Independiente Diálogo
Enfoque geográfico:
Sin fronteras
Discussion topic outcome
To achieve sustainable food systems, participants highlighted the importance of a shift in focus of policy makers. Building on examples in 55 African countries that mainstream ecological and organic agriculture into the agricultural sector, it was highlighted that 67% of agriculture budgets were spent on farm input subsidy programs. According to one participant, this would prompt more unsustainable practices as limited, immediate benefits would be favored over long-term sustainability and were often tied to short-term government campaigns. Instead, participants urged policymakers to look at sy
... Leer másstemic changes and policies that incentivize transformative changes in production practices. In addition, participants criticized the apparent focus of policy makers on large scale, industrial farming. In Madagascar, for instance, smallholders’ interests would neither be valued, nor considered in political agendas. Smallholders, while most exposed to the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss, would often be invisible to policy makers and investors due to the lack of representation and visibility. While many participants agreed, several others emphasized the need to consider both smallholders and large-scale agricultural producers to ensure that both would move in the same direction and receive appropriate financial support. To tackle this issue, participants agreed that smallholders would need to come together, share their experiences with each other and effectively demonstrate their collective impact on food systems and the environment. This would improve local smallholders' access to markets and ensure that the policy makers understand the needs of local producers in terms of capacity, infrastructure and agency, which are currently lacking. Participants listed examples from China, where the government encourages smallholders to collectively found co-operatives. In contrast to this, in other areas it was raised that there is an apparent shift of some smallholder farmers selling land to large landowners, who, in return, would employ these former smallholders as direct employees. This has significant implications on tenure rights and perceived agency of smallholders. Further, participants urged policymakers to not reinvent the wheel, but instead to focus on bridging local, indigenous knowledge with scientific evidence on agroecological approaches and innovations. As part of this, a few local CSO participants underlined the need of local producers for behavioral change-based tools to build local awareness and demand for agroecological approaches and products. They pledged to further build this capacity locally and further referred to the Africa unions Heads of State’s decision to support ecological organic agriculture. Participants also discussed the impact of consumers and market forces on local smallholder producers. While there was consensus on the importance of local food security for local communities, there was recognition that a range of organic foods, by default, were determined for export markets to be sold for a higher price. The COVID-19 pandemic showed the fragility of this system as supply chains broke down, export markets crumbled, and immediate economic impacts were felt by many local producers. At the same time, local food systems proved to be critical as country’s went into lockdown and communities relied on their domestic food production. Moving forward, participants, therefore, called for consumer awareness campaigns and nutrition education, socializing local foods, effectively balancing local consumption with export markets and increasing food systems resilience. Investors and micro-finance could be a key driver to understand risks and promote investments in local food markets. Leer menos
Línea(s) de Acción: 2, 3, 4
Palabras clave: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Finance, Governance, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment