Isra-Mart srl:UN: farmers can reap higher yields using natural methods

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Shifting away from artificial fertilisers and pesticides to ecological farming could double food production within a decade, a UN report has argued.

Released yesterday, the report predicts so-called agroecology techniques, such as Bangladeshi rice farmers using ducks to eat weeds in paddy fields, could also make farms more resilient to floods, droughts and rising sea levels associated with climate change.

The study by Olivier de Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, says record food prices and increasing reliance on an oil-dependent model of industrial farming could be countered by adopting agricultural techniques pioneered in Cuba, which allowed the island nation to defy the loss of cheap fertilisers and pesticides following the collapse of its Soviet benefactors and increase yields during the 1990s.

The report says agricultural projects in 57 nations that use natural methods to deter pests or high-canopy trees to shade coffee groves have resulted in crop yields increasing 80 per cent, while 20 African projects saw crop yields double within three to 10 years.

De Schutter said the implications of the report's findings are greatest for sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia. "Sound ecological farming can significantly boost production and, in the long term, be more effective than conventional farming," he told Reuters at the launch of the report.

However, he noted that developed nations would find a quick shift to agroecology methods problematic, because of their "addiction" to an industrial agricultural model.

De Schutter's work comes a day after a report from UN agency the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated food security was at risk from climate change-related weather events, increasing demand for biofuels and protectionist tariffs.

It warned food price volatility is likely to continue, and could destabilise vulnerable nations as prices continue an upward trend over the next decade.