Scaling up strategies from technology transfer to empowerment with focus on agroecology

Scaling up strategies

from technology transfer

to empowerment with focus

on agroecology

Ricardo Quirós Zúniga

Latin America Regional Office

March 2015

We Effect background

• Started in 1958 with the aim of reducing the gap between rich and poor in the world.

• Over 60 Swedish organisations with cooperative roots as members.

• Operates in 24 countries on four continents, fighting poverty and injustice and helping people to help themselves.

• Partnered with over 160 local organisations around the world.

Rural Development Regional Programme

PRODER

A short brief about our Programme

The context: Where are we?

Projects X Country

Guatemala 5

Honduras 4

El Salvador 4

Nicaragua 4

Bolivia 7

Paraguay 6

P. Regionals 4

Total 34

Budget 56 %

Development Objective:

Contribute to a sustainable and just world

free from poverty.

Programme Objective:

Empower small farmer organisations to

address the needs and rights of their

women and men members in a sustainable

manner.

RD Programme Objectives

We Effect

provides

technical and

financial

support

Organisations

strengthen

their

capacities

To advocate for

public policies

to defend the

rights of their

members

Poverty and

injustice

reduction

To provide

services to their

members

Theory of change

Target group:Organised small farmers or potentially organised (with or without land) in poverty conditions

• Special focus on rural women

• Special interest in regional

organisations (apex organisations)

• Social movements at national level

can play a special role for advocacy

and defence of the sector

With whom are we working?

So… What are we doing?

• Special attention to the small

scale farmers (family farming/

campesino).

• Importance of agriculture in

rural poverty reduction.

Main issues in rural development

and agriculture

• Food production for self-consumption and domestic markets

(as well as for income generation)

• Support organisational capacities for access to/ and defence

of land and territory

• Promote the Entrepreneurial Development and Added Value/

Value Chain Approach under the social economic model

(cooperative DNA)

• Strategic alliances for financial services

Main issues in rural development

and agriculture

Why Agroecology?

“Governments and international agencies urgently

need to boost ecological farming techniques to

increase food production and save the climate.”

Olivier De Schutter

Former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

Several reasons

Economical:

• It implies a reduction in production costs for families

• It reduces dependence on external agricultural supplies

• It promotes local economy (local markets)

• It generates community employment

Why Agroecology?Partners Opinion

Why Agroecology?Partners Opinion

Social:

• It builds capacity in the people to investigate, experiment and promote their own knowledge

• It recognizes and values ancestral/ traditional knowledge

• It promotes direct links between producers and consumers

• It recognizes and values women’s role in agriculture

• As a concept/approach, agroecology is coherent with food

sovereignty

Ecological:

• It strengthens the capacity for productive systems to adapt to climate change

• It helps mitigate greenhouse emissions

• It improves water management

• It reduces the ecological footprint of production

• It strengthens adaptive capacity and resilience of farming

systems

Why Agroecology?Partners Opinion

Scaling Up process

Before 2008, we were supporting farmers´organisations mainly in a conventional production model:

• Fertilization with external inputs (agrochemicals)

• Classic technical assistance

• Improved/ hybrid seeds

• Supporting some organic experiences (coffee and vegetables)

Scaling Up process

Turning points…

crisis as opportunity

Scaling Up process

2008: Food price crisis (high price inputs)

• Starts a reflection process on the conventional agriculture model

• Special emphasis on alternative ways of fertilizing and seeds

Scaling Up process

2012: Coffee rust/ Roya crisis promotes a complete change of the plantation model, even in organic farms.

• New and resilient coffee varieties

• New fertilization model: bio fertilizers, compost, green and cover crops, nutrients cycle

• Biological control of disease and blights: use of MM and EM, Beauveria b., others

• Agroecological management: diversification, agroforestry, shadow management, etc.

Scaling Up process

2014: Drought Crisis

a food security emergency

• Water harvesting systems

• Resilient crops

• Post-harvest storage: grain banks

• Native seeds: seeds banks

• Soil fertility management

Agroecological practices

Improving soil fertility

CompostVermicompostBio fertilizerCover cropsAgriculture in terracesGreen manure

Cropping system

Poly culturesCrop associationsAgroforestryCrop-livestock mixtureSuccessional agriculture systems

Biological pest control

Micro organism (EMand MM)Entomopathogenscontrol (Bauveria, Trichodermas, lecanicidium)Insect repellents

Natural resources management

Water harvestingEnergy managementWaste recyclingSeed banksBiomass use

Our scaling Up process

In Latin America

Successful scaling up of agroecology depends heavily on

human capital enhancement and community empowerment

through training and participatory methods that seriously take

into account the needs, aspirations and circumstances

of smallholders.

Miguel Altieri

Our scaling up process

• Re-educate the

technical assistants:

agronomist, agricultural

engineer

• Create an elite group of

farmer promotors

(farmer to farmer

method)

• Carry out practical

training and workshops

in the communities

First, a conceptual and political discussion:

awareness of the farmer organisations’ leaders

Our scaling up process

• Setting up reference/demonstration farms

• Exchanges between farmers, organisations, countries, regions

• Production of promotional materials: videos, books, adapted to the farmers skills

• Agroecological schools in farmers’ hands

• Farmer centres for research and promotion of agroecology

Scaling up methods: tips

• Individual VS collective: the role of the

organisation

• Use local resources and appropriate technology

• Be simple and pragmatic, not a forbidden

method

Scaling up methods: tips

• Respect the rhythm: process of transition – with gradualism

• Link with strategic allies: NGO:s, Universities, experts,

municipalities, companies, ecological movements, consumer

associations

• Influence politics and opinion leaders

• Promote changes in the public policies or new legal frameworks

Scaling up barriers

• Lack of support from governments: no investments, no

technical assistance, no research, no incentives, etc.

• Lack of research from Universities and specialized institutes

• Commercial pressures of the agrochemical companies and

the distribution stores

• Lack of legislation and legal frameworks

• Lack of information and training services

• Absence of territorial vision

Conclusions

• Agroecology cannot scale up if the

conditions of injustice, poverty and

inequity remain in the rural world.

• Society and consumers have more

awareness about health and environment.

• New instruments, legal reforms and public

policies should be adopted to promote a

real scaling up of agroecology.

• Strategic alliances have to be found for

development research, training and other

actions to promote the process.

Gracias