5 case studies from the new Greenpeace 'Future of Farming' briefing:
Bolivia - helping people help themselves
Cuba - feeding a nation
Kenya - the science of nature’s systems
Madagascar - challenging basic principles
China - valuing diversity
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Bolivia -- helping people help themselves

The soils of the high mountains of Northern Potosí in Bolivia suffer acute erosion. Rates of illiteracy are high, infant mortality runs at one in five, one in ten mothers die in childbirth and average life span is a mere 36 years.

One initiative has set out to help farmers develop new technologies.At farmers’ request, the programme focuses on potatoes. Breaking away from conventional approaches, the programme helps teach the farmers how to experiment and find their own solutions to farming problems.Farmers found that they could increase potato harvests immediately from 1780 kg/ha to 8500 kg/ha by planting them with lupins -- a type of pea.If they used sheep manure as well,harvests rose to 13,000 kg/ha.The lupin seeds cost $18/ha -- a tenth the price of the equivalent amount of chemical fertilizer.

Building on people’s own ability to learn and experiment has seen many social benefits, not least improved household food security and health. Once harvests improved,many farmers actually reduced their field size by up to 90%. This had great benefits for women -- making it easier for them to continue to farm while men went to cities in search of work.

Cuba -- feeding a nation

Until 1990, Cuba’s agricultural and food sector was heavily dependent on support from the Soviet bloc.It imported 57%of all calories consumed, 94% of fertilizer, 82%of pesticides and 97% of animal feed.

But in 1990, trade with the Soviet bloc collapsed, leading to severe shortages in all imported goods. Cuba was forced to find a solution to an imminent food crisis.

Starting as a move by individuals to feed themselves, there has been a return to organic farming techniques -- and the re-emergence of urban gardens. This soon became adopted as national policy.Urban gardens make a significant contribution to the country’s food harvests -- 727,000 tonnes in 1999 -- and play a vital part in ensuring that people’s diet is now at least as healthy as it was before the loss of Soviet support.

Cuba did not enter into this countrywide experiment of its own free will,and there remain many difficulties. However,this cultural change demonstrates the dramatic results of giving people a direct and personal investment in creating their own (and the nation’s) food security.Chemical industrial agriculture is not the only way to feed a country.

Kenya -- the science of nature’s systems

Maize is a key crop in Africa. Stemborers are the most important pest of maize and other food crops. Stemborers can quickly destroy up to 80% of a harvest.

Preventing these losses would feed an additional 27 million people in the region. Kenya ’s International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology works closely with farmers to test and adapt cheap, sustainable and innovative answers to some of Africa ’s key problems. One project is developing novel ‘push-pull ’strategies to repel stemborers from crops and attract them to barrier grass crops which can then be fed to animals. Farmer trials in 1997 and 1998 showed significant harvest increases in maize.

This is an example of science working in the genuine interests of people and the environment by optimising nature’s own systems rather than intervening in ways which create weak crops and breed dependence on expensive farm chemicals.

Madagascar -- challenging basic principles

Rice is a staple food in Madagascar, but chronic shortages lead poorer households to slash-and-burn the rainforest in order to feed themselves. For centuries, rice farmers have kept their paddy fields flooded. Flooding keeps weeds from growing, reducing the labour needed in the field. Because this approach has been so long-standing, farmers and scientists assume that rice grows best in these conditions. However,rice is not naturally a water plant. By growing rice in different conditions, its own potential is tapped.

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was first developed by a missionary priest in Madagascar during the 1980s when he observed that rice seedlings that had to struggle in the initial stages of growth were later stronger and more well-developed, better resisting pests and diseases and producing more rice. The practices he developed with farmers saw rice harvests improve by more than four times the regional average without the use of expensive farm chemicals.Now 20,000 farmers in the region use these practices.

There are many economic, social and environmental benefits to this approach. Improved harvests mean that far less land and labour is needed to produce the same amount of rice. Households do not therefore need to cultivate all of their land for rice,and can grow other crops for a more healthy and diverse diet.

The agricultural research community has been slow to show interest in this radical success because it does not fit in with received assumptions and corporate research agendas. Proponents of GM technology often say that we have reached the limits of our ability to improve harvests through management. However,the SRI improves people’s harvests precisely because it works with the plant ’s own natural potential, and breaks many of the conventional ‘rules ’of management.

China -- valuing diversity

In one of the largest agricultural experiments ever, thousands of rice farmers in China have doubled the harvests of their most valuable rice variety and nearly eliminated its most devastating disease -- without resorting to expensive farm chemicals.

Farmers in China’s Yunnan Province abandoned the industrial practice of planting a single type of rice in their paddies and started mixing varieties. This simple change led to a 94%reduction in the incidence of Blast -- the most important disease of rice, the most important staple food in the world. Within just two years, farmers were able to abandon the chemicals previously widely used to fight the disease. At the same time, harvests of a valuable rice variety nearly doubled.

This study serves as an important reminder of the value of diversity and simple solutions. As Chris Mundt, the Oregon State University plant pathologist overseeing the study notes,‘Our goal should be to fool with Mother Nature as little as possible.Sometimes there is a simple fundamental fix that makes a whole lot more sense than going for a real high-tech system’.

In China ’s Jiangshu Province, mixed rice-fish cultivation is having many benefits for rural households and environments.This low-cost non-polluting farming system provides rapid results,improving food harvests, diversity and quality of peoples ’s diets and farmer income. Rice-fish culture also helps eliminate mosquito larva harmful to human health. In one area, incidence of malaria fell by 99% as the area of rice-fish cultivation grew from zero to 43% over a ten year period.