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Role of Agroecology in Nutrition and Food Security

David Amudavi (PhD)

Executive Director, Biovision Africa Trust

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Agroecology for Increased Nutrition and Food Security in Eastern Africa (ANFEA Project)

The US Mission to the African Union (USAU) Project is aligned to the African Union’s declaration of 2022 as the Year of Nutrition under the theme: Strengthening resilience in nutrition and food security on the African continent: Strengthening Agro-food systems, health, and social protection systems for the acceleration of human, social and economic capital development.

Focus Areas:

Knowledge generation and dissemination (south-south learning through food security research)
Advocacy for increased commitment and nutrition investment) and
Partnerships and mutual accountability platforms for harmonized action and transparency

The Goal for the project is to create awareness and better understanding among policymakers (and practitioners, technocrats and development partners) on how Agroecology is contributing to nutrition and food security and hence, stimulate discussion and debate among them about its benefits.

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Rapid Assessment of Contribution of Agroecology to Nutrition and Food Security

Conducted by BvAT and Millennium Institute of Washington, DC.
Conducted in Eastern Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Methodology: Participatory workshops, and systems thinking and modelling approach

Content for modelling derived from rich insights by partners:

Understanding of Agroecology and its contribution to food nutrition and security
Resilience of agroecology versus external input (chemical) agriculture
Policies, drivers, and constraints of farmer agroecology adoption
Development of a “mental model” of farmers as adopters or potential adopters of agroecology
Revisiting the narrative of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
Validation workshop was done on 17^th October 2023 and attended by 40 participants from eastern Africa

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How does agroecology contribute to nutrition and food security?

Common things arising from the countries:

Improves soil health

Promotes diversity in systems and enterprises

Promotes indigenous seed and knowledge

Enhances diversity of nutritious diets

Increases incomes for farmers

Improves resilience of agriculture and food systems

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How does agroecology contribute to nutrition and food security?

Unique contributions from the countries:

Revival of traditional and indigenous crops for resilience purposes, e.g., sorghum, millets, cassava, arrowroots, and legumes. (So called Orphan crops – but they Opportunity Crops)

Optimizes crop selection, adaption and production to local conditions.

Modifies microclimates and macroclimates to support growth of diverse species.

Insurance against crop production shocks due to its resilience and diverse nature, contributing to food security.

Revival and promotion of cultural practices and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK) related to Agriculture and food production.

Strengthens the role of women in household food and nutritional security, recognizing their crucial contributions to Agriculture and nutrition.

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Agroecological Products

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Systems Thinking and Modeling as our approach for the rapid assessment

Systems Thinking, what is it?

“a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns rather than static snapshots.” Peter Senge

A primary tool of systems thinking is the Causal Loop Diagram (CLD)

CLDs layout the causal chains and feedback loops underlying system change

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Systems models for assessment of agroecology, nutrition and food security

Building consensus on agroecology, its impacts, tradeoffs, and policies for scaling up

Provide focus for identifying data needs

Provide foundation for formal simulation modeling

Adds value in and of itself for communication and policy insight

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�Why use the Systems Thinking/CLD approach for the assessment?�

Building consensus on agroecology, its impacts, tradeoffs, and policies for scaling up

Provide focus for identifying data needs

Provide foundation for formal simulation modeling

Adds value in and of itself for communication and policy insight

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Nutrition and food security in agroecology systems - CLD

“Farmers are grappling with shocks that made fertilizer scarce and unaffordable, diminishing harvests, raising food prices and spreading hunger.”

“dependence on vital products from dominant suppliers yields widespread danger when shocks emerge.”

(New York Times, 15 October 2023)

Policies

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Agroecology impacts on climate change, changing a carbon source to a sink - CLD

Policies

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Agroecology vs. synthetic chemical-based agriculture - CLD

Policies

This is a system of feedback loops that show possible transition from agri-chemical agriculture to agroecology. The transition presents some important challenges, for instance, if Adoption of agroecology increases, use of agri-chemicals will decrease, yields may decrease for a time and labor requirements may increase, both loop reducing the farmers’ Perceived benefit from agroecology. However, Adoption of agroecology and reduced used of agri-chemicals will boost and nurture Ecosystem services to agriculture which could hep increase yields in the longer run. When it comes to yields adopting agroecology may mean a tradeoff of short term for longer term benefits. The big questions from this diagram are: (1) does agroecology require greater labor input? If so, is this a problem or is it an employment opportunity? And (2) do short term yields necessarily go down when agroecology is I its first few years of adoption?

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Policies for agroecology adoption

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A threat to agroecology adoption

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Identification of data needs

Production cost of agroecology compared to conventional systems

Labor needs of agroecology compared to conventional systems

Yields of agroecology compared to conventional systems

How agroecology yields are likely to improve over time (in response to soil improvement and learning of agroecological practices)

What, if any, can agroecological production attract premium prices?

OTHERS THAT COME TO MIND?

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Identification of research needs

Quantification of agrochemical effects on soil organic matter, biodiversity, other components of natural capital, and how this progresses over time.

Innovative policies to support agroecology farmers during transition period.

Innovative policies to subsidize agroecology, perhaps in part with proceeds from taxation on agrochemical inputs.

Time lags to achieve agroecology benefits, e.g., soil organic matter, soil water, pollinators, etc.

Factors influencing farmers’ willingness to adopt agroecology.

OTHERS THAT COME TO MIND?

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Conclusion

Agroecology is being revisited for its contribution to food nutrition and security.

Agroecology has a role in true sustainability and resilience of systems.

Transition to Agroecology requires policies, programmes and investments that support nutrition sensitive food systems.

Data needed to assess and compare agroecology and conventional systems.

Research needed to inform decisions on valuation of agroecology, contribution and adoption by farmers.

Certification and standards of agroecological products and markets require action.

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Thank you