Tag Archives: Malawi

International Seed Treaty

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This Statement was made at the Third session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture on behalf of the Global Community-based Biodiversity Conservation and Development (CBDC) Network, of which our in-country office FAIR Malawi is a member.

Agenda Item 13: Implementation of Article 6, Sustainable use of PGRFA

Agenda Item 14: Implementation of Article 9, Farmers’ Rights

Thank you Mr. Chairman

My Name is Teshome Hunduma from the DF, Norway

I am speaking on behalf of the global Community-based Biodiversity Conservation and Development (CBDC) Network.

I would like to thank for the chance we as a CBDC network are just given to speak on the implementation of the article 6.

The global CBDC network consists of CBDC Africa, CBDC South East and South Asia and Meso-American Participatory Plant Breeding Programme. The global CBDC Network seeks to promote and strengthen farmer-led conservation and sustainable utilization of agro-biodiversity at community level for purposes of ensuring food security and food sovereignty.

Mr. Chairman, we have seen that community-led conservation and sustainable utilization of agro-biodiversity is working and it is the best way out of the current food crises and secures local food production.

Mr. Chairman, we note with concern that the proposed funding strategy requires voluntary contributions when it is known that voluntary commitments will not materialize as was the case with the FAO Global Plan of Action of 1996.

Therefore:

1. The Governing Body should emphasize the implementation of article 6, which is on sustainable use of PGRFA as a priority area under the funding strategy.

2. The Community-based Biodiversity Conservation network also proposes a Global Fund for farmers which will be used for capacity building, technology transfer, information exchange, and sharing of other benefits by small-scale farmers for them to sustainably manage PGRFA.

Mr. Chairman, we also note the substantial funding for ex-situ conservation but very minimal funding for in-situ and on-farm conservation and sustainable utilization of plant genetic resources by small-scale farmers. We wish to remind delegates that ex situ conservation can not substitute the dynamism and diversity provided by on farm conservation which is the basis of agro-biodiversity to date. We therefore call upon the Governing Body to support on farm conservation of genetic resources and promotion of best practices that can be financed under the Funding Strategy.

The Treaty provides for access to PGR through the Multilateral System for CGIAR, but we note with concern that there are no frameworks and mechanisms designed for small-scale farmers to access and get back materials collected and stored under national, regional and international gene banks. We call upon the Governing Body to explore and develop separate but appropriate structures and institutional linkages with farmers’ organizations which are necessary to facilitate access by farmers to genetic resources of their choice which is under the CG system.

In order to promote effective implementation of the ITPGRFA at national level, we propose that the GB should integrate farmers, farmers’ organizations, civil society organizations at national, regional, and international levels as active sources of information for the proposed Compliance Committee.

We also call upon the Governing Body to establish concrete and specific mechanisms and frameworks for cooperation with small-scale farmers, farmers’ organizations, civil society organizations, which are actively working on issues related to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in a sustainable manner.

Mr. Chairman, Allow me to extend my special thanks to the delegates from Ecuador speaking on behalf of GRULAC for supporting the in-situ conservation of PGRFA in particular and the implementation of the Treaty as a whole.

Thank you!!

GM Crops – Should we believe in them?

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Tales of intimidation

My colleague Olivia recently came back from a rather disturbing GM Freeze talk by Percy Schmeiser.

Percy, is a farmer from Bruno, Saskatchewan in Canada, whose Canola (rape seed) fields were contaminated with Monsanto’s Round-Up Ready Canola. He became involved in a high-profile legal battle with Monsanto, lasting many years, during which time he claims he was subjected to 24-hour surveillance of his house and threatening phonecalls. He also claims that Monsanto bribed his neighbours, tried to enforce gagging orders making him agree never to take Monsanto to court again and employed gene police to encourage neighbours to report on each other.

His story is not, it seems, an isolated case. As a GM Watch ‘quiz’ posted on Food Democracy asks “What is the annual budget that Monsanto devotes to harassing, intimidating, suing – and in some cases bankrupting – American farmers over alleged improper use of its patented seeds? ANSWER: 10 million dollars.”

What is going on?

GM crops are patented crops which means that ownership accrues to the holder of the patent or Intellectual Property Right or ‘breeder’. Seeds used therefore have to be purchased year on year or a royalty payment must be made if seed is recycled. Since most crops entering the market are bred by private companies, ownership accrues to the company holding the patent – normally a small number of large corporations.
As a result “Patents and genetic modification mutually reinforce each other. Patents provide the commercial monopoly that enables companies to control markets and maximise profits.” (GM Freeze)

Since GM crops can never co-exist with non-GM crops of the same species without the risk of contaminating them, the indigenous seeds that farmers have developed over centuries are at risk. Meanwhile farmers with contaminated fields could end up being forced to pay royalties to companies that own the patents on the GM crops that contaminated their fields.

Food crisis – opportunity or challenge?

As Daniel Howden , the Africa Correspondent for the Independent, writes in his article Hope for Africa lies in political reforms “the climate crisis was used to boost biofuels, helping to create the food crisis; and now the food crisis is being used to revive the fortunes of the GM industry.”

However the food crisis also presents us with an opportunity to highlight alternatives to the proposed GM ‘solutions,’ especially given the fact that climate change is one of the major factors contributing to the food crisis.

For years African farmers, in the face of inherently unreliable climatic patterns, have made use of different agrecological niches by choosing wetlands and drylands, different soil types and planting cereals, grain legumes and root crops often in the same fields on the understanding that not all crops were likely to fail simultaneously. This diversification of agricultural production minimizes their risk in the face of challenges such as climate change.

FYF empowers Malawian farmers to make sure that these farming skills aren’t lost. By taking control of their farming operation (including by seed-saving from one year to the next) and making sure that their voices are heard at a national level the farmers we work with being empowered to act as ‘Citizens’ in their society. Read more about how we are empowering Farmers as Citizens

Over the coming years this could prove particularly important. As John Vidal writes in the New Statesman “Monsanto espies huge profits in places such as Malawi, where the whole country depends on maize. It’s not legal to sell GM there but even if it were, the chances of…small farmers, 90 per cent of the population, benefiting from it are utterly remote. Malawi is a land of conservative, uneducated and vulnerable farmers. They could not possibly afford the seeds or the herbicide, let alone take the risk. It would be criminal to ask them to.”

Deforestation and Desertification

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Composting in Malawi

Originally uploaded by Find Your Feet

Before joining Find Your Feet I spent two years working in Mauritania. The effects of desertification, the process by which productive land becomes unproductive desert, were clear. Previously nomadic peoples now inhabit makeshift shacks on the outskirts of Nouakchott, a city that does not have the infrastructure to support such a rapid growth in population. Meanwhile competition over the relatively fertile land on the banks of the river Senegal is fierce. The 1989 ‘events’ in which black Africans were expelled across the border into Senegal, are often attributed to this struggle over access to land.

One of the major causes of this desertification is deforestation. Between 1990 and 2005 Mauritania lost 148,000 hectares of forest to livestock grazing and iron ore mining, resulting in soil erosion. This problem is exacerbated by climate change. As severe weather events increase in frequency and severity due to global warming, degradation of dry lands tends to increase.

Whilst desertification is not a major issue yet in Malawi it is important to note that almost 29% of the population live in the rift valley drylands. In an award winning article ‘Encroachers Attack Thyolo,’ written for Malawi’s The Nation
Raphael Mweninguwe writes that the soil in these drylands is losing its fertility due to climate change, unsustainable land-use and deforestation. As a result there is a reduction in food productivity and subsequent poverty. This in turn leads to further land degradation as desperate people overgraze the land and cut down remaining trees for fuel.

Which is why I was encouraged to come across an article by a Malawian farmer on Professor Willem Van Cotthem’s blog ‘Desertification’ about the success of setting up a community nursery for tree seedlings using a container gardening method.

The majority of our projects in Malawi also include an important reforestation element. Last year 125,100 indigenous, exotic and fruit seedlings raised at tree nurseries were out-planted into forest reserves. In addition to this 802 community members received training in nursery establishment and management, which equipped them with skills on nursery site identification, seed sowing techniques and nursery management.

This is one part of an approach that, as a recent study by the United Nations Environment Programme ‘Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa’ puts it, ‘is resistant to stress.’ By supporting farmers to employ sustainable farming techniques such as composting, using vetiver grasses, contour ridge marking and crop diversification farmers are improving the quality of their soils, making sure that productive land doesn’t become unproductive desert. Read more.