Tag Archive for: Agroecology

Agroecología pretende desplazar los agroquímicos: Cabrera

En el marco del “Intercambio de experiencias para la transición agroecológica” realizado este 28 y 29 de febrero en el edificio de Gestión del Conocimiento ubicado en la Ciudad del Conocimiento, dijo que ese proyecto es para que se extienda a todo el sector agrícola del estado para desplazar el empleo de fertilizantes e insecticidas del sector industrial y sus ingredientes afectan al suelo, forman parte de lo que crece como alimento humano y hay investigación científica que demuestra no ser recomendable.

La investigadora sinaloense detalló que el grupo de los 100 campesinos son parte dl programa de Estrategia de acompañamiento técnico del programa para el Bienestar, financiado por el Conacyt, proyecto denominado “Faros Agroecológicos”, en las que se empelan técnicas sustentables con el ambiente “para sustituir poco a poco” los agroquímicos, causantes de suelos infértiles.

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Strong El Nino Affects Southern Africa: How Creating Landscape and Farmer Resiliency to Shocks is Going to Help us all Keep Moving

Year after year we realize that the extreme weather patterns are making it hard for farmers to make ends meet from their landscapes.

In a report on Southern Africa the main areas of concern that are being hard hit are Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, Southern and central Mozambique and southern Madagascar.  These areas will be in deficit of food supplies and its anticipated to get to early 2025.

I am in western Zimbabwe, Hwange where I am engaged with communal farmers working on regenerative projects together. We are currently in an unprecedented dry spell in the midst of a growing season!  Reports show that a great population will be in lack of food this year in our country, quoting about 2.8 million people. The rains delayed, the temperatures were soaring, wildlife, people and livestock were all desperate for the smallest shower we could get from the skies. We have a very short growing season, that starts in mid November to mid-March, and this 2023/2024 we have only had precipitation for 9 days, and a long dry spell, of 15 days (and it looks like we are still counting).

Most of the farmers where we are working are in an already challenging environment, we are located in rainfall region 4&5 (barely enough rainfall per year anyways) and on mostly Kalahari sandy soil areas, that easily lose moisture if there are long dry spells and leach all the nutrients should there be excessive downpours of rain. It is unfortunate that we are living in the times where both events are a norm. As such, every small effort to create resiliency on the landscape, crop lands and the broader ecosystem becomes one of the greatest priorities of our time.

All regenerative efforts like Agroecology, organic farming, permaculture, and so on are so important to relieve stress in events like this. Regeneration in at the core meant to help farmers manage the complexity that is involved with living systems work. The odds are never predictable, and with the ever advancing climate crisis- the shocks are almost inevitable. Our  networks are doing the very best moves to pressure the powers that be to make policies and plans that will finally see us moving ahead with confronting climate emergency. While this effort is important, we also celebrate the brave efforts of being able to work at policy levels while building strong farmer movements to create capacity to small holder farmers across the region for such times.

In our region, I have witnessed in the last week, chances of total crop failure rising to nearly 90 percent. If it doesn’t rain in the next few days, for those on sandy soils, it’s game over. Those that did not apply ecological principles on their plots, have already counted their losses. The farmers that used livestock manure, mixed crop still have a spark of hope that some legumes and smaller traditional grains might wake up at the smell of a light shower. And so the wait continues.
Below are some crop field photos taken on 6th February 2024:

A devastated crop- in scorching heat, and a loss that will probably never bounce back should the rains delay further. Besides, it’s past fruiting season and the plants are stunted in growth.

 

A hopeful crop, albeit late for fruiting, the color and strength shows that some ecological principles and early planting can buy a bit of time and give a farmer the smallest chance to get a harvest.

Grazing lands are what will carry most of the households, that is if farmers continue to hold strong on the plans we created. Otherwise, in panic some farmers are letting their animals wander off to their prime dry season paddocks in a bid to speed up great condition. However, they do not realize that this action is at the expense of their animals condition in the face of a longer and  harder non growing (or dry) season. Livestock becomes an important back up plan for the community in times like this, because one animal can be sold to buy staple food from neighboring communities with better soils. Some legumes will survive and balance up local nutrition.
Below are some photos of the landscape comparisons. Pictures taken on 06 Feb, 2024.

A prime paddock that has been exposed to consistent grazing, not recovering, will be overgrazed and will not be able to carry any livestock when needed the most (in the 8 months of dry season).

 

A sufficiently grazed paddock, farmers have pulled out livestock for its recovery. Once it rains, a little bit of moisture will give them a chance to regrow forage.

 

A paddock that has had about 2 months without animals in it, growth could have been much taller but rainfall has been so limited. The farmers will still have something to fall back on for their livestock.

Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems: 10th Anniversary Collection

Celebrating 10 years of Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems

Ten years ago we opened Volume 37, Issue 1, with an editorial that announced the change of the name of the journal from the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture to Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems-ASFS (Gliessman 2013). For the past 10 years, our journal has been at the forefront of scholarly publishing in the “Agroecology Movement.” It has been our goal to help define what this movement is about, to advance scholarship at the cutting edge of transdisciplinary research, and to learn with and from peasants, Indigenous peoples, smallholders, and workers across the food system who are leading the way in transforming food systems worldwide toward justice and sustainability. At the time of the name change, the ecological foundations for agroecology had received much scientific attention, but the social and political components—where change is most needed—remained ill-defined and largely ignored by the Western scientific establishment. It became our journal’s goal to link research, practice, and social change.

To celebrate 10 years of ASFS, in this special collection, we have gathered some of our most-read and most-cited papers from the decade, as well as several “editors picks” we feel exemplify the agroecological focus the journal promotes. The collection will be available open access for the next six months, and we hope you will read and share the articles, reviews, and editorials with your colleagues, students, co-organizers, and more. We also invite you to consider contributing to ASFS in the future, as we look to continuously advance agroecology scholarship rooted in a commitment to transformative food systems change and in solidarity with diverse communities who advance agroecology every day in thinking and practice.

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Press Release: A New Tool to Track Agroecology Funding Streams

Faced with the combined climate, food security and biodiversity crises, there is a growing interest in agroecology. Until today, however, we could not easily track the volume and quality of these funds globally and were left with the question: how much money is actually invested in agroecology?

At a crucial junction for international discussions around how to make our food systems truly sustainable, during the Committee on World Food Security (October) and ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai (December), a new tool has just been launched today. The tool had previously been presented at the Agroecology Donors Convening in Rome on 21st October, gathering governments, donors and investors.

The new Agroecology finance assessment tool, aiming at improving the tracking and assessment of funding streams for agroecology, is founded on an innovative methodological framework.

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Exploring the connections between Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture

Food security is one of a human being’s most basic needs, and the threat of food insecurity causes primal anxiety. Food insecurity is among the main causes of climate-related migration and, in turn, one of the main causes of the growing insecurity of nations.

With these vulnerabilities so raw, it’s no wonder people worldwide are questioning their food supply or that worldwide concern is surging about an industrial food system that feeds climate change and causes political instability – not to mention a system that weakens our immune systems and Nucauses serious nutrition-related health conditions and diseases.

It should also be no surprise that there is rapidly scaling curiosity about alternative food systems that don’t ride roughshod over human rights; about systems that keep people and the planet safe and healthy. And yet it can be confusing to understand the similarities and differences between these alternative systems. Let’s take a look at two approaches: Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture.

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La agroecología ha llegado para quedarse

La agroecología surgió en Latinoamérica, hacia finales de la década de 1970, como una respuesta a la crisis ecológica y los problemas sociales y medioambientales generados por la agricultura indiustrializada. Desde su origen, estuvo ligada a movimientos campesinos, ambientalistas y otros que luchan por conseguir la soberanía alimentaria y la justicia social. La finalidad de la agroecología, como ciencia, práctica y movimiento social, es establecer formas de producción y consumo alternativas al modelo productivo agroindustrial, y que apunten hacia una agricultura socialmente más justa, económicamente viable y ecológicamente apropiada.

La introducción de la agroecología en los espacios académicos y políticos no ha sido fácil. Durante las primeras décadas, las personas relacionadas con el incipiente sector fueron ignoradas, cuando no ridiculizadas, por la corriente dominante, y tildadas de ilusas, predicadoras, radicales, charlatanas o calificativos peores.

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Por qué creemos que la agroecología puede arreglar nuestros sistemas alimentarios

Todos sabemos que no hay fórmulas mágicas que puedan hacer frente a la confluencia de crisis a las que nos enfrentamos actualmente en nuestro planeta: hambre, degradación generalizada de la tierra y los recursos hídricos, pérdida catastrófica de biodiversidad y el cambio climático. No obstante, la agroecología es un enfoque que puede abordar estos retos de forma sistémica mediante el desarrollo de un conjunto de soluciones localmente relevantes a través del apoyo a la innovación local a escala. Tiene el potencial no solo de hacer frente a la crisis alimentaria mundial actual, sino también de aportar soluciones a largo plazo a otros problemas medioambientales y sociales, como la pérdida de biodiversidad, la pobreza y la inequidad de género.

¿Parece demasiado bueno para ser verdad? Vamos a explicarlo: Lo que hace única a la perspectiva agroecológica es que se propone explícitamente abordar múltiples retos al mismo tiempo.

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AFSA Urges African Climate Leaders: Prioritise Agroecology, Food Sovereignty and Biodiversity Conservation Now!

As members of the Africa Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), we represent the largest social movement made up of farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous communities and societal organizations civil society across the continent. As the 2023 Africa Climate Week (ACW) takes place from September 4-8, 2023 in Nairobi, and runs alongside the September 4-6 African Climate Summit, both hosted by the Government of Kenya, we take this moment to highlight the importance of sustainable, people-centered and African-led solutions to address the urgent climate crisis.

While these platforms provide vital opportunities to discuss climate solutions across various sectors, it is disheartening to recognize that the relentless impacts of the climate emergency continue to reverberate across Africa. Every day, rising temperatures, floods, storms, droughts and land degradation disproportionately affect small-scale food producers and communities, amplifying their vulnerabilities. Faced with the urgency of adapting and preserving their livelihoods and the subsistence of their families, the need for increased support becomes essential.

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La agroecología, un camino hacia la agricultura sustentable

La agroecología es un nuevo enfoque y paradigma de la agricultura que ha surgido como respuesta a los problemas ambientales y sociales derivados de la agricultura moderna, la cual, si bien ha aumentado los volúmenes producidos de alimentos, ha provocado importantes impactos ambientales: erosión de suelo, contaminación, pérdida de biodiversidad, desforestación, como así también problemas sociales: de salud de trabajadores y consumidores, marginación de productores y erosión cultural.

Entre sus definiciones, se la considera como ciencia, práctica y movimientos sociales. Como ciencia, incluye el estudio integrador de la agronomía y la ecología de todo el sistema alimentario, en sus dimensiones ecológica, económica y social. Como conjunto de prácticas agrícolas, la agroecología busca formas de mejorar los sistemas agrícolas aprovechando los procesos naturales, rescatando interacciones biológicas beneficiosas y sinergias entre los componentes del agroecosistema y minimizando el uso de insumos externos sintéticos aprovechando los servicios ecosistémicos que brinda la naturaleza.

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Corporaciones se adueñan de los sistemas alimentarios y de los recursos naturales de África

Las empresas transnacionales son compañías que tienen su registro en países del Norte Global, pero también cuentan con subsidiarias o filiales en países del Sur Global. Estas empresas a menudo se benefician de la disponibilidad de recursos naturales y mano de obra económica en los países del Sur Global, así como también se aprovechan de las leyes laborales débiles que son comúnmente encontradas en las naciones en desarrollo.

África ha sido y continúa siendo afectada por las acciones negativas de las empresas transnacionales en relación con el trabajo, la alimentación, el medio ambiente y muchos otros aspectos. Estas consecuencias han tenido un impacto significativo en la región, generando problemas que persisten hasta el día de hoy. África se ha convertido en una nueva frontera para los negocios, lo cual se puede observar a través de la presencia de muchas empresas multinacionales que operan en el continente.

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Tag Archive for: Agroecology

Integrando saberes, para la transición agroecológica

LA MESA DIRECTIVA 22-24 DE LA SOCIEDAD MEXICANA DE AGROECOLOGIA A.C., INVITAN A ORGANIZACIONES SOCIALES, PERSONAS PRODUCTORAS, ACADÉMICAS, TÉCNICAS ASI COMO ESTUDIANTES A NUESTRO TERCER CONGRESO NACIONAL DE AGROECOLOGÍA A DESARROLLARSE EN LA CIUDAD DE SAN LUIS POTOSÍ S.L.P. DEL 23 -27 DE SEPTIEMBRE 2024
CONFERENCIAS MAGISTRALES, PONENCIAS ORALES Y CARTELES, SIMPOSIOS Y FOROSATO CORRESPONDIENTE Y SUBIRLO EN LUGAR DE RECIBO DE PAGO
  • No habrá más prórroga por lo cual sugerimos NO esperar la fecha límite dado que se cerrarán las recepciones en caso de saturarse los espacios considerados para ponencias y carteles.
  • Para quienes cumplieron en tiempo y forma la fecha de envío al 15 y 30 de enero les serán enviados los dictámenes correspondientes antes del 30 de marzo. 
  • A quienes reciban dictámenes positivos, favor de seguir las instrucciones de pago publicadas en este mismo sitio. Hasta recibir su pago se incluirán sus propuestas al programa definitivo. Gracias