[P2P-F] Fwd: ARTICLE: Farming with Nature (reThink, 28 June 2018)

Wed Jul 4 14:04:19 CEST 2018

fyi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ryan Fortune <ryan.fortune2012 at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 1:37 PM
Subject: ARTICLE: Farming with Nature (reThink, 28 June 2018)
To: James Gien Wong <gien at stopresetgo.org>
Cc: Brenda Skelenge <breske at me.com>, Paul Wildman <paul at kalgrove.com>,
Michael Thompson <mthompson.architect at gmail.com>, Lerato Mohapi-Thahane <
thahane.lerato at gmail.com>, steven johnstone <steven.johnstone at askd.co.za>,
Tom Harper <tafharper at gmail.com>, Andy Thomson <andythomson2000 at gmail.com>,
Jerome Osentowski <jerome at crmpi.org>, senai <firesenai at gmx.de>, Michael H
Shuman <shuman at igc.org>, jose ramos <jose at actionforesight.net>, michel
bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>, Themba Tana <thembatana at shaw.ca>,
homeJudith Lee <judithlee at shaw.ca>, Rebekka Harvey <rebekkah at shaw.ca>,
Roberto Valenti <robbyvalenti at gmail.com>, Bryan Curtin <
bryan.curtin at gmail.com>, bernie <bcj1707 at gmail.com>, conway lotter <
conway at hubd.com>, Markus Verena's friend <easyrhinoprime at gmail.com>, "Marco
[reNature]" <artmiks.marco at gmail.com>, Felipe Villela <
felipebvillela at hotmail.com>

Twelve years ago, in 2006, Haregu Gobezay was unemployed and her family
with six children relied on her husband’s salary to cover all their
expenses.

Today, Gobezay and her husband manage a 12-hectare farm with mango, orange,
mandarin, and avocado plantations in Mereb Leke District of the Tigray
Region in northern Ethiopia. They also keep a few dairy cows, and chickens
for egg production.

They no longer rely on a single crop. The finger millet they used to grow
often suffered from weed invasions and termites, and the yield was low due
to thin and nutrient-poor soils.

Now they grow a wide range of different crops.

This has helped them tackle many challenges, and made it possible for them
to employ almost a hundred people and make a good profit from selling mango
and other fruits.

*Agroecology has the explicit goal of strengthening the sustainability of
all parts of the food system, from the seed and the soil, to the table,
including ecological knowledge, economic viability, and social justice.*

Gobezay started with planting vegetables; she then added fruit trees, and
peanut plants as cover crops that fertilise the soil by fixing nitrogen
from the air, with the help of bacteria living in their root systems.
Eventually, she brought in dairy cows and started cultivating pasture
plants such as alfalfa, Rhodes grass, and elephant grass under the trees.

To improve soil fertility further and to increase soil organic matter, the
family now prepares compost in 20 big pits. In addition, a biogas plant on
the dairy farm produces bio-slurry compost and energy for cooking.

The family also uses “push-pull” technology as an additional source of
income. The technology was developed in Africa to control Striga weeds and
insect pests, particularly stemborer moths, without using chemical
pesticides. It involves growing maize, sorghum or mango trees together with
flowering plants such as Desmodium that repel, or “push”, the pests, and
planting other plants such as elephant grass around the crops to attract,
or “pull”, the pests. Desmodium eliminates Striga weeds and repels the
stemborers, which are instead attracted to the elephant grass. By growing
Desmodium, the family’s farm has become a source of seeds for scaling up
the push-pull technology in the whole region.

More and more farmers around the world are turning away from
chemical-intensive single-crop farming in favour of production methods
based on diversity, local inputs of for example compost, and ecosystem
services.

This kind of “agroecological” farming has seen a revival in recent years as
a response to the many challenges facing agriculture globally.

There is growing evidence that agroecological farming systems keep carbon
in the ground, support biodiversity, rebuild soils, and sustain yields,
providing a basis for secure livelihoods.

Today’s agriculture produces enough food for the global population, but it
has not given everyone everywhere access to sufficient, safe, and
nutritious food.

Agriculture has also contributed to soil degradation
<https://rethink.earth/turning-desert-to-fertile-farmland-on-the-loess-plateau/>,
a misuse of natural resources, and the crossing of crucial planetary
boundaries that have kept Earth in a relatively stable state for the past
11,000 years, since before agriculture was invented.

* CONTINUE READING:* https://rethink.earth/farming-with-nature/

-- 
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