Old and new technologies support climate-smart agriculture
SILANG, Cavite—True to my calling as a journalist, I spent one afternoon digging dirt. Or at least my interviewee—renowned Indian agronomist Dr. Julian Gonsalves—was literally digging dirt to look for earthworms and explain to me how the presence of earthworms prove that the soil remains moist and fertile. Meanwhile, I was busy taking down notes and avoiding the big, fat earthworm that he has just dug up and dangled in my face.
“The organic matter is below the ground. This [garden bed] is full of earthworms. If you have no organic matter [in the soil], you won’t have earthworms. That’s why the forest never has to be fertilized, it naturally regenerates,” he said.
We were at the demo farm of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), a 200-square meter plot at IIRR’s compound in Silang—just a 30-minute drive from Tagaytay. Gonsalves, who’s also IIRR’s senior adviser, was showing me that it was possible to have a “climate smart” farming system without sacrificing productivity, nutrition and farmers’ livelihood.
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) was coined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to refer to technology, policies, investments and practices that can help farmers adapt and be resilient to the extreme weather events brought by a warmer planet. CSA is a buzzword these past few days as agricultural issues have finally been included in the annual United Nations climate talks held in Bonn, Germany, last week.
Agriculture has often been sidelined in UN climate negotiations, with discussions blocked by concerns over its potential impact on commodities export trade and if developing countries will be required to cut carbon emissions caused by farming. This, despite the fact that the agriculture sector is not only major carbon emitter but will also bear the brunt of climate change. The FAO said that agriculture—which includes forestry, fisheries and livestock production—generates around 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. On the other hand, farmers, most of whom are small-scale landholders whose livelihood depend on the vagaries of weather, are the ones who will suffer the most from heavy flooding, severe drought and stronger typhoons brought by a warmer planet.
But in the recently concluded 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, climate negotiators have agreed to have the Subsidiary Body for Science and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation review issues associated with agriculture. Participating countries are also required to work with these two technical bodies and have to submit by March 2018 their views on climate adaptation and mitigation issues, soil and water management, nutrition and food security. The FAO also said that around 90 percent of countries’ climate commitments, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, include the agricultural sectors.
These climate negotiations may be too technical for most of us, but I believe that CSA is now more relevant in an era marked by Instagram foodies, artisanal everything, farm-to-fork dining and health-food craze. More than its price and flavor, we’re now concerned on who and how our food was made and how its production impacts the planet that we live in. Thankfully, there are existing and new technologies and approaches that can make CSA possible and enable us to enjoy a “low carbon” meal.
One such technology is bio-intensive gardening—the techniques of which are being applied in IIRR’s demo farm in Silang. This agro-ecological farming method was developed in the United States in the 1970s and its key components include double dug-raise beds, composting, crop rotation and planting indigenous, nutrient-rich varieties. The aim is to make a small plot of land productive for a long time without exhausting water and energy resources. This is why IIRR’s bio-intensive garden have deep dug-beds that can conserve rainwater in times of flood and release them during the dry season.
Gonsalves showed me one of these garden beds has around 30 types of sweet potatoes —the seeds were collected from different parts of the country. He said having several varieties of one crop keeps away pests and reduces risk from potential crop failure.
Such biodiversity also allows the farmers to keep and continue growing these indigenous varieties—most of which are climate resilient. Remember those “Bahay Kubo” vegetables like sitaw, bataw and patani? These traditional legumes which we seldom eat nowadays can tolerate a long dry spell. Kakawate trees were planted around the garden to protect the crops from strong winds while their leaves can serve as green manure. There were plenty of amaranth (locally known as kulitis), as this fibrous plant is valued for being drought resistant and its leaves, when cooked, are rich in calcium, folate and vitamin C. The garden doesn’t use pesticide or chemical fertilizer.
Bio-intensive farming is, of course, something that can’t be applied to large-scale, commercial farming. But since this was developed for a small plot land, urban and backyard gardeners can use this method to produce their own food with less carbon footprint. IIRR has, in fact partnered with Department of Education-Cavite, the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute and the Canada-based International Development Research Centre to promote bio-intensive gardening in Cavite’s public schools. I will be discussing how this school-garden project helped improved schoolchildren’s health and make them more appreciative of agriculture and environment in one of my succeeding columns.
Apart from bio-intensive gardening, there are other CSA technologies that are developed or being developed—in the Philippines and outside—which will not only cut agriculture’s carbon emissions but also protect farms from extreme weather conditions. The International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños has developed the alternate wetting and drying which can reduce water consumption and methane emission in rice production. It also developed and distributed rice varieties that can tolerate climate stresses like drought and high salinity level. In Singapore scientists at the Nanyang Technological University developed a solar reflective-paint additive which, when applied on a roof of a greenhouse, can block out 90 percent of the heat but allow most of the light in which is essential in growing plants. In India a nonprofit farm tech start-up Kheyti is developing a low-cost modular greenhouse that can reduce heat stress and boost crop yield, while in West Africa the World Agroforestry Centre reported that climate-smart farming techniques like agroforestry and intercropping have more than tripled yields of millet in Niger.
Clearly, there are many ways to practice climate-smart agriculture. But what I think the most important thing to consider here is not just to give farmers more options, but to make sure that these technologies are affordable and suitable to their needs. I also think that in creating new and/or modifying existing technologies, farmers will need to be involved to ensure that they can be widely adapted.https://businessmirror.com.ph/old-and-new-technologies-support-climate-smart-agriculture/
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