Linkages between healthy landscapes and food security

1. Foundations for Resilient Livelihoods:
Soils, Savings and Trees
Douglas R. Brown
Director, Agriculture and Food Security
11 April 2012
Presentation at the international conference:
Beating famine: Sustainable food security through land
regeneration in a changing climate , Nairobi, Kenya

2. Some thoughts on hunger and food
 “but hunger is not a natural disaster. It is a legacy of
choices made in the past. It stems from a series of
decisions that, in retrospect, appear short-sighted, and
were based on a wrong diagnosis of the causes of hunger,
leading to incorrect prescriptions to remedy it. The single
most important proximate cause of hunger today is that
… countries have either not invested sufficiently in
agriculture or have invested in the wrong kind of
agriculture, with little impact on the reduction in rural
poverty.”
 Source:
de Schutter and Cordes. 2011. Accounting for Hunger. Page 2.

3. Some thoughts on hunger and food
 “Food is indispensible for humanity. If there is
enough to eat and the food supply is sure, then
we’ll develop. But if we haven’t enough to eat,
then we cannot develop. We must sort out the
food problem before we do anything else.”
 Source:
Yacouba Sawadogo in “The Man who Stopped the
Desert”, http://www.1080films.co.uk/Yacoubamovie/

4. Some thoughts on worldview and food
production
 Religion, cultural values and norms
 “those worldview beliefs that determine
cultural values and individual motivation and
behaviour ”
 Source:
Gary W. Fick. 2008. Food, Farming and Faith
 A study of the linkage between Judeo-Christian
foundations or principles found in the Bible and
agricultural sustainability.

5. The heart of the matter
 Agriculture has two essential parts:
 Working the land
 Taking care of the land
 Source: Genesis 2:15
 What do we most often emphasize?
 What do we neglect?

6. Investing in the Asset
Base for Resilient
Livelihoods
 Natural Capital
 Soil, water, land
 Human Capital
 Knowledge and skills
 Social Capital
 Institutions
 Cultural values and
norms
 Physical Capital
 Financial Capital
 Finances
 Market institutions

7. But something is missing too
 HORN OF AFRICA: Greater food insecurity forecast
 Source: IRIN, 5 April 2012,
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95247/HORN-OF-AFRICA-Greater-food
 Support to resilience is said to be essential – but what is
that? Is it?:
 Long term investment in education, water and early warning
 Provision of drought-resistant seeds, water, education, weather
forecasting and scaling up nutrition
 The question we have been asking:
 What will build or restore resilience?

8. Source: DFID. 2011. Defining Disaster Resilience: A DFID Approach Paper.

9. Ecosystem resilience and food security
(Conway and Toenniessen, 2003)

10. Ecosystem resilience and food security
 Increase dryland agricultural productivity (profitability), sustainability
and resilience through
 Capturing higher percentage of rainfall
 Mulch vs bare soil
 Contour bunds
 Ridge tillage
 Other S&WC practices
 Increasing soil organic matter content
 Improves soil’s capacity to absorb rainfall and retain soil
moisture
 Increases capacity of soil to retain plant nutrients
 Improves fertilizer use efficiency
 Incorporate trees into the agropastoral landscape
 Increase resiliency to climatic and market shocks through more
diversified production systems

11. State: State:
CWBO1: CWBO2:
Resilient Food
Parents Nourishe
Livelihoo Securit
Provide d
d y
Agricultural
Production Household
Land Knowledge
Resources Food
& Skills
Consumption
(quantity,
quality,
intrahoushol
Income Cultural
d allocation,
Values,
etc.)
Labour Norms &
Resources Priorities
Other Uses
of Income
Non-Agr. (+ve, -ve)
Use of
Labour Savings
Understanding the system in order to effect change

12. Foundations for Resilient Livelihoods
 Soils, Savings, Trees (SST)
 Soils
 Protect, restore soils through good S&WC practices
 Savings
 Savings groups for all households
 Tress
 Regeneration of woody vegetation in the landscape
 These are the foundations for resilience
 Accessible to all
 Even the poorest and most vulnerable
 Other things are good, but these are foundational

14. Development is …
 People
 Wanting things to be better – hopes and aspirations
 May feel trapped – need the space and the possibility to change
 Change
 People need to be free to change
 People need to want to change
 People need to be able to change
 Helping people to bring about change through
 Local participation
 Local perceptions
 Local knowledge
 Local empowerment
 Local institutions, cultural values and norms

16. Source:
Sahel Working Group. 2011. Escaping
the Hunger Cycle - Pathways-to-
Resilience-in-the-Sahel.
http://www.groundswellinternational.org/sust
http://www.odi.org.uk/events/details.asp?id=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTIVdNK