Farmers facing change

Table of contents:

• Dear Readers
  2 - 2
• Coping with change in dryland savannah - Editorial
  4 - 6
  written by ILEIA editorial team
  "In the past, it was quite unusual to sell anything. Goods where bartered: your millet was exchanged for your neighbour's cowpeas, sorghum or even livestock. Money had very little meaning to most of us... There were fewer people and the land was free. Land was inherited, was loaned to neighbours, but was too sacred to be bought or sold. Today, the ground is no longer respected: it has become just a saleable product, like any other... Because there are so many people, our fields have shrunk. Those which once belonged to one person are now used by five. As population grows, soil productivity and yields decrease. To compensate for this, trees are being savaged to clear ground for agriculture..." says El Haj Chaibou Bagouma, a farmer from Takieta, Niger (Cross and Baker, 1992, p 144-145). (ILEIA)
• The ILEIA learning process
  7 - 7
  In the next three years, ILEIA's major goal will be to assess the potential and constraints of ecologically sound agriculture. We will focus on three agroecological zones in Peru, Ghana and the Philippines with different agroecological potential and socio-economic environments. In each country, pilot sites are being selected to represent each agro-ecozone. For this purpose, we will develop 'learning partnerships' with farmer organisations, NGOs, universities, research and extension organisations. (ILEIA)
• Farmers cross the borders
  8 - 9
  written by Doudou Sow , Remi Schiffeleers
  ILEIA Newsletter editors Coen Reijntjes and Carine Alders travelled to a goat farm in Alken, Belgium, to meet two very special farmers: Doudou Sow from Senegal and Remi Schiffeleers from Belgium. The two friends have known each other for a long time and visited each other=s farm and village to learn and improve their knowledge. They believe exchanging information is essential to be able to survive the changes they face. For them autonomy, solidarity and communication are the key to a better future. (ILEIA)
• Coping with risk and uncertainty
  10 - 11
  written by Bright Mombeshora , Blasio Mavedzenge , Maxwell Mudhara , Chinaniso Chibudu , Sam Chikura
  Much of Africa\'s dryland farming areas have a stereotype of drought, dust and disaster. This stereotype is wrong. During three years the coping strategies of farmers in Chivi communal areas of southern Zimbabwe have been examined. This article presents the insights gained and explores policy implications. (ILEIA)
• Food security in the semi-arids: forced fallows through government policies
  12 - 13
  written by KS Gopal , M Sashi Kumar
  Narsamma is a poor woman in Mamidigi village, Zaheerabad taluk of Medak district. Medak is one of the most backward districts of Andhra Pradesh and forms a part of the semi-arid tropics in India. It depends largely on rainfed farming with pockets of groundwater based irrigated agriculture. Land use in Mamidigi village is changing. Steep fall in jowar output says a headline in The Hindu Newspaper of March 1992. This, according to the article, is due to a shift of the lands from jowar (sorghum) to groundnut, sunflower and cotton crops. But when this news item was read to Narsamma she said that the stated reason for the decline in jowar acreage is not the whole story. She estimates that in her village more than 150 acres of productive rain dependent land is left fallow. She feels that the land that has been left fallow is just as much as what has shifted to more remunerative crops. (ILEIA)
• Watershed development through participation: the story of Pimpalgaon Wagha
  14 - 15
  written by Crispino Lobo
  Watershed development is getting increased attention in the semi-arid regions of India. However, the approaches applied are often rather technology oriented and controlled by NGOs and the Government. The participatory approach as developed by Social Centre and experimented with in Pimpalgaon Wagha holds many important lessons. (ILEIA)
• Agricultural intensification in West Africa: nutrient dynamics in the Kano close-settled zone
  16 - 17
  written by Frances Harris
  Small-holder farming in semi-arid areas is being forced to change to compensate for the needs of more people living under conditions of increasingly variable rainfall. As more land is used for agriculture, rangeland areas are reduced, so limiting the availability of animal fodder. The length of fallow periods where soil fertility may be restored is also reduced. This has forced herders and farmers to interact, exchanging crop residues (fodder) for animal manure (soil fertility restoration).
• Legumes for sustainable food production in semi-arid savannahs
  18 - 19
  written by O A Ogunbile , Gbassay Tarawali
  Providing a sustainable livelihood for the majority of the population in semi-arid West Africa depends on improving agricultural production. This is causing concern in the context of widespread land degradation. Research and development activities in the region have tried to alleviate these problems through legume-based interventions that not only sustain total food production, but also protect the environment. (ILEIA)
• Not all improvements make sense
  20 - 21
  written by Daniel Caceres , Philip Woodhouse
  Farmers respond to changes in their environment. For some this means they stop farming. This case study presented in this article shows how the economic environment of Argentinean peasants influences their decisions on agricultural innovations. What seems appropriate from a technological and social point of view may make no sense from an economic point of view. (ILEIA)
• Finding partners in learning
  22 - 22
  written by ILEIA editorial team
  As you could read on page seven, in the coming years, ILEIA will try to learn more about the potential of ecologically sound ways of farming in different agroecologic and socio-economic environments. We further hope to learn more about appropriate institutional environments to support local development of ecologically sound farming systems in their specific environments. Our strategy is to support and stimulate research in three agroecological zones with contrasting potential (dryland savannas, high mountain valleys and lowland flood plains). This first step in this programme was taken end 1994 and led to the selection of three countries, numerous collaborating institutions, and six representative sites. In this article we share with you how we made this selection. (ILEIA)
• Farming in Northern Ghana
  23 - 23
  written by Edwin A. Gyasi
  The dryland savannah zone of the Northern region of Ghana occupies 40% of the country. It is comprising sub-humid to semi-arid guinea and sudan savannah. Although there are many constraints to farming, there are considerable opportunities too. Farmers succeeded to intensify land use significantly. To continue this increase in food production for the exploding population is an enormous challenge. (ILEIA)
• Building partnerships
  24 - 24
  written by David Millar
  Northern Ghana is one of the three regions where a process of shared learning takes place through the establishment of learning coalitions between farmers, NGOs, researchers and ILEIA. As David Millar explains in this article, NGOs have already been sharing experiences since the early 1970s. The partnership between the NGOs and ILEIA dates back to 1988 and proved to be liberating and empowering for the NGOs. (ILEIA)
• Collaborating for sustainable agriculture
  25 - 25
  written by Bernard Guri , Joe Taabazuing
  Bringing people together from various backgrounds to work on sustainable agriculture is a great challenge. Joe Tabaazuing and Ben Guri acted as facilitators of a workshop in May 1995 to establish a working group for collaborative research in Northern Ghana. In this article they report on the process that was adopted to successfully establish this working group and the lessons learnt so far. (ILEIA)
• Environmental education: entry point for change
  26 - 29
  A small environmental organisation, Hind Swaraj Mandal (HSM), works together with over twenty schools in Saurashtra, Gujarat, India. The schools form a close network of Gandhian institutions. They provide formal and informal education to village youth. Skills needed for every-day village life, like cattle management or farming, are part of the curriculum. Together with HSM they participate in an environmental programme called My Village, My Universe. This programme started a process of change towards sustainable agriculture. (ILEIA)
• Economics of the entire farming system
  30 - 30
  written by Anura S. Widanapathirana
  I read with interest the article Economic Evaluation of LEISA by Ruben and Heerink in ILEIA Newsletter Vol 11/No 2. The article attempts to compare, contrast and quantify costs and benefits of High External Input Agriculture (HEIA) with that of Organic Agriculture (OA) and Traditional Agriculture (TA). The article is thought provoking and interesting. However, I have several concerns with regard to the methodology of evaluation adopted. (Anura Widanapathirana)
• A safe and effective pesticide
  31 - 31
  written by Milaflor L. Morales
  Here's good news to farmers and environmentalists! Environmental contamination and high cost of production due to indiscriminate use and over dependence on petroleum-based chemical pesticides could now be alleviated through the discovery of a botanical pesticide by the Cotton Research and Development Institute (CRDI) based in Batac, Ilocos Norte. It's the physic nut, scientifically called Jatropha curcas. Locally it's called the tubang-bakod (or tawwa-tawwa) because it is commonly planted as a fence around residential and farm lots. Ordinarily, the seeds are used as purgative while the leaves and bark are used for treating fractured bones and pain in the abdomen. (ILEIA)