News About Asian Farmers

Farmers rally for land ownership

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 13:49:00 +0000

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS:Farmers protested against what they described as the government’s arbitrary designation of land they live on as national parks

By Lee I-chia / Staff Reporter

Hundreds of farmers from across the country yesterday staged a rally in Taipei to protest against the government’s “arbitrary regulations” that deprive them of their right of abode and their livelihood.

The parade started from the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau and ended at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.

Holding banners that read: “Give us back our land,” the protesters, many of whom were elderly farmers, appealed to the government to allow them to continue growing fruit and crops on the land that they have cultivated for years, instead of restraining their right of abode by designating these areas as national parks.

Technology and mechanization highlights field day, forum for farmers

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:13:00 +0000

by Maynard E.Valdez

SCIENCE CITY OF MUNOZ, Nueva Ecija, September 21 (PIA)-- For the Philippine Rice Program to succeed, the interplay of institutions, science, and technology would be necessary in the eventual agricultural modernization.

Positive modern approaches seemed to outweigh the negatives and reservations in the just concluded Field Day and Forum for Farmers held at the expansive compound of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) at Barangay Maligaya, this city.

Technical cooperation came from the Korea Program for International Agriculture (KOPIA) with Dr.Lee Sang-Guei as center director. "The Korean Government would like to help the farmers attain higher income and to contribute to the realization of the rice self-sufficiency program of the Department of Agriculture."

Kaneda, representing Mitsugi Hirotoshi of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said Japan assisted in the training methodology in coordination with five other countries initially, which will benefit in research and development.

USEC Dante de Lima, National Rice Program coordinator, expressed gratitude for the continued assistance given by concerned governments which provided the optimism in view of reservations implicitly shown by some sectors. Problems could be built-in for a national program because it seemed traditional to have rice shortage due to overpopulation and hindering factors to consider like bad weather, insufficient funding, and graft and corruption.

As an organic farming villager

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

By Kim Ji-myung

Almost 30 years ago I started cultivating some land in a small farming village called Joan-myeon, about 35 kilometers northeast of Seoul. Some 13 years ago, I settled there. While I don’t claim to be a farmer, I spend an average of three hours per week seeding, watering and weeding. Perhaps I could classify myself an amateur farmer.

Over the decades I have witnessed many changes to my village and its surroundings. The area’s name, alternatively ``Yangsuri” or ``Dumulmeori,” means `where the two rivers meet. On the shores of the vast Paldang Lake, a favorite destination is the famous Semiwon lotus garden.

At this area a truly historic event is taking place through Oct. 5, 2011. Some 1,100 organic farmers and sustainable farming experts from around the world are participating in the 17th Organic World Congress. In Asia for the first time, the event features academic presentations, market festivals, a food show, exhibitions and many other events.

According to the host organization, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement, or IFOAM, organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved."

As it relates to organic farming, IFOAM espouses four principles: the principles of health, ecology, fairness and care. The spirit of these principles is clear and rational. It would seem that everyone should embrace them.

And yet, modern farming has rapidly moved away from traditional methods to an industrial scale that prioritizes quantity and speed. The focus of even organic farming these days is on the product, rather than the process. The production of healthy food is emphasized over reclaiming a long-term, sustainable system of agriculture.

TIMOR-LESTE: Regulating land ownership "key to stability"

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

DILI, 29 September 2011 (IRIN) - Atoki Madeira says it started with threats and escalated into armed assaults. The 40-year-old Timorese NGO worker alleges the attacks stemmed from a dispute over a property she purchased in the Timorese capital, Dili, a decade ago.

The perpetrators were men from the east who, over several years, settled in and around her property in an attempt to squeeze her out, she says.

Her efforts to seek support from the police and courts have largely come to naught. She has abandoned her property and pitted her hopes on an intervention by the country's president.

"I'm afraid for my life. There are people who want to kill me," Madeira told IRIN.

One of many growing pains for this country are land disputes, which remain a potentially combustible issue in Timor-Leste, say analysts.

Land tenure lies at the core of how the country is defined, says Cillian Nolan, a Dili-based researcher for the International Crisis Group, who wrote a report published last year on the issue.

New land tenure legislation raises difficult questions for the government, he says. "What reparations must it make for the wrongs of [the Portuguese and Indonesian regimes]... and how will it enforce the rule of law?"

Tension over land rights is particularly raw because "food consumption, income and security are largely measured by control of and access to land", notes a 2006 report by USAID on the underlying causes of an army insurrection that year in which dozens were killed and some 150,000 people displaced.

The report by the US government's aid wing identified uncertainty over land rights as one of the most likely triggers of future violence in the half-island nation.

Food security should be about feeding the hungry, not making a profit

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:32:00 +0000

We need to stop thinking about food security as an economic problem.

Food security is largely discussed in terms of increasing demand pressures and worsening constraints on supply. These discussions miss the fundamental problem of food security today: around 1 billion people go hungry while up to 40% of food production is wasted.

Certainly the pressures and constraints are undeniable. Population continues to grow. Economic development means exploding demand for red meat and processed foods from the burgeoning Asian and Latin American middle classes.

At the same time, arable land is rapidly being consumed by urbanisation and development. Agricultural productivity is further threatened by soil erosion and the devastation of biodiversity– crops don’t thrive in a monoculture.

Fresh water resources are threatened by damming, pollution and the depletion of non-renewable fossil aquifers.

Sick of city life? Why not WWOOF?

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Volunteers escape to the country by helping out on organic farms

GWANGCHEON, South Chungcheong Province ― While most people here enjoyed family celebrations over Chuseok, Anna Gennaro and Roberto Sella took the harvest festival literally by staying on a Korean farm.

The Italian couple spent more than 10 days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday getting back to nature by volunteering on an organic farm in South Chungcheong Province.

“We decided to volunteer because we are really interested in nature and organic farming,” said 27-year-old Anna, who worked with Roberto, 24, to help plant onions and harvest red peppers at Young-I Farm, near Gwangcheon, a three hour KTX ride from Seoul.

“It is a good way to save money while traveling and be in contact with local people, and culture and also to learn about farming, which is something we would like to do in our life.”

The couple connected with the farm through the local branch of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, which opened in 1997 and now has over 50 member farms around Korea. As in the 50 other participating countries around the world, farmers producing food in a sustainable and ethical ways offer bed and board to visitors in return for 4-6 hours labor a day.

For anyone willing to get their hands dirty, a joining fee of 50,000 won will qualify the staunchest of city-dwellers to plant seeds and dig weeds and get a taste of country life.

WWOOF Korea organizer, Kota Fukuyama said WWOOFing was getting more popular here, with 350 people registering to volunteer last year.

Climate change considered as flooding hits Cambodia

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Published : Monday, August 15th, 2011
By : The Phnom Penh Post

Category : Carbon & Climate, Food & Agriculture
Region : Cambodia
Tags : crops, emissions, food security, irrigation, NGOs, reporting, rice, rural communities, UNDP,UNFCCC, universities

Changing weather patterns due to climate change could be disastrous for the 80% of Cambodians that rely on agriculture for their livelihood. Photo: EPA/MAK REMISSA

The wet season had come and gone with almost no rain. Despite the best efforts of the farmers from Tralach commune, in Takeo province’s Traing district, widespreadcrop failures two years ago brought the community to the economic, and dietary, brink.

Rice paddies were parched beyond salvaging, said Oxfam spokesperson Brian Lund in a recent interview, adding that the dried mud was nearly too hot to stand on.

“Usually [the farmers] harvest the rice barefoot, but that year, for the first time, they had to wear shoes,” he said.

This week, farmers in Kratie province are facing the opposite problem.

Severe flooding in 30 communes across the province has inundated more than 1,000 hectares of transplanted rice seedlings, threatening damage to this year’s crop, said provincial governor Kham Phoeun last week. As the government evacuated families and cattle to higher ground, many residents were concerned that this year’s harvest would be wasted.

The Cambodian Red Cross has donated food aid and sleeping supplies to evacuated families, but the flooding has cut off roads and, as of yesterday, at least one person had drowned in the rising water.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Water Resources, heavier-than-normal rainfall over the upper Mekong in Laos and Thailand has caused flooding downstream in Cambodia.

While both limited in geographic scope, the 2009 drought in Takeo province and the current crises in Kratie may represent two premonitory pieces in a larger climatic puzzle.

Worldwide, greenhouse gas emissions are spurring changes in the earth’s climate, leading to temperature increases and more erratic weather patterns. In Cambodia, rice cultivation relies on a predictable annual cycle of monsoon rains and dry seasons, and significant crop loss due to the occurrence of floods and drought is quite common.

Although Brian Lund warned that no single weather event, however severe and unprecedented, can be taken as proof of climate change, concerns are mounting.

Cambodia is preparing to deliver its second national communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report, essentially a progress update on national attempts to deal with climate change, has yet to be finalised but preliminary findings released in March 2010 suggest that Cambodia will face significant shifts in rainfall patterns, with potentially dire consequences for rice yields.

The study was conducted by the Ministry of Environment with support from the Global Environmental Facility and the United Nations Development Programme. UNDP Program Analyst Kalyan Keo summed up the predictions of the UNFCCC study succinctly: “The dry season will get drier and longer. The wet season will get shorter with more intense monsoons.”

Brian Lund, whose organisation Oxfam keeps tabs on food security in Cambodia, believes the country is experiencing “a trend towards increased variability in the growing season rainfall, either late starts or interruptions, possibly related to climate change.” He added that parts of the Kingdom might also experience “more intense flooding events.”

Too little rain means the growing season is shortened or interrupted, leaving farmers with too narrow a window to plant and harvest a full crop, said Brian Lund. Too much rain can also cause problems, flooding rice fields and killing the crop if it remains inundated for more than about eight days.

Experts agree that implicit in any climate change predictions is a degree of uncertainty resultant from the sheer number and complexity of variables being measured. Still, as Oxfam regional communications officer Soleak Seang explained: “In an agricultural sector that thrives on climatic predictability, increased unpredictability will always have a negative impact on farmers.”

Gunilla Wingqvist, an economist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden who helped conduct an environmental and climate change policy brief for Cambodia in 2009, wrote in a recent email that “Cambodia is … very vulnerable [to climate change] due to its low adaptive capacity and dependence on climate sensitive livelihoods”.

Tin Ponlok, project coordinator at the Ministry of Environment’s climate change office, corroborated her conclusion, pointing out that 80 percent of Cambodians are reliant on agriculture for their livelihoods.

With predictable rainfall providing the essential foundation of the Kingdom’s food security, fluctuations wrought by climate change may leave many Cambodians scrambling for answers as traditional sources of food grow increasingly unreliable. Less than a third of the land under rice cultivation receives any form of irrigation, according to the government’s National Strategic Development Plan Update published in 2009.

The Ministry of Environment’s 115-page National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change places a high priority on projects aimed at bolstering the nation’s agricultural sector against the harms of shifting weather patterns.

But in the almost five years since the plan was published, very few of its proposed projects have been implemented. More than US$200 million would be required to fully implement NAPA, said the Ministry’s Tin Ponlok, adding that, as of this year, less than $10 million in funding had been allotted to the programme, most of it from international sources.

NGOs and other organisations have stepped in to try to secure the Kingdom’s agricultural future. Oxfam is pursuing a system of rice intensification, a modified form of rice cultivation which produces faster-growing crops that are more resistant to destruction by the extreme weather events, said Brian Lund. The system has the potential to boost rice yields to as much 4.1 tonnes per hectare, 1.4 tonnes per hectare above the current national average, he added. So far 110,000 families have taken part in the project, and that number is growing.

Oxfam has also spearheaded a microfinance program which allows rural farming communities to pool their savings and distribute small loans to mitigate emergencies, a financial safety net which may become increasingly necessary as climate change puts rural livelihoods at risk. Lund emphasised that: “The adaptations most likely to succeed are those that come from the community itself.”

The UNDP, meanwhile, is conducting a pilot project to restore and maintain the nation’s irrigation networks. The project aims to equip local villagers with the skills and resources to maintain nearby irrigation works, providing for a more sustainable system of water delivery. It also hopes to develop a handful of “practical techniques and guidelines” for climate-proofing existing irrigation networks.

Kalyan Keo pointed to how, in many provinces, increased flooding has caused soil erosion, blocking the flow of water through canals. Problems such as these can be solved cheaply and easily by planting trees or building cement skirts around ditches, she said.

Through cooperation with several other NGO partners, the UNDP has also overseen the establishment of the Cambodia Climate Change Alliance which gives grants to various government ministries to implement adaptation programmes. The Alliance focuses especially on strengthening the capacity of the National Climate Change Committee, a governmental body established in 2006, and which now counts Prime Minister Hun Sen as any honourary chair, to coordinate the activities of all ministries with regards to issues of climate change.

Despite the blitzkrieg of food security and climate change adaptation initiatives from the non-profit sector, many challenges remain. Low public awareness of climate change and methods for adaptation, lack of a comprehensive policy and legal framework to address climate change, as well as insufficient funding and political will have all been cited as road blocks to securing Cambodia’s agricultural sector against climate change. As Oxfam’s Brian Lund put it:“There’s a lot of work to be done.” The Ministry of Environment’s Tin Ponlok took a slightly more optimistic view, contending that “relatively speaking we have made very good progress with regards to resources available to us,” although he too added that “many challenges lie ahead”.

While Cambodian policy-makers try to mobilise in defence of the Kingdom’s food security, the farmers in Tralach commune are feeling the heat.

By July, none had begun transplanting their rice crops, a process which normally begins in June.

Chhuokroth Sin, a 50-year-old resident of the commune, said last month: “[We] haven’t gotten enough rain this year either.”

SOURCE: http://www.eco-business.com/news/climate-change-considered-as-flooding-hits-cambodia/

‘Agro-climate’ posts ‘may help’ food security

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Elly Burhaini Faizal, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 07/27/2011 8:00 AM

A | A | A |

To counter the impacts of climate change on agriculture, the government has established climate observation posts nationwide.

Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) head Sri Woro Budiati Harijono said Tuesday that the government would develop Agricultural Meteorology Stations (SMPK), commonly known as agro-climate posts, in 100 priority areas, saying that more accurate climate information was the key to securing food production.

“We will develop them in stages, starting with 34 stations this year and 50 next year,” Sri Woro said at a press conference on the sidelines of a two-day international workshop on climate information services for the agriculture and forestry sectors.

The new posts are in addition to the 40 stations already established in major rice-producing areas.

The government will spend more than Rp 50 billion (US$5.9 million) on the 100 new posts.

Sri Woro said agro-climate posts would deliver weather forecasts in more detail, enabling farmers to develop a better farming calendar and in choosing appropriate crop varieties to grow at the right time.

Expanding the network of agro-climate posts, as well as developing “climate schools” for farmers, are part of follow-up measures taken by the agency to ensure rice production security as mandated by a presidential instruction on the security of national rice production in facing extreme weather.

“By attending climate schools, farmers have better knowledge of when the dry season will come, how to anticipate it, and what appropriate rice varieties are suitable replacements in certain times,” Sri Woro said.

Global food stocks, including in Indonesia, are affected by drastic changes in weather patterns and production estimates, as climate change has led to more unpredictable wet and dry seasons.

“Around 70 percent of global water use is in agriculture. Changes in rainfall, drought, or flooding would therefore affect agriculture and food production,” Lampung State University professor of agricultural economics Bustanul Arifin said.

He added that a dry season with high humidity in 2010 triggered a massive attack by planthoppers, blamed for the current decrease in food production.

“We have received several reports saying that pests are currently attacking paddy fields in several rice-producing areas in East Java, such as Ngawi and Madiun, and even rice production centers in Central Java such as Sragen,” Bustanul said.

The government is targeting 3.3 percent annual growth in food production that may lead to a surplus of 10 million tons of rice by 2014.

“The question is, can we achieve that target,” Bustanul said, adding that as of July 2011, rice production reached 68.6 million tons, showing only a 2.4 percent annual growth.

Apart from the agriculture sector, the BMKG will also improve climate information for the forestry sector by providing support on climate data for the implementation of the Indonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS) and for monitoring the Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS).

SOURCE: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/07/27/%E2%80%98agro-climate%E2%80%99-posts-%E2%80%98may-help%E2%80%99-food-security.html

Food Law revision: Bill must uphold food sovereignty: NGOs

noreply@blogger.com (jun) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:00:00 +0000

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 07/25/2011 9:56 AM

A | A | A |

A group of NGOs have called on lawmakers to include principles of food sovereignty in their draft revision to the 1996 Food Law to protect local farmers.

The House of Representatives is still drafting the revision, which will be deliberated after legislators return from recess.

Activists said the substance of bill was a far cry from the principles of food sovereignty, a term coined by supporters of Via Campesina or the Peasants’ Way, an international movement involving farmers who fight for their right to produce and define their food systems.

“Access to food is seen as only the people’s ability to purchase food, not their right to food,” the NGOs said in a statement last week.

M. Islah from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that the bill did not guarantee people’s right to food as it considered food merely as a commodity.

“Anything related to food should be seen in the perspective of food sovereignty to ensure that land for food production is protected from extractive industries.”

The NGOs said they were aware that the bill stipulated that the government guaranteed the livelihoods of farmers by providing land and financing for them, but said that given current conditions, they doubted that the government could abide by the bill.

Islah criticized the government for allowing the management of land belonging to farmers to fall into the hands of companies.

He cited the example of Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate, where “private firms PT Rajawali and PT Medco Energi Papua took over management of forests belonging to local farmers and transformed them into oil palm plantations”.

Islah said the government handed over their responsibility to the companies. “What happens next to the farmers is not food sovereignty, but food vulnerability,” he added.

Inda Fatinaware from the
department of environment and social risk mitigation at NGO Sawit Watch, expressed the same concerns. She said land conversion by companies threatened farmers’ livelihoods.

“We cannot balance continued population growth with agriculture land. Unfortunately, the amount of land available continues to decrease due to conversion and other uses by big companies,” she said.

Yuyun Harmono, the program officer of the Anti-Debt Coalition, said that even paid farmers accepted very low pay, well below the minimum wage.

The latest data from the Association of Indonesian Agriculture Graduates in July 2011 showed that farmers on average accepted very low monthly pay. Those with half a hectare of land accepted
Rp 750,000 (US$ 87.95) per month.

“Farmers who do not own land accept only Rp 250,000 per month,” Yuyun said.

He said the issue would worsen as 40 percent to 60 percent of the money was spent on fulfilling daily needs. Therefore, the agriculture sector no longer attracted young men to become farmers. “Most farmers are more than 45 years old,” Yuyun said. (fem)

SOURCE: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/07/25/food-law-revision-bill-must-uphold-food-sovereignty-ngos.html