By Atâyi Babs
Unsustainable Farming Practices contribute to Climate Change, endanger Food Security, and pollute the Environment. Land grabbing for monocultures is neither saving the climate nor helping farmers and consumers.
As global attention peaks in earnest expectation of a new climate treaty in 2015, the imperatives of sustainable land management has once again come to the fore as noticeable change in land use continues to negatively affect the planet’s configuration. At the October 2014 meeting of the Ad hoc working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action under the UNFCCC, key elements of a draft negotiating text, which will serve as the foundation for the final construction of the 2015 agreement, and the opportunities for action on non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases (GHGs), carbon capture, use and storage; and follow-up actions on unlocking mitigation opportunities through energy efficiency, renewable energy, urban environment and land use improvements in the pre-2020 period were adopted.
This presupposes that devastating effects of unsustainable farming practices such as deforestation and soil degradation which emit large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere will definitely trail Climate negotiations as new climate regime beckons.
Sustainable Land Use is good for the Climate
Land-use change alone is responsible for approximately 20 per cent of global emissions of carbon dioxide each year. These unsustainable practices also have profound implications for the health and well-being of local communities and the ecosystems in which they reside.
Closely linked to these is the on-going large-scale land acquisition by multinational corporations who, with the consent of the state and within the context of poor institutional governance structures, grab lands without free prior and informed consent, displacing vulnerable communities and farmers, with disregard for the rights of these people and the social and environmental impacts.
Issues around land use and management are becoming important and will increasingly gain prominence as Africa continues to be an attractive destination for foreign and local investors. The continual discovery of minerals and more recently, of oil puts more pressure on governments to negotiate deals that are both economically and socially beneficial to the peoples of Africa and this includes the way land is allocated and the consequences it has on populations living close to mining sites and oil fields.
Africa the Next Global Food Reserve
Moreover, Africa which accounts for nearly 60% of the world’s arable land, has a population of just over one billion individuals and records high demographic rates. And with global needs for food security rising, it is not surprising that Africa is seen as the next global ‘food reserve’ and that investors are vying for large portions of land ushering an era of controversial changing of hands of vast swathes of land, in some cases, without compensation to the affected populations.
Huge tracts of land in African countries with access to the sea and high economic growth are being targeted by corporations and indigenous business conglomerates all with the aim of facilitating the corporate takeover of African food systems.
Under the new model, multinationals gain access to fertile land and agricultural corridors on the pretext of tackling food poverty and helping Africa’s starving and needy. In reality, problems are being stored up for the future, as small scale and family farmers are forced off their land to make way for industrial scale crop production which are usually profit-oriented, providing insecure and poorly paid jobs and focusing on producing for export markets rather than to feed local populations.
Conquering Africa 2.0 – industrialisation via LSLBI and GMOs
In many instances, African states are encouraged to revise seed laws to force small farmers to buy seeds and climate-unfriendly fertilisers from corporations rather than seed sharing which has been practiced for generations and ensures biodiversity.
This is reminiscent of the tragic consequences of small-scale farmers’ reliance on fertilisers in India which led to an estimated 250,000 farmers committing suicide between 1995 and 2010 after getting into debt through buying agrochemicals.
Ironically, all these are happening at a time when alternatives to the industrialisation of agriculture are being explored worldwide, and as the realities of climate change are being better understood. Africa is a place where new models of permaculture could meet old models of sustainable farming and cooperation to leapfrog the West in finding sustainable and locally owned solutions to nutritious food production.
While all the land grabbers talk about poverty reduction and food security, the reality is that the path that will have the most positive effect for African farmers and populations long term is food sovereignty. That means ownership and control of land and non-reliance on imported seeds and foods, as well as being able to adjust crops to need.
It might be tempting to apply the machine logic of industrialisation to agriculture and scale it up, on the basis that more food grown equals more people fed. But in reality the problem of hunger is not one to do with volume of food produced worldwide – rather it’s to do with existing unjust systems of food production and distribution.
Climate Change is aggravating food insecurity
As Africa prepares to feed Africa in the wake of a new global climate treaty, climate change is expected to complicate efforts to find solutions to the problem, as it causes severe disruptions to agricultural production systems, the environment and biodiversity.
According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a rise in temperature of more than 2°C could exacerbate the existing food deficit and prevent the majority of African countries from attaining Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals (eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015).
Africa must, therefore, consider other options, such as improving agricultural performance and enhancing capacity, with a view to turning climate challenges into opportunities and facilitating broad-based poverty reduction and food security for all.
In this vein, the land-use sector also has the potential to play a large, positive role in the global effort to address climate change, both by reabsorbing or preventing the release of carbon dioxide and by building robust ecosystems that support adaptation to the impacts of climate change.
Sustainable land-management practices such as conservation agriculture, intercropping and sustainable forestry can provide multiple benefits such as reducing erosion, building soil fertility and structure, improving water quality and buffering against drought.
Africa’s Potential
Africa has the potential to rise to the challenge and reverse the perennial food deficit scenario. Given the continent’s vast land resources suitable for agriculture and ample freshwater bodies, Africa could transform its agricultural production systems. If African farmers were empowered with appropriate legislations, climate change information and knowledge, they would be able not only to produce food for themselves and their families but also to set up businesses and earn an income.
In addition, by spreading climate knowledge, losses resulting from storage, high transport costs and poor processing and retailing practices could be reduced.
Focusing on agricultural value chains, rural entrepreneurship and information and communications technology could also bring lucrative employment opportunities to rural areas and curb the rate of youth rural-urban migration. Attracting and retaining young people in the agricultural sector is critical for enhancing the performance and sustainability of agriculture.
Enhanced agricultural performance cannot be achieved without investing in clean and efficient energy. Equally important is a better understanding of the agriculture, energy and water nexus, and of how Africa can harness ecosystems and natural capital to feed itself.
Also, policy frameworks that recognise the strategic importance of land and encourage its efficient use in Africa’s efforts for structural transformation, industrialisation and inclusive development must be drafted and implemented at all levels. Such frameworks will equip African countries and enable them to manage land in a transparent and sustainable manner and to negotiate investments with knowledge of resources available on one land as well as the rights attached to it.
It is hoped that the recently launched African Union-led Guiding Principles on Large Scale Land Based Investments (LSLBI) will help in facilitating national land policy development and implementation process as well as improve the governance of large-scale land based investments.
The guiding principles should be based on human rights of communities, responsible governance of land, social acceptance by affected communities, gender equality and women access to land ownership, cost-benefits study and mutual accountability. They should also be aligned to national strategies for sustainable agriculture.
As new treaty beckons in Paris, will these negotiations signal the end of land grabbing for monoculture and unsustainable farming practices aggravating climate crisis and usher in a flamboyant future for African farmers where land and food rights are equally guaranteed?
