ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the effects of neoliberal policies (including the Green Revolution), the urban sprawl (as a consequence of population growth), and the reduction of agricultural areas on peri-urban agriculture;however, the main focus is the forms of resistance against these pressures from the dominant system. Design/Methodology/Approach: Through participant observation, surveys, collection, and botanization we identified plant species, their diversity, uses, and richness. Home gardens in San Felipe Ecatepec, Chiapas, Mexico are a system, which consists of subsystems, functions, composition, and management, as well as a high number of species, high to moderate richness, and a surface that oscillates between 600 m2 and 2500 m2. Growing products next to the house provides healthy and fresh food, creates a useful and productive space, and preserves agrobiodiversity. It is an agroecosystem where each family and sitio or home garden interact with other families and other home gardens, integrating local knowledge and offering a space for families to live together. They can be considered spaces of resistance based on traditional knowledge, which also help to control their resources and to bolster individual and collective food sovereignty. Results: Home gardens in San Felipe Ecatepec, Chiapas, Mexico are a system, which consists of subsystems, functions, composition, and management, as well as a high number of species, high to moderate richness, and established on surfaces that oscillates between 600 m2 and 2,500 m2. Study Limitations/Implications: The research was carried out during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed an extra challenge to the field work. Findings/Conclusions: Growing products next to the house provides healthy and fresh food, creates a useful and productive space, and preserves agrobiodiversity. It is an agroecosystem where each family and sitio or home garden interact with other families and other home gardens, integrating local knowledge and offering a space for families to live together. They can be considered spaces of resistance based on traditional knowledge, which also help families to control their resources and to bolster individual and collective food sovereignty.
ABSTRACT
Land relations in the Mekong Region are marked by the densely populated and intensively cultivated lowlands and the more extensive settlement and cultivation areas in the uplands. Land-use changes in the lowlands and uplands are interlinked and are a key process of agrarian and environmental transition. The ‘tenure-scape' approach is introduced as a qualitative analysis combining integrated landscape approaches, governance and rights-based approaches, while underlining the centrality of legitimate tenure rights, limitations and obligations. This approach is used to analyze the impact of the Green Revolution and the global commodity boom, in particular the growth of rubber and coffee, on sustainability in the Mekong countries, i.e., Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam. The way forward points to the use of the elements of the ‘tenure-scape' approach to re-valuate the potential contribution of smallholder farmers to the wider physical and societal landscape. The ultimate goal is to go from transition to transformation toward a more secure, equitable future for those at risk of being excluded from effective access to, use of, and control over land, fisheries, forests and water resources, which are providing the basis for their livelihoods if the concession model of land-based investments were to be continued.
ABSTRACT
Non-technical summary. As we consider a transition to a low-carbon future, there is a need to examine the mineral needs for this transformation at a scale reminiscent of the Green Revolution. The efficiency gains of the agrarian transition came at ecological and social costs that should provide important lessons about future metal sourcing. We present three options for a Mineral Revolution: status quo, incremental adaption and revolutionary change. We argue that a sustainable Mineral Revolution requires a paradigm shift that considers wellbeing as a purpose and focuses on preserving natural capital.Technical summary. As we consider a transition to a low-carbon future, there is a need to examine the mineral needs for this transformation at a scale reminiscent of the Green Revolution. The efficiency gains of the agrarian transition came at ecological and social costs that can also provide important lessons about the Mineral Revolution. We lay out some of the key ways in which such a mineral revolution can be delineated over temporal scales in a paradigm shift that considers wellbeing as a purpose and focuses on preserving natural capital. These prospects are conceptually presented as three pathways that consider the status quo, incremental adaption and revolutionary change as a means of planning more effectively for a low-carbon transition.Social media summary. Sourcing metals sustainably will require to consider wellbeing as a purpose and to preserve natural capital.
ABSTRACT
Global food systems have gone through periodic transformations over the past sixty years: the Green Revolution, the Livestock Revolution, and the globalisation of food trade are some of the epochal events observed. The nature and magnitude of biosecurity risks have evolved with the rising intensity and complexity of agriculture and food systems. While transboundary crop pests continue to challenge global food security, zoonotic diseases are rising as risks to human health. The global movement of goods and people has further expanded biosecurity risks, in terms of scale and intensity of impacts. Rising global temperatures will further exacerbate the risks associated with transboundary pest and zoonotic diseases. COVID-19 provides an important example of food systems impacts from a global health shock. Policy and management opportunities for managing biosecurity risks and rebuilding food system resilience need urgent assessment and global action.
ABSTRACT
Advocates of the Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) argue that the best way to address malnutrition is to incorporate smallholders into the global food economy via value chains involving the use of improved inputs, production technologies, and access to markets. Moseley and Ouedraogo critically assess these tactics using a feminist political ecology lens to analyze GR4A efforts in southwestern Burkina Faso which target female rice farmers. They examine the nature of the GR4A rice value chain, the degree to which a GR4A project is impacting the nutrition of participating women, and the influence of gender roles on GR4A rice project outcomes.
ABSTRACT
Rising global hunger in recent years has prompted calls for a broad reckoning over what is wrong with global food systems. Our changing climate has added urgency to the crisis. Many experts warn that our current agricultural practices are undermining the resource base - soil, water, seeds, climate - on which future food production depends. Now the global COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further exacerbate food insecurity for many of the world's poor. Africa is projected to overtake South Asia by 2030 as the region with the greatest number of hungry people. An alarming 250 million people in Africa now suffer from "undernourishment", the U.N. term for chronic hunger. If policies do not change, experts project that number to soar to 433 million in 2030. A growing number of farmers, scientists, and development experts now advocate a shift from high-input, chemical-intensive agriculture to low-input ecological farming. They are supported by an impressive array of new research documenting both the risks of continuing to follow our current practices and the potential benefits of a transition to more sustainable farming. The new initiatives have been met with a chorus of derision from an unsurprising group of commentators, many associated with agribusiness interests. They dismiss agroecology as backward, a nostalgic call for a return to traditional peasant production methods which they say have failed to feed growing populations in developing countries. For such critics, the future is innovation and innovation is technology: the kinds of commercial high-yield seeds and inorganic fertilizers associated with the Green Revolution. This paper explores the ways in which this innovation narrative flips reality on its head, presenting Green Revolution practices of the past as if they were new innovations. It does so through the lens of the battle for Africa's food future, examining the disappointing results from the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA). In contrast, the real innovations in Africa are coming from soil scientists, ecologists, nutritionists, and farmers themselves who actively seek alternatives to approaches that have been failing small-scale farmers for years. A wide range of farmer organizations, scientists, and advocates offer a broad and diverse array of ecologically-based initiatives based on sound science. These are proving far more innovative and effective, raising productivity, crop and nutritional diversity, and incomes while reducing farmers' costs and government outlays.
ABSTRACT
India became independent in 1947, when it was still reeling from the impact of the 1943 Bengal famine and world as a whole was experiencing the brunt of world war second. Thus India was born hungry in a hungry world. The country leaders were well aware of the challenge that India was expected to face in terms of food security and it was Jawaharlal Nehru who said everything can wait but not agriculture. The first president of India Rajendra Prasad after taking the chair, the first thing he did was to hoist the flag at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, declaring "India's most pressing task would be to conquer the battle of hunger. The Indian population has increased tremendously from 376 million in 1950 to 1380 million in 2020 and it is agriculture and its allied sectors that sustained such a huge population. India still has a significant proportion of population 14% undernourished, 35% children stunted, 20% children underweight, 52% women of reproductive age anaemic. India could bring out green revolution, white revolution and blue revolution in order to provide food security to its people. India presently is not food deficient;it has attained self sufficiency in food production and stands exporters of food. However the irony is that India stands at place 102 in global hunger index with score of 30 that is a matter of concern (Global Hunger Index-GHI, 2019). The problem is in making this food available to the people or access to the food is ensured. India needs nutritional security rather than food security besides transformation in agriculture and allied sectors to become free from hunger. The task is tough and precipitated by Covid-19 pandemic, but not impossible. India has much strength but will need research, extension, implementation and policy framing to have sustainable, nutrition sensitive, climate resilient, integrated and smart agriculture to eliminate hunger.
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Theorists of Half-Earth Socialism Troy Vettese, Drew Pendergrass and Filip Mesko explain their global societal vision and explore how eco-socialist planning can create a just and sustainable society. They argue that the problem of land scarcity is an opportunity to erode the separation of city and country, while vast swathes of the world could be rewilded.
ABSTRACT
Every November and December, farmers outside Delhi burn rice straw in their fields. Smoke from those fields makes its way to the city, where it contributes to respiratory problems. Although it may seem as though the smoke problem could be solved by strict enforcement of existing policies to reduce burning, changing farmers' practices is not that simple. The annual air pollution crisis in Delhi has roots in the country's famed Green Revolution and is an example of how rapidly rural agriculture is evolving, creating new and highly complex environmental issues in an increasingly industrialized India. The story behind Delhi's smog is a bogglingly complex interplay among multiple factors, including technology, farming practices, market shifts, government policies, and seasonal weather conditions. And its effects aren't confined to health problems: there is increasing evidence that this pollution also has severe and adverse economic impacts that are undermining India's efforts to realize the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing the complex causes of Delhi's air pollution will require collaboration among many participants to mitigate tradeoffs involving resource depletion, food security, and environmental quality. Within that complexity lies a possible path toward a more sustainable mode for the region's agricultural practices.