenance, livelihoods and income.

But deforestation, driven by rapid population growth, expansion of infrastructure, agriculture and mining, as well as forest fires and illicit logging operations, has taken a heavy toll. Forest cover in the Greater Mekong declined by 5 percent, while in Cambodia alone it declined by 27 percent, from 1990-2015, reports the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Rosewood conservation project has focussed on three specific species: Dalbergia cochinchinensis, also known as Siamese Rosewood, is in high demand by furniture makers. Dalbergia oliveri, or Burmese Rosewood with highly fragrant and with a pronounced grain, is popular for woodworking, and Dalbergia cultrata, also named Burma Blackwood, is a blackwood timber characterised by varied hues of burgundy.

The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that 8.3 million kilograms of illegally trafficked Rosewood was seized worldwide between 2005-2015. The top ten source countries included India, Thailand and Cambodia, and the main destination countries included China, Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States. This is also what makes regional collaboration so crucial for safeguarding the species.

“Illegal logging of primary forests has directly destroyed the mature trees and good quality mother trees which produce seeds for natural regeneration and silviculture,” Bountihiphonh said.

The conservation project grew out of discussions with forestry experts in the Mekong countries, who highlighted the issues threatening the valuable timber forests. The Alliance first conducted conservation assessments of the species to analyse and identify the specific threats and conservation needs.

Then, in partnership with Cambodia’s Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development, Lao’s National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute and the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences, two main conservation approaches were implemented. The ‘in situ’ approach preserves the Rosewood trees in their natural environment, for example, in the form of a national park or community-managed forest. The second ‘ex situ’ strategy promulgates the species in a different designated location, such as a plantation or in a seed production area.

However, restoring and expanding forests requires a vast supply of seeds. And so, seed and seedling production are some of the most important activities carried out in forest-dwelling communities.

“We have been helping farmers to establish seed orchards, where trees are planted specifically for seed production. It is the farmers who are interested in producing seeds and selling them. Especially in Cambodia, they have quite an active network of seed producers and seed collectors, and the Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development has really spearheaded this work to help more and more farmers to participate and benefit” Jalonen said.

Seed orchards make seed collection an easier, safer and less time-consuming process than in the natural environment, and have led to substantial economic benefits for communities.

Some of the largest remaining rosewood populations in Cambodia are found within Community Forests – Credit_Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

“People in rural areas are increasingly realizing the value of these species. The species provides two sellable products; timber and seed. Timber takes a very long time to produce, but seed is something that the farmers can collect after a few years and Rosewood seed is highly valuable, fetching around US$200-250 per kilogram. It is something that the farmers can harvest every year for annual income,” Jalonen explained.

The work being done by the Alliance and its national partners aims to benefit seven rural forest-based communities in the Greater Mekong region and reduce poverty in 175 households by boosting earnings from the marketing of seeds and seedlings by up to 20 percent.

“Big Rosewood trees are not widely available as before because of the illegal cutting and debarking of the Burmese Rosewood,” Ou Veng, farmer and village leader of O Srao in Cambodia, said. “In the past, people were not interested to protect the forest. But now they worry about losing it because it’s required for their livelihoods. So more and more people are involved in patrolling, tree planting and fire protection. The forest has regenerated significantly.”

In Pursat, Cambodia, the expansion of a local farmer’s nursery for the sale of Rosewood seed and seedlings increased local employment opportunities in the community threefold between 2018 and 2020.

In the village of Kampeng, also in Cambodia, Soeung Sitha, a farmer described how reafforestation efforts had also acquired a heritage purpose. “Many of our community forest members have planted Siamese Rosewood in their home gardens and farms. They don’t want the species to become extinct. They want the younger generation to use them as well,” he said.

Ahead of the initiative coming to an end in December, Jalonen reflected on what is likely to be some of its important legacies.

“A model for farmer-led seed production for Rosewoods now exists. What has been really successful is the establishment of seed orchards by farmers,” she said. “Seeds are providing incomes and job opportunities and, what is also important, is that it generates more opportunities for women because collecting the seeds of these trees from the forest is difficult. You actually have to climb the trees. So when the seed production is done on farms with smaller plants, it is much easier to collect.”

And the new forest growth will be more robust. “By helping to improve the quality of seeds and seedlings in restoration areas and making sure they are genetically diverse, the planted forest will grow to be productive and also resilient. Under the rapidly changing environment, this capacity of the trees to adapt is more important than ever – and not only for the species themselves but also for the global efforts to mitigate climate change through forest conservation and restoration,” Jalonen emphasised.

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A Dao family sharing a meal in Sa Pa, Lao Cai province, Vietnam. The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) support the Vietnam government’s Zero Hunger challenge. Credit: Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT - Trong Chinh

By Siri Jamieson
ROME, Oct 1 2021 (IPS)

Amidst the verdant hills and remote corners of Vietnam’s rural regions, the growth that has transformed the economy in this part of Southeast Asia in recent decades can be hard to see. Undernourishment among children still results in stunting – even in cities too where overweight/obesity is also on the rise.

UN data shows that almost 10% of the population in Vietnam live in poverty, and this is reflected in malnutrition rates and stunted growth. Smallholder farmers are usually considered the most at risk of poverty and food insecurity. But the outcome of Vietnam’s last COVID-19 lockdown was a staggering unemployment rate that might have pushed up to five million people into poverty – especially the many holding insecure jobs in the informal sector.

There’s been no lack of examples of civil society reacting to the lockdown emergencies. Vietnamese businessman Hoang Tuan Anh, local media reported, even created a network of rice ATMs for the poor who suffered from reduced household incomes during the pandemic, distributing thousands of tonnes of rice. Other private initiatives have sprouted among poor neighborhoods.

But while some initiatives made headlines, the broad issues of malnutrition can only be addressed on a much larger scale.

Food security, according to the FAO, comes “when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to food, which is safe and consumed in sufficient quantity and quality to meet their dietary needs and food preferences and is supported by an environment of adequate sanitation, health services, and care, allowing for a healthy and active life”.  Adequate food is thus not only dependent on quantity but also the quality of nutrients.

Zero Hunger is expected to result in healthier diets and better nutrition to tackle both under- and over-nutrition. Here informal traders in Hanoi sell food on the streets. Credit: Georgina Smith, CIAT

In 2015 the Vietnamese government launched a national action program for the “Zero Hunger Challenge” and in 2018 the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 712 / QD-TTg on Zero Hunger National Action Plan aimed at tackling inadequate nutrition with the aim of achieving one of the most crucial UN Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 target. The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) together with the National Institute of Nutrition, Vietnam Academy of Agriculture Sciences, and other national and international partners have supported the government in this long-term effort, providing research-based solutions to harness biodiversity and transform agriculture, food systems for healthier diets, according to its mandate.

Working with Vietnam Academy of Agriculture Sciences and Zero Hunger Office – the Ministry of Agriculture, National Institute of Nutrition – the Ministry of Health and liaising with private and public actors, it has provided technological expertise to the Nutrition sensitive agriculture project under the Zero Hunger. After several years of research and the identification of issues and socio-demographic factors, Zero Hunger is set to continue its pilot stage and prepare its implementation stage. Expectations are high for a transition to healthier diets and better nutrition destined to tackle both under- and over-nutrition.

As a member of CGIAR – a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in food security research – the Alliance has played an active role in preparations for the UN Food Systems Summit. The focus of the Alliance will be to remind all representatives in the food industry and especially the large corporations and all stakeholders invited to the September 23 summit in New York that the best way to combat hunger is through diversity and sustainability. The key take-home message is that only increased conservation and agro-biodiversity can guarantee the kinds of food that are resilient to sudden change of climate, pandemics and a planet fit for life in general.

Malnutrition rates in Vietnam have decreased in recent years and waves of famine with strictly rationed food belong thankfully to the past. Yet the memories of what made lack of food ‘normal’ are still vivid. With climate patterns now disrupting the recent achievements and COVID-19 accelerating the crisis, there is increased political awareness that food systems have to undergo a dramatic overhaul.

Tuyen Huynh, country coordinator of CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, says the Mekong River – the lifeblood for so much agriculture and transport – is among the key eco-systems most at risk. The river system is increasingly unstable.

“When the climate changes so unpredictably from what it used to be and events become more extreme, then it becomes more difficult to say ‘we’ll cultivate this because the weather is like this’,” she explained. Salination of the water, she added, is increasingly affecting rice cultivation, as it impoverishes the quality of soil and nutrients.

Research on food systems profiles demonstrated that strategies to address food insecurity should be implemented in urban settings as well as rural areas. All across the country, and especially in mountainous areas and in winter, some meats and vegetables are difficult to obtain for the poor.

The Alliance has focused on the link between agriculture and nutrition models and has made sure that farmers are able to communicate their points of view by technically supporting the government in surveys and guidelines using the different languages spoken across the country.

Rather than pushing for simply increasing the production of food as such, governments, farmers, and producers have to think of how to provide more diversified and healthy food as well as improve the quality of nutrients in food. It’s a transformation that is expected as a result of embracing a local perspective of agricultural systems. The challenge in Vietnam is getting healthy foods to both urban and rural settings.

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides can exacerbate the weaknesses of food systems, promoting mono-cropping, lack of adaptability, and lack of response. And the all-important link between food, people, and their culture also risks being severed.

“Rice is the main staple in Vietnam. We mainly export rice and fruit—these are not available in some remote mountains in certain seasons so in winter there is often not enough food,” said Truong Mai, vice director of the National Institute of Nutrition. “Water and sanitation are also a very big issue in remote areas,” she added, underlining how food security cannot be tackled in isolation.

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Local stakeholders engaged in participatory livelihoods planning in Champasack, Laos. Credit: A Barlis

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Sep 14 2021 (IPS)

As incidents of drought and extreme rainfall increase, farmers in Southeast Asia are partnering with experts to develop targeted weather forecasts to work around the threats and, when adaptation becomes too costly, buy specially designed insurance to protect their livelihoods.

Climate impacts are increasing. In 2016, for example, the impact of what is known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) resulted in severe drought and saline intrusion in 11 out of 13 provinces in the Mekong River Delta. This affected 400,000 hectares of cropland, resulting in 200 million dollars in economic losses and food insecurity among farmers. Household incomes dropped 75 percent, pushing vulnerable farmers who had little savings and no insurance deeper into poverty.

Integrated risk management and risk transfer approaches (e.g. innovative insurance solutions) will be critically required for smallholder growers to manage the physical and financial impacts of climate.

A key component of the project, DeRisk Southeast Asia, is to develop a number of adaptation strategies, says Professor Shahbaz Mushtaq, the project’s insurance segment lead at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) one of three project partners. The others are the World Meteorological Organisation and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, part of the CGIAR.

“So the project is working on improved climate forecasts, new irrigation systems and practices, and improving production systems,” says Mushtaq in an online interview. “The underlying premise is that the smallholder growers need to mitigate their risk as much as they can while developing and adopting suitable adaptation practices.”

“Then, the project also acknowledges that there’s a limit to adaptation,” he adds. “Not all risk is manageable. [It is] when it is no longer economically viable then you need to transfer the risk elsewhere, this is where insurance will play a major role”.

ECOM facilitator leads the insurance literacy workshop with coffee farmers in Dak Lak. Credit: A Barlis

DeRisk, funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, operates in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. For example, in a pilot led by the Alliance in one of the provinces in the Mekong River delta, the department of crop production (across levels), extension officers and farmers now sit down with weather forecasters (or meet virtually because of COVID-19 restrictions) to mould a general weather forecast into seasonal and 10-day advisories that target rice producers.

“We really emphasize co-development by multiple stakeholders, integrating information from the hydro-meteorological (‘hydro-met’) experts and the crop experts with the local knowledge of farmers,” says Nguyen Duy Nhiem, DeRISK Country Coordinator in Vietnam.

For example, the representatives will take a seasonal forecast, broken down by month, and generate guidance for specific crops such as: “the best planting date, the best variety to plant and if drought happens, what drought-resistant variety to use,” Nguyen tells IPS in an online interview.

That advice is packaged as a bulletin and delivered using a variety of media, including stationary loudspeakers in villages, paper bulletins or posters and on a smartphone app called Zalo.

The 10-day advisories zero in on daily conditions. “For example, if it’s going to rain on a certain day, farmers are told not to apply fertilizers or pesticides because they would leach into the soil,” explains Nguyen.

He’s happy with the project’s progress. The stakeholders from the hydro-met sector and agriculture sector “understand better each other’s languages,” says Nguyen. “For example, prior to project’s engagement when talking about ‘rainy days’, the agriculture stakeholders and farmers think that rain should be an amount that can be measured in a gauge while for the hydro-met sector that can be any amount above 0.0 mm. The definition of rainy days has been explained during discussions and clearly noted in bulletins.”

In addition, Nguyen says the 20,000-plus farmers who have received the advisories in the past two cropping seasons have been very pleased because the information helped them avoid the impact of damaging weather and make more informed decisions better. If plans hold, other districts and provinces in the region will start developing the tailored forecasts in 2022.

Challenges, according to Nguyen, include the lack of capacity of staff in provincial weather offices to develop the tailored forecasts. Another is reaching more farmers. Although many farmers have access to smartphones, not all of them know how to use them to access the advisories in the Zalo group. Possible solutions, he says, include developing an app or partnering with a telecom company to send messages to all customers in project areas.

In neighbouring Laos, agro-climactic advisories are available for the whole country, in monthly and weekly forecasts, says DeRisk Country Coordinator Leo Kris Palao. The implementation of DeRISK in Laos was linked with existing efforts by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to further improve this system with national partners.

Seasonal agroclimatic bullet poster installed at District Agriculture Service Center in Mekong Delta. Credit: Dang Thanh Tai

The system is automated, he explains in an email interview. Called the Laos Climate Services for Agriculture (LaCSA), the system analyses meteorological and agricultural data from national databases and field-level data collection by local partners. Offices of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry review advisories before being disseminated.

LaCSA can be accessed online through an app (Android/iOS), but for those who don’t use IT tools, the information, as in Vietnam, is also shared via loudspeakers, radio and TV, and community and school posters.

More than 21 000 farmers in Laos have adapted their activities after receiving an advisory. “We are happy with the progress made by the De-RISK project in Laos,” says Palao. “Based on our baseline assessment, most of the responses from farmers receiving the agro-climatic advisories indicated that change in planting dates, use of suitable varieties tailored to the climate condition of the season, and water and fertilizer management were among their adaptation practices.”

Mushtaq says that to further mitigate the ‘residual risk’, which can’t be managed economically through adaptation strategies, his team developed various indexed-based insurance products that are now being tested through a pilot insurance scheme – Coffee Climate Protection Insurance.

“We went to the field and interviewed several hundreds of smallholder coffee growers and industry.” The assessment for the insurance scheme included asking about the biggest risks faced by farmers, whether it be drought, disease, or extreme rainfall, among other hazards. “We wanted to develop products for those risks that are most impactful,” Mushtaq says.

The researcher of USQ adds that if an extreme weather event occurs and a farmer can’t immediately recover from losses, “his production would suffer, it would impact the supply chain, it would impact the roaster, and it would impact coffee production regions. But if farmers could get back on their feet very quickly, it would help the industry, it would the whole supply chain. That’s the underpinning driver for the supply chain industry to co-contribute insurance premiums.”

Mushtaq says he was impressed when coffee growers told him that drought and extreme rainfall are major risks but didn’t want drought insurance because they are able to cope through access to irrigation. “But if there’s extreme rainfall, we don’t have an option to manage that risk, so we want products to cater to it,” the farmers said.

The initial assessment found that farmers have a range of attitudes about insurance — some were willing to pay more than the suggested premium, others would not even consider purchasing, and the majority were in the middle, unsure.

Finally, most agreed on the product. What swayed the doubters was the credibility that USQ and its partners had developed over the years working with the coffee industry represented by the private sector and associations, says Mushtaq. “To me, the most important success factor was the presence of the industry itself. You need to have really solid leadership to drive this agenda. And we were very lucky that we got some really good partners in the coffee industry.”

In stages 1 and 2 of the pilot, farmers and coffee traders will split the costs of the premiums, but in later years, other actors in the supply chain, such as roasters, will have to contribute a portion; the exact division of costs still needs to be negotiated.

Currently, the ‘extreme rainfall’ insurance product is in operation, explains Mushtaq, meaning that if total rainfall exceeds the threshold for the two-month season, payments would be triggered. As the insurance is indexed, the payouts would reflect the amount of protection that farmers chose to purchase.

To get to this point, “we had to run several workshops, and gather a lot of information on how index-based insurance products works,” he says, adding that more needs to be done to increase awareness. Moving forward, the team considers running a campaign to address this, “Awareness is still a problem, and we do need to run a massive campaign.”

DeRISK aims to develop its climate services and insurance products further and work with national partners on policies and strategies supporting smallholder farmers in the region in response to climate risks.

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Several Indian rice-eating states have a diversity of heritage rice varieties rich in nutrition, flavour, taste and texture that have been grown for centuries. Pictured here are farmers with the Jeeraphool variety. Courtesy: Deepak Sharma

By Manipadma Jena
BHUBANESWAR, India, Jun 29 2021 (IPS)

Madhuri Roy left the famous Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, Assam. She had sought the goddess’s blessings for the safe delivery of her youngest daughter’s baby, which was due in a few weeks. Shanty shops lined the temple outside and Roy’s eyes fell on a stack of black rice packets. All through her daughter’s pregnancy she had craved her childhood favourite black rice pudding. But during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown Roy could not procure it even though Meghalaya, her Himalayan home state, grew it.

The temple shopkeeper informed Roy the rice had come from the Jorhat district of Assam, the gateway to India’s north-east. The four heritage rice varieties he stocked, which previously verged on extinction, were being revived by small groups of farmers, he said.

Several Indian rice-eating states have a diversity of local rice varieties rich in nutrition, flavour, taste and texture that have been grown for centuries. Some even come with pest-repelling properties. They were mostly cultivated using grandparents’ traditional know-how that cared foremost for soil health, which the elders knew must sustain future generations.

The Kola Joha or Black Husked Rice rich in nutrients such as protein, minerals that Roy bought for her pregnant daughter also contains the high levels of antioxidant that protects cells, tissues, and vital organs.

With high fibre and low sugar it is an aromatic winter-grown rice native to Assam that has been revived with three other varieties from an almost-lost status to being currently farmed by hundreds of smallholders.

Marketed since December 2020, traditional rice growers are now targeting the burgeoning health-conscious Indian middle and upper class as their clients.

Kola Joha was just one of 24 heritage rice varieties identified and selected, after nutritional profiling, for revival across Assam under the Native Basket brand by Guwahati-based NGO Foundation for Development Integration (FDI). 

FDI’s initiative was recognised and adopted along with similar projects in seven other Indian States and the Union Territory of Ladakh by a project funded by the Global Environment Facility, which is supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and implemented by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and theIndian Council of Agricultural Research though the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

The project titled “Mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity conservation and utilisation in the agricultural sector to ensure ecosystem services and reduce vulnerability”, runs from 2017 till November 2022. It aims to address the sustainable development goals to achieve zero hunger, take action to combat climate change and protect, restore and promote sustainable use of land.

In fact, a report titled The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 by UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO), launched on June 3, highlights croplands ecosystem restoration as a number one priority.

It underscored “restoration must crucially involve the knowledge, experience and capacities of indigenous people and local communities to ensure restoration plans are implemented and sustained.” The UN Decade is building a strong, broad-based global movement to halt the degradation of ecosystems and ramp up restoration and put the world on track for a sustainable future.

The first customer at Native Basket outlet by Guwahati-based NGO Foundation for Development Integration (FDI), which has identified 24 heritage rice varieties for revival. Courtesy: Sonal Dsouza

Local grains regain their rightful place and more

Even before Assam’s ancient rice genes were being tracked and revived, a group of 20 indigenous women farmers in Surguja district of Central-eastern Indian state Chhattisgarh realised the threats to the survival of their traditional rice variety called Jeeraphool, roughly translating to ‘Cumin-Flower’ taking its name from its petite cumin-shape and pleasant aroma.

It had survived — barely.

And only because it was a ritualistic necessity in festivals and temple offerings.

In 2005, the small group of tribal women formed a self-help group to protect and promote their heritage grain. As its popularity gradually increased in local markets, the number of group members grew.

After registering Jeeraphool with Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority of India, the women’s collective then applied, with technical support provided by the Alliance, for a Geographical Indication tag (the Jeeraphool variety is primarily grown only in Surguja district).

It was approved in March 2019 for a period of 10 years. The heritage rice has now found its place on India’s food export list.

The women self-help groups are striding ahead with their success, linking up with companies and local-level government offices to produce and market alternate products from the rice. From 120 hectares and 180 tonnes of Jeeraphool grains in 2005 they have more than tripled cultivation to 400 hectares harvesting over 1,000 tonnes in 2020 in Surguja district. The agricultural heritage has traversed a long journey to victorious survival.

Besides promoting agrobiodiversity conservation, food and nutritional security, and climate resilience, the revival of local seeds has empowered Surguja’s women farmers as it reaffirms their position as repositories of traditional knowledge and has set an example for other indigenous women to fight for tenure rights over farmland they have used since their ancestors.

In Assam, under the Native Basket brand, farmers have learnt to not just grow their rice but to independently handle market linkages after the Alliance, ICAR-NBPGR and FDI aided in registering the brand’s intellectual property rights.

The small and marginal farmers have also organised into Farmer Producer Organisation.

Armed with a brand name, their everyday rice variety, which sells higher quantities, fetched 50 percent more at 1,550 rupees ($22) per quintal. Their aromatic rice brought in up to 20 percent higher. Over 2,000 farmer families are benefiting the whole gamut of activity from production to processing and sale. 

In the eight different locations where the Alliance is working, 19 community seed banks currently conserve, maintain and provide farmers ready access to over 2,000 traditional varieties of different crops.

Prior to the1960s Green Revolution, which was initiated to address malnutrition in the Global South, India was home to an estimated more than 100,000 rice varieties. Most were lost when hybrid, high-yield, bio-engineered rice varieties were introduced. However, in some unknown inaccessible rural corners local rice have been conserved, planted year after year in tiny patches by smallholder custodian farmers for cultural and dietary preferences. These are being tracked and amplified.

Indigenous women, custodians of heritage seeds, pose in their village seed bank in Odisha’s Koraput district in India’s Eastern Ghats. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

Sustaining the revival

It’s not a smooth revival path, however.

“Policy is there but there is a conflict between enhancing production (that promote high yielding varieties and heavy use of fertilisers) and producing sustainably (which is what) traditional farming is. It promotes use of native seeds and organic fertilisers and pesticides. There are few institutional program with multi-stakeholders involving public-private and communities including NGOs,” Jai Rana, the India national coordinator of the UNEP- GEF project and a senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), told IPS.

On how the farming community can be incentivised to bring much more farmland under traditional crops Rana said, “better pricing of produce and assured marketing or buy back systems would work best. In initial stages a combination of subsidy in addition to marketing linkages would be necessary but thereafter getting a good market price would be key.”

Highlighting the importance of a sturdy financial mechanism for ecosystem restoration Eduardo Mansur, Director of FAO’s Environment, Climate and Biodiversity Office, said 20 percent of 4.5 billion hectares of agricultural land on the planet is severely degraded and could reduce food productivity by 12 percent. This, he said, was not because we do not know how to restore it, but because incentives had to motivate farmers to engage with sustainable soil practices.

Mansur was speaking at the virtual press briefing at the report launch of Becoming #GenerationRestoration: Ecosystem Restoration for People, Nature and Climate.

“Disincentives too need to be included in the mechanism for degradation that will penalise systems that are, maybe, lucrative but not in equilibrium with required sustainable use of natural resources,” Mansur said. 

A rich source of protein, iron, fibre and antioxidants black rice works against cancer, diabetes and heart disease. In ancient China, black rice was considered so unique and nutritious that it was forbidden for all but royalty. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

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Farmers like Peris Wanjiku continue to battle climate-related risks at a more frequent and intense rate. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, May 19 2021 (IPS)

Peris Wanjiku, a smallholder farmer in Othaya, Nyeri County, which lies approximately 152 kilometres from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has watched as her fellow farmers have slowly started to sell off their land in the face of increasingly erratic weather patterns.

“For the right price, more and more farmers are willing to give up their farms. We have seen it happen in Kiambu County and it is slowly happening right here in Nyeri,” she told IPS.

The survival of Kenya’s smallholder farmers, who predominantly rely on rainfed agricultural systems, is at stake as agricultural experts warn that farmers are increasingly battling floods, droughts and heat stress at more frequent, intense and unpredictable rates. It has led to severe crop and livestock losses.

Wanjiku said that in a good year, a commercial crop farmer makes between $2,000 to $3,000 per acre from crops such as maize, wheat, tea and coffee. At the same time the price of land was quite high.

“An acre of farm land in Kiambu generally goes for a minimum of $100,000, depending on the area. If I hold on to my acre, how many years will it take me to make that kind of money? We are at a crossroads,” Wanjiku said.

Government statistics show that the country’s average smallholder land size is approximately 1.2 acres.

At the same time the average price for an acre of land in Kiambu County is $323,000 — the third-highest land price across the county. According to the Hass Consult, a leading real estate company, the highest land prices are in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, followed by the coastal county of Mombasa. 

It is within this context that the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has developed 45 Climate Risk Profiles for all agricultural counties in Kenya, with the exception of urban Counties of Nairobi and Mombasa.

All 45 profiles were developed in three phases. The first 15 profiles were completed in 2017, the second batch of 16 profiles in 2019 and the final batch of 14 profiles will be launched this year. 

“Kenya’s County Climate Risk Profiles are brief and comprehensive documents. They highlight priority value chains, farming systems and geographic areas that are highly sensitive and exposed to climate factors,” Dr. Caroline Mwongera, a scientist at the Alliance, told IPS. 

A value chain in agriculture is a set of actors and activities involved  right from the production level to consumption.

“Further, these profiles provide an assessment of the programmatic interventions and the level of institutional capacity needed to help farmers and pastoralists cope with climate related risks and vulnerabilities,” she said.

Mwongera explained that these profiles were developed in an effort to guide and prioritise climate-smart agricultural investments at county level. This is critical since Kenya has a devolved system of governance where power and resources are shared between the national government and all 47 county governments. 

“In every county, key value chain commodities were identified and the most problematic climatic hazards outlined. They therefore detail the vulnerabilities and risks posed by climate risks to people, their livelihoods, investments and the environment,” Mwongera said.

For example, one profile on Kakamega County noted the impact of drought and delayed onset of rains as well as higher temperatures during the hot season and lower temperatures during the cold season and this impact on farmers.

The report then listed adaptation strategies that farmers were using to cope with the changing climate and listed additional on-farm and off-farm adaptation practices. Off-farm activities refers to farming activities undertaken outside of a farm setting such as marketing of produce etc.

Overall, all 45 profiles provide an overview of climate risk issues and, historical and future climate trends in this East African nation.

Kenya’s Food Security report released in January predicted a 30 percent decrease in harvest due to below-average rainfall experienced from October to December 2020.

A similar report released in March forecast below-average long rains from March through May this year and a subsequent low harvest.

Against this backdrop, climate risk profiles give a synthesis of the policy, institutional and governance frameworks that can create an enabling environment for farmers to overcome climate related risks.

Mwongera also said that the latest batch of profiles made reference to the need for a women-responsive climate risk management plan.

For the right price more and more farmers are willing to sell their farms. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Judy Matu, the chair of the Association of Women in Agriculture Kenya, explained to IPS: “Women play a very central role in agriculture. Building climate-resilient agricultural systems requires that women are involved, that they actively participate and are champions of climate smart agriculture.”

World Bank estimates show that women run at least three-quarters of Kenya’s farms. Meanwhile, women were allocated only 1.6 percent of approximately 10 million hectares of land that was registered between 2013 and 2017, according to the Kenya Land Alliance.

“We indeed have the issue of male-dominated land ownership and female-dominated land use. A majority of women farmers do not have the power to make decisions on how land is utilised,” Matu told IPS.

Matu said that at the same time, not only do women farm on land that they do not own, all commercial crops and bigger livestock belong to men.

“Women run farms on a day-to-day basis and they need knowledge on proper farming practices such as agroforestry, organic and conservation farming. But trees also belong to men who decide whether a tree can be planted or cut,” Matu said.

Matu said that initiatives are underway to overcome these challenges, including engaging both men and women in sensitisation sessions on the need to adapt more climate-resilient farming practices. This, she said, creates an enabling environment for women to put acquired knowledge into practice.

Meanwhile, farmers like Wanjiku continue to battle climate-related risks at a more frequent and intense rate. But Wanjiku said that if she could find solutions to overcome these challenges, she would not sell her land.

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Joseph Lowasa Baraka at his vegetable and fruit kiosk in Nairobi. During Kenya’s coronavirus lockdowns traders opted to stay away from congested market places and prioritised more secure digital platforms. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, Apr 19 2021 (IPS)

After Joseph Mandu lost his job because of the country’s coronavirus lockdown, he would still wake every morning and leave his home in the City Carton slum in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. But instead of heading to the restaurant he worked at as a pool-table attendant, he would walk around City Carton searching for odd jobs to earn an income so he could pay for the food his family needed to survive.

“I tried to find something to do because my wife could not understand a fact that I was totally not able to provide for the family.

“With schools closed, all our five children were there in our single room and they needed food, water – which can only be bought – and soap, among other things, that were beyond my affordability,” Mandu told IPS, noting that he also owed his landlord Sh2000 ($18) in monthly rent.

Mandu is not alone in the need to provide for his family.

Blanket containment measures imposed by Kenya’s government to control the coronavirus pandemic have denied poor slum dwellers access to sufficient nutritious food and livelihoods, according to early findings from an ongoing evidence-based study to assess the impact of COVID-19 on dietary patterns among households in Nairobi’s informal settlements.

The study noted that urban slum and non-slum households are impacted differently by the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore differentiated policies and solutions are needed to address food security, nutrition and the livelihoods of these two consumer groups.

The researchers, led by scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), are now calling on the Kenyan government to consider the unique challenges that people living in urban slums face before imposing blanket measures to curb the spread of the disease. 

“Through this study, we have seen that about 90 percent of households in the slums reported dire food insecurity situations, and are not able to eat the kinds of foods they prefer such as indigenous vegetables and animal sourced foods like milk and eggs, which had been more affordable and accessible before the pandemic,” Dr. Christine Chege, the lead researcher on the project, told IPS. The Alliance provides research-based solutions to harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives in a climate crisis.

The study found that more than 40 percent of slum households lack employment and their average monthly household income is $78.

• Scientists collected primary data from 2,465 households in the Kibera and Mathare slums, as well as from middle-income residents within Nairobi city.
• Household dietary diversity scores were calculated based on 7-day food consumption recalls.

The City Carton slum in Nairobi, Kenya. An ongoing study by scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has found that more than 40 percent of slum households lack employment and their average monthly household income is $78. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

So far, the government has turned to policies such as curfews, social distancing and closure of eateries, bars, churches to contain the spread of the virus. As of today, Apr. 19, Kenya has reported over 151,000 COVID-19 cases.  

But the current measures to restrict spread of the virus has had a direct negative impact on livelihoods of tens of thousands of urban slum dwellers across the country.

Generally, slum dwellers live in crowded single-roomed, shanties where a number of households share bathrooms, sinks, and water points. There is little or no space for children to play and social distancing is impossible. 

They also do not have personal means of transport and so many have to use crowded public transport, which includes the use of motor bikes that sometimes carry up to three passengers on a single bike.

For these communities sanitisers remain a luxury. And some people use one disposable mask for more than a week — not for protection against COVID-19 infection, but to avoid the wrath of law enforcers who are reportedly using it as an excuse to distort money, particularly from the poor.

One respondent from Kibera slum told researchers that she was on antiretroviral therapy for HIV but she was not able to eat a balanced diet, as advised by her medic.

These are just some of the reasons why slum dwellers, according to the study, need differentiated containment measures that will not completely deny them access to food and livelihoods.

While the findings note that non-slum households may benefit from a decrease or cap on rising food prices to improve their food security and nutrition, for slum dwellers the solution is different and perhaps more complicated.

Researchers instead recommend strategies and interventions to assist slum dwellers in earning an income as a solution, first giving them economic empowerment in order to access nutritious foods.

“Once they are empowered economically, a second intervention would be towards lowering food prices,” said Chege.

According to Joram Kabach of Twiga Foods, a company that currently supplies fresh fruits and vegetables from over 20,800 farmers across this East African nation straight to more than 30,000 small-scale vendors via mobile technology, there is need for the government to partner with the private sector to bridge the gap between food and nutrition security for slum dwellers, and containment measures for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic period, we observed a sharp increase in our daily turnover from Sh13 million ($18,200) to Sh35 million ($318,200),” said Kabach.

“This means that in line with the government guidelines for social distancing, traders opted to stay away from congested market places and prioritised more secure digital platforms, where orders are made via mobile phones and products delivered at doorsteps with much reduced human interactions,” he told IPS.

In that regard, he observed that the government could cushion slum dwellers by offering them food vouchers, which can be redeemed from structured vendors who belong to structured platforms such as Twiga Foods. The company is also participating in the ongoing study.

Chege said she hoped that the research would influence policy design and implementation to include vulnerable poor consumers in the slums.