Partnerships for learning
This issue of the global edition of the magazine is focused on partnerships for learning. All "stakeholders" in agriculture have personal but also joint interests. What and in what way do they learn from each other? And how do they learn to work together to create more sustainable agriculture?
Farming Matters | 26.4 | December 2010
Featured articles
GMOs are a serious threat to local breedsPercy Schmeiser is well known all over the world as a result of the legal disputes he has had with the multinational Monsanto. In an interview with Farming Matters, he tells how he and his wife got into such legal difficulties, and the reasons why they continue fighting. |
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"We'll continue with our observations"Participants of a Climate Field School in Indonesia were asked to measure rainfall, and to relate these observations to their local taxonomies and the state of their crops. This helped them plan a number of strategies to cope with changing weather patterns. |
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Enhancing learning within certification schemesCertifications is not a "silver bullet" that automatically guarantees sustainable agriculture, although it does bring many positive results.These benefits can be multiplied by paying more attention to the development of skills and knowledge, and to the learning processes in which all stakeholders are involved. |
Table of contents:
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3 - 3written by Yao XiaonanHighland barley is the main crop grown in the village of Hongpo, in the Yunling township (part of the Deqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in the Chinese province of Yunan).
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5 - 5written by Edith van WalsumEditorial - Kanthamma, a widow of approximately 70 years old, used to collect ladybird beetles from neighbouring fields and release them in her own: “These insects help me keep the aphids in my cotton crop under control. My neighbours did not believe me that it worked, so they did not mind me ‘stealing’ the beetles from their fields. But now they have seen with their own eyes that it works, so I have to find my ladybird beetles somewhere else.”
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9 - 9From Myanmar / Culture and traditions / Raising issues via the blog / Water governance (1) / Water governance (2) / Water governance (3)
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10 - 11written by Stephen SherwoodMobilising our greatest resource for continuity and change: People
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12 - 15Agro-meteorological learning in Indonesia.
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16 - 19written by Frank van SchoubroeckInterview > Percy Schmeiser - Small groups of genetic engineers working for multinational companies, with little or no democratic control, determine the genetic composition of crops all over the world. Is this a science fiction movie scenario? No. Two Canadian farmers, Percy and Louise Schmeiser, have had a long fight in court to defend their right to grow their own crops. Farming Matters talked to Percy Schmeiser about his uneasy relation with seed companies.
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20 - 22Partnerships and scaling up in Central America.
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23 - 23written by Francisco Roberto CaporalA couple of months ago, The Economist published a long article praising Brazilian agriculture, something that led to outbursts of patriotism, and to Brazilians expressing pride on their “success”. But how successful is this model so generously praised? Francisco Caporal argues that The Economist is wrong.
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25 - 25written by ILEIA editorial teamTrees are important to farming in that they provide fruit, fodder and wood products, but they also provide many other services, both in their immediate environment and elsewhere (for instance in downstream catchments).
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26 - 27written by Anna BarnettInterview > Bill Vorley - Small-scale farmers are being urged into international markets as a way out of poverty – and they need to be able to protect their interests and make effective choices. "We see agency as the capacity of small-scale producers to make effective choices that advance their interests, and to act on those choices. Nowhere is that capacity needed more than in markets."
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28 - 29written by Mariann Bassey , Flemming NielsenWith the world’s reserves of oil going down, governments and companies have started looking for alternatives. A global market for bio-fuels has been developing during the past ten years, which was one of the factors that contributed to the sharp increase in food prices in 2008.
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30 - 32Certification is not a “silver bullet” that automatically guarantees sustainable agriculture, although it does bring many positive results. These benefits can be multiplied by paying more attention to the development of skills and knowledge, and to the learning processes in which farmers, extension agents and company representatives are involved.
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33 - 33written by Mundie SalmGetting people who have polarised views to sit together, listen to and learn from one another is a major challenge. Take the palm oil industry, for example. A product of the humid tropics, palm oil is currently the most important and versatile vegetable oil on the world market and demand keeps increasing.
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34 - 35written by ILEIA editorial teamNew books from MISEREOR / AME Foundation, Earthscan, Royal Tropical Institute / Gendernet and others.
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36 - 38written by Claudia C. Flores , Santiago J. SarandónA group of university researchers has been working on an agricultural education model designed to meet the many challenges facing Argentinean agriculture. Rather than just adding “green content” to the existing curriculum, working with the teachers in rural schools in the province of Buenos Aires is showing very promising results.
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39 - 39written by Frank van SchoubroeckUpdate from the field - Previous articles in this magazine have reported on the Fayoum Farmer Field School (FFS) project in Egypt. In March 2003, Jaap van der Pol showed how the Asian FFS-model needed adaptation in Egypt as local extensionists were used to working with individual farmers (not with groups) and to discussing rather than doing real-life experiments.
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40 - 41Working together brings many benefits, especially in terms of new ideas. These are some of the many examples where collaboration, in different parts of the world, is enhancing learning.
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42 - 43written by Mireille VermeulenWhat do we want to learn from each other? The Belgian organisation Vredeseilanden (referred to as VECO in its partner countries) has developed a new planning, learning and accountability system with its partners in Indonesia, with the aim of learning more from their field experiences and integrating these lessons into the steering of the organisation. This has worked – although they have also found out that becoming a learning organisation requires endurance and determination.
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45 - 45written by Arjen WalsOpinion: Learning plays an important role in the transition towards a more sustainable world, says Arjen Wals
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46 - 47Our partners report: Just before our previous issue was distributed, the World Bank published the results of its "multi-country study on large scale agricultural land acquisition and investment". This study responded to a "lack of reliable information", and to "the need for good empirical evidence to inform decision makers". What is the evidence they provide? Is this report complete? We asked different network members for their opinion.
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48 - 48Back cover photo
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