An Assets-Based Approach to Sustainable Use of Land and Water

1. An Assets-Based Approach to Sustainable Use of Land and Water Contribution to “Presentation on Sustainable Use of Land and Water for Food Security”, FAO Committee for Food Security, Rome, 1st June 2001 Professor Jules Pretty, Centre for Environment and Society, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK jpretty@essex.ac.uk

2. Three agricultural options • expand the area of agriculture, by converting new lands to agriculture, but losing forests, grasslands and other areas of important biodiversity • increase per hectare production in agricultural exporting countries, mostly industrialised, so that food can be transferred or sold to those who need it • increase total farm productivity in developing countries which are going most to need the food • by purchasing inputs/technologies? • by using locally-available assets and resources?

3. Best options for the poorest? • Which work best for the poorest • great success in past… but still 790 million people food poor • Key questions: • to what extent can farmers improve food production with low-cost and locally-available technologies and inputs? • What impacts do these methods have on environmental goods and services, and the livelihoods of people relying on them?

4. Five Assets of Rural Systems(livelihoods, communities, economies) Natural Capital: nature’s goods and services (waste assimilation, pollination, storm protection, water supply, leisure, wildlife) Human Capital: the status of individuals - health, skills, knowledge Social Capital: cohesiveness of people and societies - trust, reciprocity, rules and norms, networks and institutions Financial Capital: money, savings Physical Capital: infrastructure

5. Natural Capital • food, wood and fibre; • water regulation and supply; • waste assimilation and treatment; nutrient cycling and fixation; • soil formation; • biological control of pests; • climate regulation and carbon sequestration; • wildlife habitats; • storm protection and flood control; • pollination; • recreation and leisure • Value of world’s natural capital - $33 trillion (equivalent to twice the size of the world’s formal economy)

6. Social Capital • Fundamental basis for sustainable development • lowers the costs of working together • facilitates co-operation between people • Relations of trust that lubricate co-operation • Common rules, norms and sanctions for behaviour • Reciprocity and exchanges • Connectedness and social institutions

7. Assets - inputs and outputs • Agriculture transforms: • natural capital (functional biodiversity, soil health) • social capital (connectedness, cooperation, trust) • human capital (knowledge, skills) • together with physical and financial capital • But it also indirectly affects all three renewable assets • some forms of agriculture increase the asset base • other forms decrease assets, and leave less for future generations

11. Sustainable Use of Land and Water • A more sustainable agriculture seeks to make the best use of nature’s goods and services • Integrates natural and regenerative processes, (nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, soil regeneration and natural enemies) into food production processes • Minimises the use of non-renewable inputs that damage the environment or harm health • Makes best use of knowledge and skills of farmers • Make productive use of social capital - people’s capacities to work together to solve common management problems, such as pest, watershed, irrigation, and forest management • Also contributes to public goods ~ clean water, wildlife, carbon sequestration in soils, flood protection, landscape quality, rural jobs

12. Sustainable Agriculture Audit and Research • Aims • audit recent progress in developing countries towards sustainable agriculture, • assess the extent to which such projects/initiatives have increased local food production • Surveyed 208 projects in 52 countries using questionnaires, project reports and evaluations, and verifying experts • purposive sampling - not random

13. Cases rejected where: • no obvious sustainable agriculture link • participation in projects was for direct material incentives • as there are doubts that ensuing improvements persist after such incentives end • where there was heavy or sole reliance on fossil-fuel derived inputs, or on their targeted use alone • this is not to negate these technologies, but these were simply not the focus of this research; • where the data provided was too weak or the findings unsubstantiated

14. Farmers and hectares • 208 projects/initiatives • 8.98 million farmers have adopted sustainable agriculture practices and technologies • 28.92 million hectares • equivalent to 3.01% of the 960 million hectares of arable and permanent crops in Africa, Asia and Latin America • 8.44 m ha if discount large farms adopting zero-tillage in South America

15. Food production increases • intensification of a single component of farm system • with little change to the rest of the farm ~ home garden intensification, vegetables on rice bunds, introduction of fish ponds or a dairy cow; • addition of new productive element to a farm system • such as fish in paddy rice, or agroforestry, which provides a boost to total farm food production; • better use of natural capital to increase crop intensity • water ~ water harvesting and irrigation scheduling • land ~ reclamation of formerly unproductive land • improvements in per hectare yields of staples • through introduction of new regenerative elements into farm systems (eg legumes) • improvements in yields through introduction of new and locally-appropriate crops and animals

18. Mucuna (velvetbean) cover cropping in Benin • For suppression of weed Imperata cylindrica and intercropping with maize • Local adaptation of technology by farmers • Area of poor soils; low access to fertilizers, declining fallow periods • 14,000 farmers adopted • Maize yields to 3-4 t/ha • Benefit-cost 1.24 (cf 0.62 without mucuna); up to 3.56 if seeds sold

19. Zero-Tillage in Brazil and Argentina • Zero-tillage • No ploughing of soil • Brazil - 11 million hectares • Argentina - 9.2 million hectares • Benefits • better input use, water retention, diverse rotations, increased organic matter in soils (thus more carbon sequestration) • reduced erosion and water pollution • yields: maize up from 3 to 5 t/ha (Brazil); wheat up from 2 to 3.5 t/ha (Argentina)

20. The velvetbean in Central America • Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) • Multiple cropped with maize • Fixes 150 kg N/ha per year • Produces 30-50 tonnes biomass per ha/year • Improves and regenerates soils • 45,000 families in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua growing mucuna • Crop yields up from 400-600kg/ha to 2000-2500 kg/ha • social capital critical - farmers’ groups, experimentation, and extension

21. Soil and Water Conservation in Niger and Burkina Faso • 100,000 ha of abandoned and degraded land improved with tassas/zaï • 20-30 cm holes with residues/manures; harvest water and aid infiltration • Yields up 50-100% ~ highest in dry years • Household food security ~ from 153 kg deficit to 644 kg surplus • Reverse migration • Key elements: action-research approach, openness to farmer initiatives, immediate results, ability to be integrated into existing cropping systems, technological package can be adjust to changing local context

22. Better land husbandry, Kenya • ABLH using double-dug beds with composting, green and animal manures ~ last 4-6 seasons • Better water holding capacity and higher organic matter ~ beds more productive, more diverse and are able to sustain vegetable growth into the dry season • Benefits for women and children • 75% of households free from hunger during the year (up from 43%); • Households buying vegetables during year has fallen from 85% to 11%; • Proportion selling vegetables up from 20% to 77%; • 48% of households maize self-sufficient (up from 22%).

23. Sri Lanka: Water Users’ Groups • 33,000 water users’ associations • 500,000 farmers on 0.5-1.0 million hectares • irrigated rice main crop • Benefits • increased water use efficiency • increased cropping intensity • greater total production • reduction in complaints and conflicts • 1998 • water available for only 14% of area • farmers’ associations persuaded government to release water - successfully produced whole rice crop and earned country $20 million foreign exchange

24. Positive effects on livelihoods • natural capital: • increased soil water retention; improvements in water table (with more drinking water in the dry season); reduced soil erosion & improved organic matter in soils; better carbon sequestration; increased agro-biodiversity • social capital: • more and stronger social organisations; new rules and norms for managing collective natural resources; and better connectedness to external policy institutions • human capital: • more local capacity to experiment and solve own problems; increased self-esteem in formerly marginalised groups; increased status of women; better child health and nutrition, especially from more food in dry seasons; reversed migration

25. Confounding Factors • Critical trade-offs between assets • roads for markets and loss of forests • land closed for rehabilitation - poor sell livestock • more work for women • additional incomes go to men • Increasing assets • may tempt the powerful to take over? • Aspirations • rural people may want to get away from rural parochialism • Backlash • strong social capital (groups and networks) become new power bases - and tempt backlash? • Changing markets for inputs • reduced demand for agro-chemicals?

26. Summary of recent progress • Technologies and social processes for local level sustainable agriculture are well-established • Social and institutional conditions for spread are less well-known, but have been established in several contexts; • Political conditions for the emergence of supportive policies are least well established, with only a very few examples of real progress

27. Policies out of step? • Much evidence of transformed thinking • everyone in favour of “sustainability” • some willing to change words alone • some willing to change practices • Most policy structures still encouraging `old’ modernist agriculture • Need to go beyond `greening the edge’ to `greening the middle’ of farming • Supportive policies • Core challenge for next decade

28. What is a good policy for sustainable land and water? • Integrated across sectors • Promotes multifunctionality • enhances positive externalities and reduces negative externalities • Knowledge-based and nature-based • builds renewable assets • Participatory • links up different stakeholders • bottom-up • Mixture of instruments • economic, advisory, regulatory

29. Marcus Cato (200 BC) author of Di Agri Cultura “And when our ancestors would praise a worthy person, their praise took this form: good husbandman, good farmer (bonum agricolam bonumque colonum); one so praised was thought to have received the greatest commendation”