Tag Archive for: environment

Covid, Climate, Chemicals and Debt: The Perfect Storm that hit Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, Serendip, the jewel in the Indian Ocean is facing a severe political and economic crisis.

The crisis has multiple roots but has intensified in the last 2 years with Covid, Climate change, the debt crisis, the contribution of chemical fertilisers to debt, climate emissions and climate vulnerability.

The protests we are witnessing now are triggered by an economy of greed, creation of a debt trap and rent collection, rising costs of living and ordinary citizens facing an economic crisis of survival. Such protests  were common sights across the world in 2019 before Covid and the lock down. Recall Beirut and Chile. When the cost of living becomes unbearable, people rise. And across the world countries are being trapped in debt to generate billions for the billionaires and banks.

Sri Lanka is facing a serious debt and foreign exchange crisis. This is a direct result of the Neo liberal policies of corporate globalisation that make countries borrow more and more for the Infrastructure of Profits -ports, power plants, highways, resorts – end up in a debt trap, and are forced to pay more for essentials.

Sri Lanka’s foreign debt is at $12.55 billion with the Asian Development Bank, Japan and China among the  major lenders.

My mind goes Susan George’s book A Fate Worse than Debt.

Over the last decade China has lent Sri Lanka more than $5 billion for the construction of highways, ports, an airport and a coal power plant.

47% of Sri Lanka’s external debt stock is owed to international capital markets, 22% is held by multilateral development banks, followed by Japan having 10% of Sri Lankan external debt.

China accounted for 30% of all Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in big projects in Sri Lanka from 2012-16.

According to Gateway House Chinese debt and equity are funding more than 50 projects worth more than $11 billion. Most are roads and water treatment plants, but the largest projects are the Hambantota Port, the Colombo Port City and the Lakavijaya thermal power plant – all three funded by Chinese government-owned banks and being built by Chinese contractors.

As Amit Bhandari and Chandni Jindal of  Gateway House write:

“During 2017, Sri Lanka’s government spent 83% of its revenues on debt repayment, a quarter of which was for foreign borrowings. The country’s external debt repayments are projected to double from $2.1 billion in 2017 to $3.3-$4.2 billion annually from 2019-22. It is not surprising that Sri Lanka chose to convert some of this debt into equity and hand over Hambantota to China Port Holding in 2017”.

In February 2022, the country had only $2.31 in foreign exchange reserves, too little to cover its import costs and debt repayment obligations of $ 4 billion.

A foreign exchange crisis has led to the inability of the government to pay for imports of essential Commodities including fuel. The dependence on fossil fuel imports has led to an economic crisis, with power cuts of up to 13 hours and galloping inflation after the currency was devalued.

The 22 million citizens of Sri Lanka are facing a crisis of survival, and have risen in protest against the government. Ministers  have resigned. Emergency rule has been declared. The country is surviving on credit.

Sri Lanka’s capacity to pay back its loans with interests was badly hit with COVID. Covid aggravated the crisis.Tourism and foreign workers remittances was one of Sri Lanka’s main foreign exchange earners. The pandemic dried up both.  Foreign exchange reserves plummeted by almost 70 percent in two years.

In 2019, contribution of travel and tourism to GDP (% of GDP) for Sri Lanka was 12.6 %. Contribution of travel and tourism to GDP (% of GDP) of Sri Lanka increased from 6 % in 2000 to 12.6 % in 2019 growing at an average annual rate of 4.28%.

Tourism which had increased from 6% in 2000 to 12.9 % in 2019, collapsed by 70.8% due to Covid.

The Ukraine crisis has further amplified the crisis with oil prices and fertiliser prices rising. Sri Lanka has turned to the IMF, India and China for credit. The devaluation of the Sri Lankan currency was part of the IMF restructuring demand.

In February, India sent diesel shipments under a $500 million credit line. Sri Lanka and India have signed a $2  billion credit line for importing essentials, including food and medicine.

China provided the Central Bank of Sri Lanka  with a $1.5 billion swap and a $1.3 billion syndicated loan to the government. China is considering offering the island nation a $1.5 billion credit facility and a separate loan of up to $1 billion. 

Climate havoc which affects South Asia most severely has also intensified Sri Lanka’s food crisis.

South Asia is economically and ecologically rich due to monsoons. Climate Change is severely impacting the monsoons, and with it agricultural production. According to the latest IPCC report, for every 1% increase in temperature,intense and extreme events related to  South Asian monsoon will increase by 7%.

Since 2009  my writings like Soil not Oil written for the Copenhagen Climate Summit showed that a commodity-based fossil fuel intensive, chemical intensive, capital intensive agriculture and food system has contributed 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate havoc and threatening agriculture

11-15% from Agricultural production,

15-18% from deforestation,

15-20% from processing and long distance transport through global supply chains,

2-4% waste.

“View of central highlands of Sri Lanka ” by Satheesha J., licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

We cannot address climate change, and its very real consequences, without recognising the central role of the industrial and globalised food system, which contributes more than 50% to greenhouse gas emissions through deforestation, animals in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), plastics and aluminum packaging, long distance transport and food waste.

“Food and climate impacts go both ways. Climate change creates significant risks to the food system, with rising temperatures and changing weather patterns threatening enormous damage to crops, supply chains and livelihoods in the decades ahead”.[1] [2]

Unstable weather has contributed to the Sri Lankan crisis.

study published on “Climate change and food security in Sri Lanka: towards food sovereignty” published in Nature argues that promoting food sovereignty could be the key to alleviating  impacts.of Climate Change.

Synthetic chemical fertilisers emit nitrous oxide which is 300 times more damaging to the climate than CO2. Imports of synthetic fertilisers were also a big drain on Sri Lanka’s scarce foreign exchange reserves.

The Ukraine war is making it worse. Fertliser, fuel and food prices are rising everywhere. The Poison Cartel which gains from selling costly fertilisers are using the crises to undo all the steps countries have taken to create agriculture policies which are free of fossil fuels, fossil fuel based chemicals, are resilient to climate change of which 50% contributions come from  the industrial, globalised food system which is also more vulnerable to Climate Change.

In Europe the chemical industry is trying to undo the Farm to Fork policies.

They are portraying the Sri  Lankan crisis as related to a  few months’ stop in import of chemical fertilisers in April 2021. The ban was due to Sri Lanka’s debt crisis. A ban on imports does not automatically translate into policies for Food Sovereignty. Food sovereignty requires transition to ecological agriculture, in practice, in research and in policy. Cuba managed the fuel and fertiliser crisis triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union through a transition of Organic Agriculture supported by policy and research.

Covid, Climate and Chemicals have created a perfect storm in Sri Lanka. The storm could impact any country that is being recolonised by a debt trap. Reclaiming economic sovereignty, beginning with food sovereignty, are the solution to pandemics, climate resilience, freedom from debt, fossil fuels, and chemicals.

The Sri Lanka crisis makes visible the high costs of Covid born by citizens, while billionaires walked away richer by $1.5 trillion.

Sri Lanka makes visible the high costs of Climate Injustice.

It also makes visible the high costs of dependence on foreign investments and borrowing to build costly infrastructure that benefits a few, while most citizens pay a very high price through the destruction of the infrastructure of Life – both the ecological infrastructure of a stable climate, and the economic infrastructure of a guarantee of basic needs.

Localisation instead of corporate globalisation, ecological sustainability and sovereignty instead of fossil fuel intensive, capital intensive, debt intensive economies are the path to peace and freedom, resilience and self reliance  – for individuals, communities, countries and the planet.


Ref.

[1] C. Mbow et al., “Food Security,” in Climate Change and Land (IPCC, 2019), https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/.

[2] Sandalow D. et al., Food and Climate Change InfoGuide, Columbia SIPA – Center on Global Energy Policy, May 2021, https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/article/food-and-climate-change-infoguide.

Reforestar para impulsar la agricultura regenerativa

Madrid (EuroEFE).- La plantación de árboles en zonas de cultivo permite mejorar las condiciones del suelo, pilar básico de la denominada agricultura regenerativa, un sistema de cultivo basado en soluciones naturales que busca enriquecer los terrenos para una producción más «sana y nutricional».

Por ello, en la Finca de La Junquera (Murcia), que apuesta por la agricultura regenerativa, se plantarán 10.000 árboles a lo largo de los próximos meses en colaboración con Life Terra, un proyecto cofinanciado con fondos europeos que promueve la plantación de 500 millones de árboles en la Unión Europa, uno por cada habitante.

En total, se actuará sobre 10 hectáreas, ha explicado el propietario de La Juntera, Alfonso Chico de Guzmán, durante la plantación de las primeras unidades.

La finca, que ocupa más de 1.100 hectáreas, se encuentra en el municipio de Caravaca de la Cruz, en Murcia, una de las zonas más secas de la Península y en riesgo inminente de desertificación debido, principalmente, al cambio climático y las prácticas agrícolas convencionales.

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Agricultura Marina Regenerativa: Las algas protagonizan una historia de resiliencia en la costa patagónica

Las algas, las mejores amigas para el planeta, para tu cocina y mucho más. Conoce en esta nota todo lo que tienes que saber sobre ellas y sus usos con un enfoque ecosistémico, con alianzas que se potencian y contribuyen a la resiliencia en una comunidad costera.

La agricultura marina regenerativa se basa en el principio de producir generando el menor impacto posible en el ecosistema marino circundante, imitando el funcionamiento del mismo lo más posible. Con la combinación correcta de cultivos de especies nativas en una configuración en tres dimensiones en la columna de agua, se aprovecha el espacio y el hábito de vida y alimentación de cada especie. Por ejemplo, las macroalgas capturan dióxido de carbono del agua, al mismo tiempo de oxigenar los alrededores de la granja; los bivalvos, grandes filtradores, mejoran la calidad del agua al mismo tiempo que fertilizan.

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Semillas en peligro

En los últimos 20 años el impulso a la privatización de las semillas se ha plasmado en tratados internacionales, leyes, certificaciones y la propiedad intelectual, que desplaza y criminaliza el uso libre de semillas criollas o nativas.

Para la bióloga Valeria García López, esto sucede en un sistema colonial, patriarcal y colonialista que busca homogeneizar, uniformizar y, en consecuencia, acabar con la vida.

La investigadora trabaja desde hace ocho años con el tema de semillas nativas y su defensa, en México y su natal Colombia, en la investigación de prácticas y estrategias para protección de las semillas en países de Latinoamérica y el mundo.

En su estudio destaca que transnacionales como Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta-ChemChina o Dow-Dupont y Pioneer son propietarias del 60% de semillas comerciales, el 90% de las transgénicas y del 70% de la industria de agroquímicos y de maquinaria agrícola.

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Brazil’s Agroforestry Farmers Report Many Benefits, but Challenges Remain

  • Researchers asked agroforestry and conventional smallholder farmers in São Paulo state, Brazil for their views on the benefits of agroforestry — a farming technique that combines native vegetation with fruit trees, crops and sometimes livestock — and what they see as the barriers to switching.
  • Consistent with benefits identified in past ecological studies, agroforestry farmers ranked bird abundance and soil moisture higher than conventional farmers and reported that trees on their farms cooled the air and reduced storm damage. These farmers were also more likely to be self-sufficient.
  • Many smallholders who still rely on conventional crop and cattle monocultures say a lack of knowledge is holding them back from switching over to agroforestry, but technical support and environmental education could encourage them to adopt this restorative approach.
  • Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s laser focus on offering support for large-scale commercial agribusiness has left smallholder farmers lacking in financial and technical assistance to make the switch to agroforestry. 
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Cultivos, damnificados por crisis de Rusia y Ucrania, productores de fertilizantes

En un abono adicional al alto riesgo de inflación en Colombia, principalmente en el precio de los alimentos, se convirtió la crisis internacional, luego de la invasión rusa a Ucrania.

Hace apenas una semana, el Dane había destapado las estadísticas del alto incremento en los insumos agrícolas, lo que, de paso, motivó al Gobierno a hablar de baja en aranceles para más de un centenar de partidas arancelarias, medida encaminada a abaratar costos de producción en el campo para quitarle presión a la amenaza de una subida de la inflación más allá de la que se pueda tolerar.

Ahora, con la situación que se presenta en Europa, el camino para un incremento en el precio de los alimentos en Colombia está más pavimentado.

El principal insumo agrícola para que el campo tenga la productividad necesaria son los fertilizantes, que, según el reciente informe del Dane sobre precios de insumos agrícolas, habían incrementado en un 46 %.

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USDA To Conduct First-Ever National Agroforestry Survey

Starting next week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct the first-ever National Agroforestry Survey. Data collection begins Feb. 1 and concludes April 5, 2022. The survey will be sent to 11,100 farmers and ranchers nationwide to gather information on the five agroforestry practices used for climate, conservation and production benefits, including windbreaks, silvopasture, riparian forest buffers, alley cropping as well as forest farming and multi-story cropping.

“For the first time ever, ag producers have the opportunity to share the dynamic ways they manage valuable agroforestry resources,” said NASS Agricultural Statistics Board Chair Joe Parsons. “The results of this survey could catalyze important change by helping policymakers and farm groups more fully understand and support this aspect of agriculture in the 21st century. The data will inform programs and policy to benefit both the landowners and farmers as well as the environment.”

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Stories of Agroecology and the Climate Crisis in Africa

“Stories of Agroecology and the Climate Crisis: Reports of Grassroots Innovations by Journalists From 14 African Countries”

The book brings together grassroots stories of good practices on agroecology and its overall benefits in attaining food security and a climate-resilient future in Africa, presenting agroecology as a viable way to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Through agroecology and food sovereignty perspectives, AFSA teamed with pan-African journalists from 14 African countries to depict the struggle, difficulties, hopes, and dreams of climate change adaptation in Africa.

They documented fascinating narratives about the enormous benefits of agroecology in protecting agricultural biodiversity, diversifying rural and urban livelihood options, and ensuring food security in the face of alarming biodiversity, climate, and hunger crises in Africa.

African countries have long suffered the brunt of climate change-related disasters, although contributing little to the cause. Africa’s ability to adapt to climate change heavily depends on its ability to transform the food and agricultural system into an environmentally sound, resilient, healthy, and sustainable sector.

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The 1000 Farms Initiative Investigates Regenerative Agriculture Across the U.S.

The Ecdysis Foundation is launching a study that aims to investigate regenerative agriculture across the United States. The 1000 Farms Initiative is one of the largest projects to date that will gather data on agricultural management practices, soil and water health, biodiversity, and profits on more than 1,000 farms and ranches.

“What this project is intended to do is show that no matter what you grow, or where you’re growing, regenerative works,” Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, Director of the Ecdysis Foundation, tells Food Tank.

The study aims to address the lack of scientifically backed data on the outcomes and benefits of regenerative agriculture. According to Lundgren, support for regenerative agriculture often stems from anecdotal studies and farmers experiences, but not formal institutions. He explains that funds and grants in agricultural sciences tend to focus on the currently accepted system, which happens to be industrialized farming.

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La agricultura regenerativa debe escalar o morir

Semánticamente, «sostenible» puede ofrecer supervivencia, pero «regenerativo» invoca esperanza y, por lo tanto, inspira una visión más positiva. En la práctica, la agricultura regenerativa se basa en un conjunto de principios agrícolas que buscan trabajar con la naturaleza para ayudarla a prosperar en lugar de simplemente reducir sus pérdidas. El enfoque central es la agricultura de una manera que mejore la salud del suelo, porque eso es lo que permite que el proverbial ganso continúe poniendo aún más y mejores huevos a largo plazo.

La agricultura regenerativa tiene múltiples beneficios colaterales que incluyen una mayor rentabilidad agrícola, secuestro de carbono del suelo, restauración del hábitat, resistencia a la sequía y las inundaciones, una mayor densidad de nutrientes y una reducción de la erosión y la escorrentía tóxica. A menos que sea el vendedor de productos químicos, hay muchas cosas que le gustan.

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Tag Archive for: environment

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