ecological agriculture for food security and child malnutrition

1. The Role Of Ecological Agriculture In
Food Security And Alleviating Child
Malnutrition
By: Yosef Alemu
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2. Outline
• Introduction
• Ecological Agriculture
• Approach To Ecological Agriculture
• Food Security Using Ecological Agriculture
• Ecological Agriculture To Alleviate Child
Malnutrition
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3. Introduction
• human-induced climate change is resulting in
less and more erratic rainfall, especially in
regions where food security is very low
• The poor in rural and dry areas will suffer the
most from these changes and they will require
cheap and accessible strategies to adapt to
erratic weather
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4. Ecological 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.
• Crops grown without using synthetic
pesticides, synthetic inorganic fertilizers, or
genetically engineered seeds, Animals grown
without using antibiotics or synthetic hormones
• 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.
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5. Ecological agriculture vs industrialized
agriculture
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6. • Organic agriculture has a significant role to
play in addressing two of the world’s biggest
and most urgent issues: climate change and
food security
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7. Approach to ecological agriculture
• Building healthier soil
• Increasing biological diversity of system
• Improved Water management technique
• Pest Control with Zero Pesticides
• Livestock management
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8. Building healthier soil
• Prominent among these practices is the addition
of manure or compost.
– Manure is an organic matter used as organic fertilizer
in agriculture, it contribute to the soil by adding
organic matter and nutrient such as nitrogen that is
trapped by bacteria in the soil.
– they are readily available and are important
agricultural byproduct
– they increase the water holding capacity of the soil
– Stimulate activities of microorganisms that made plant
food element in the soil readily to crops
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9. Manure commonly used on ecological
agriculture
• Farm yard manure
• Green manure
• Vermi-compost
• Crop residue
• bio fertilizer
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10. • Soil conservation, some methods
– Terracing
– Contour planting
– Strip cropping with cover crop
– Alley cropping, agroforestry
– Windbreaks or shelterbelts
– Conservation-tillage farming
• No-till
• Minimum tillage
• Avoid the use of chemical fertilizer
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11. Increasing biological diversity of
system
• biodiversity of an agro ecosystem can help maintain its
long-term productivity and contribute significantly to
food security since they have a better chance of
copping with change in climate than monocultures
• diversity can be increased through increasing the
variety of crops grown at one time on the parcel of
land, and by adding trees and/or animals into the
system.
• increasing crop diversity itself growing different
varieties of the same crop that have different attributes
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12. 8/10/2014 12

13. Ecological agriculture promote
biodiversity
Meta analysis of comparative studies (Bengtsson et al.,
2005):
• Species richness 30% higher in organic farms
– Birds, Plants
– Predatory insects, carabidae
• Species abundance 50% higher in organic farms
– Weeds, Soil organisms (earthworms)
– Predatory insects, carabidae
– Not potential pest species!
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14. Better water management
• Organic agriculture systems, capture, store and use
water more efficiently due to better soil structure and
higher levels of humus and other organic matter
compounds with sponge-like properties
• Practice such as crop residue retention, mulching and
agro forestry conserve soil moisture and protect crops
against microclimate extremes
• By efficiently Collecting and concentrate run of water
in a pit and function with small amount of manure and
compost
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15. Food Security Using Ecological
Agriculture
• Combating poverty through reducing debt and
increasing returns for labor invested
• Organic agricultural practices build soil, thereby
increasing productive land availability while halting
and reversing land degradation and erosion.
• Importantly, organic agriculture approaches are also
accessible to small-scale and poor farmers who depend
on biodiversity, soil health and locally-available
resources for agricultural production.
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16. Example
• Tigray project, having started in 1996 in four villages, was extended
to 165 districts by 2008 and has become the model for Ethiopian
agricultural development policy. Outcomes include:
– within a period of 2-3 years, farmers replaced artificial fertilizers
completely and relied exclusively on compost, as the positive
effects were seen very quickly
– the use of compost also resulted in higher yields than those
achieved with chemical fertilizer
– improved soil quality and hydrological conditions enabled farmers
to grow a greater diversity of crops, improving the resilience of
the food system, providing better nutrition and new income
opportunities
– The improved moisture retention capacities of soil under organic
management improved the chances of producing a crop even in
drought conditions
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17. How ecological farming can mitigate
climate change
• Reduce green house gases, especially nitrous oxide, as
no nitrogen fertilizer are used
• Organic agriculture enhances biodiversity, protects
fragile soils, improves the nutritional quality of food,
ensures high standards of animal welfare
• emissions and fossil fuel energy use, cuts nutrient and
pesticide pollution and stops potentially harmful
pesticide residues entering our food chain.
• Organic agriculture builds resilient farming systems
capable of combating climate change and securing local
food supplies and is highly effective in sequestrating
carbon.
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18.  Alleviating child malnutrition
• Since the organic farming system is more
diverse than the conventional farming system,
children have more access to more diversified
diet
• mixed cropping as compared to conventional
mono cropping also shows to have significantly
higher yield in protein, vitamins and essential
minerals
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19. • References
– Fred Magdoff ,Ecological agriculture : Principles , practices , and
constraints
– Dr . Vandana Shiva ,Dr . Vaibhav Singh Organic Solutions to Hunger
and Malnutrition
– ReyesCotter, Janet Ecological farming ,
– Stabinsky, Doreen Ecological agriculture for food security and climate
resilience,
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20. THANK YOU
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