Perspectives: Strengthening people’s knowledge

For the past half century agricultural innovation has denied a voice to the many groups who work outside the profession of science – farmers, food providers, women and the urban poor. The value of their expertise gained through practical experience must be recognised in the production and validation of knowledge.

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The world’s largest safety net for family farmers?

India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the largest public-works based employment programme in the world. Unanimously enacted by the Indian parliament in 2005, implementation began in February 2006. With an annual budget of six billion US dollars, it now supports some fifty million rural people – larger than the population of Senegal, Mali and Niger combined. This article focuses on the successes, issues and potential of the Act to improve the well being of workers and family farmers.

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SRI in Bihar: From one to 350,000

Farmers in Bihar were initially sceptical when they heard about the System of Rice Intensification, five years ago. Only one farmer decided to try it. From then, first by word of mouth and now with government support,

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Kaluchi Thakarwadi: Rejuvenated landscape, rejuvenated lives

Kaluchi Thakarwadi is a small, remote settlement in the district of Ahmednagar, in Maharashtra, in the semi-arid zone in the rain shadow of India’s western mountains. Rainfall is unreliable, so there is chronic water scarcity, with recurring shortages of food and fodder. Six years ago a broad watershed management programme was established, which has already had an enormous impact: a transformation from desert to a replenished watershed.

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Nourishing the World Sustainably: Scaling Up Agroecology

The paper contains 12 different case studies and chapters on agroecology; other sustainable farming methods;  agroecology and resilience to climatic changes; evidence of the food security potential of agroecological systems; the scaling up of agroecological innovations, with challenges and opportunities; the approaches that can be used for scaling up agroecology ; conclusions and way forward.

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The Real Green Revolution: Organic and Agroecological farming in the South

This report highlights some of the opportunities and challenges of establishing an organic farming movement that “can increase food security, reduce poverty and protect environmental resources” in the Southern hemisphere. Even though the report asserts that government policies are still needed to encourage the extension of organic farming, several positive trends are identified through a number of worldwide case studies.

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Whose “clean” development? Communities Speak Out

Three case studies from India, Philippines and Thailand on Clean Development Mechanism:

Our analysis, and that of many communities and organisations across Asia, is that the CDM is an extension of the generalised approach to big project and energy intensive development that has systematically marginalised indigenous peoples and local communities and over- exploited the Earth. The “clean development mechanism” is, quite simply, a mechanism that allows polluters to avoid binding emissions reductions in one location, while shifting emissions to another location. At the same time, it allows corporations and state entities to reap additional profits from projects that are questionable in terms of sustainability, community benefits or even addressing climate change.

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