Monocultures towards sustainability
The productivity and sustainability of annual food crops is of extreme importance for feeding an ever-growing world population. In this issue, we look at the negative impact of monocultures, especially of annual food crops, and the alternatives that are being developed. How can monocropping systems and monolivestock systems be made more sustainable? Can they be transformed into integrated systems? How can the quality of the production chain be improved?
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4 - 5written by ILEIA editorial teamThe prevailing global trends in agriuclture support the growth of monocultures, which are often seen as unsustainable. The productivity and sustianbility of annual food crops is of extreme importance for feeding an ever growing world population. In this issue we look at the negative impact of monocultures, especially of annual food crops, and at the alternatives that are being developed. As the different articles show, the time is ripe to revise old truths, as the alternatives to monocultures are proving their potential.
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6 - 7Brazil is the second largest soybena grower in the world, producing around 30 million tons per year, a great part of which is exported to the EU for its extensive diary industry. Specialisation in soybean is resulting in serious socio-economic and environmental problems. This article is adapted from the work of Angela Cordeiro for the Swedish Society of Nature Conservation, titled "Sustainable agriuclture in the global age: leesons from Brazilian agriuclture".
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8 - 10The Rice Wheat Consortium in South East Asia has joined hands with farmers in developing resource conserving technologies to improve production and ecologise the rice-wheat system in the Indo Gangetic Plains. Farmers are experimenting with new technologies like zero tillage, direct seeding, bed planting, Integrated Pest Management and Situation Specific Nutrient Management. Although the use of some of these technologies is spreading fast, much still has to be done to make the Green Revolution sustainable.
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11 - 11written by Chris EvansThe Jajarkot Permaculture Programme is a grassroots NGO working in four districts of Nepal. As its name suggests, it is based on permaculture, a technique of sustainable systems\' design using the direct application of the principles of ecology. Its philosophy also embodies observation and working with nature as the prime model of sustainability. The JJP gained its first experience of no-till farming during a visit in 1988 to Japan, after which a plot was set up in Jajarkot. A second trial was started later in Sita Paila RC in Kathmandu.
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12 - 12The ecological System of Rice Intensification (SRI) developed in Madagascar gives remarkably good results. Hundreds of farmers have increased their irrigated rice yields to 6-10 and even 15 tonnnes. The main characteristics of the approach, among others, are capturing the full potential for tillering by early transplanting, or planting one by one with wide spacing. Information from Stoop, W.A., N. Uphoff and A. Kassam, 2001. \"Raising food production and achieving agro-ecological sustainability in farming systems for resource-poor farmers through integrated agricultural science\".
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13 - 13written by Marc BonfilsThe author has experimented with alternative cultural measures for the production of winter wheat in the region of Beauce, France. Over the years, he has developed a system that embraces the general principles of permaculture. Although Bonfils' method is primarily for wheat, it is easily adaptable for other cereals. Bonfils found a way a growing food wothout ploughing in the European climate, as Masanobu Fukuoka did in Japan.
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14 - 15written by David WoodCrop monocultures are almost universally decried as unnatural, ecologically sysfunctional, and a threat to sustainable agriculture. This "defense of monocultures" questions the sole reliance on complex models for all agriculture. In contrast, it suggests that more appropriate model for a key section of farming -annual cereal cropping- can be found in vegetation dominated by single species, that is "natural monocultures". Is there something we can learn from natural monocultures that could be of value to sustainable cereal cropping?
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16 - 17written by Marco Barzman , Luther DasFarming in Bangladesh is increasingly showing signs of unsustainability. The New Options for Pest Management (NOPEST) project implemented by CARE-Bangladesh is following a Farmer Field School approach to introduce farmers to the ideas of reintegrating vegetables, fish and trees. Comparative data show that deversification of rice monoculture is beneficial.
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18 - 19written by Pedro Jorge BF Lima , Teogenes Senna OliveiraFor more than two decades now, the so-called \"cotton crisis\" strikes in the semi ared Northeastern region of Brazil. In 1990, a local NHO, ESPLAR, began researching and developing an agroecological alternative for cotton cultivation in this region. This was before the first demands for organic cotton in Brazil emerged. The initiative was a response to the demand of family farmers from two municipalities in the Ceara interior.
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20 - 20written by Maria de los Angeles Pino , Humberto Rios LabradaAfter the collapse of the socialist countries in 1989, the share of monoculture-based agriculture in Cuba diminished drastically. At the same time, farmers and scientists began to look for alternatives that would protect plants from biotic and abiotic stresses. Tehy attempoted to use the land efficiently, and experimented with low input levels. Farmers\' knowledge, underestimated for so long, played an essential role once again.
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21 - 21written by Johanna PennarzThe Organic Farming Development Project co-operates with advisory staff and experts from agricultural universities and local governments to support farmers in converting to organic farming. The project has introduced conversion to organic farming as a process in Yuexi, Anhui Province. The objectives and framework of conversion planning have been carefully communicated with the State Environmental Protection Administration in beijing, which showed great support for the development of organic farming.
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22 - 23The Flora community in Negros, the sugar basket of the Philippines, diversified the former sugarcane hacienda to become more food and energy self-reliant through its transition into an agro-ecological village. Sugarcane production has been reduced considerably and supplemented with crops like maize, grains, legumes and vegetables. Trash cane farming, which recycles the residue by allowing it to decompose in the field, is replacing the traditional burning method that has led to serious ecological degradation. Farmers are experimenting extensively with new and old organic farming technologies. The information in this article is based on the report Towards an Agro-Ecological Village at the Flora Community by the same authors, which is available on the REAP-Canada website at www.reap.ca
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24 - 25Various partners are working with farmers to strengthen local innovative capacity as a means of enhancing production and integrated management of potato in the Andes. Groups in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia have used the Farmer Field School approach as a jumping-off point to tackle a range of challenges, most notably knowledge gaps and the devastating late blight disease.
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26 - 27written by Alice de JongeIn the huge irrigated agricultural settlements of the Mahaweli in Sri Lanka, farmers are up against the ever-decreasing profitability of rice monocropping. Farm Planning for Sustainable Farming, introduced as a tool for better management of resources and sustainable farm development, has helped farm families to diversify their farming system and thereby increase their family income.
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28 - 30How can the sustainability of an agroecosystem be evaluated? How does a given strategy impact on the overall sustainability of the natural resource management system? What is the appropriate approach? These are unavoidable questions faced by any project dealing with complex agroecosystems. In Mexico, a number of development organisation have joined forces to develop a Framework for Sustainability Assessment, the MESMIS Framework.
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