Cres Ian Lorenzo
First of two parts
THE paradigm shift to a regenerative and resilient food production system can be successful if we all take concerted action to establish the required foundation solidly.
Alongside that, we must be fully aware of what we should advocate for, as this will serve as the impetus to scale up the practices and systems to attain resiliency in the agriculture sector.
And let me state clearly and strongly that regeneration and resiliency make for a perfect convergence for agriculture. But which should come first? Regeneration or attaining resiliency? We can arrive at the answer by the end of this column-series.
Now, let us discuss the foundation for the regenerative component of agriculture: Healthy soils; efficient water utilization and conservation; biodiversity; healthy landscapes; and ecosystem restoration.
For resiliency, the following comprise the foundation: diversity; adaptation; risk management; climate intelligence; and ability to absorb shocks.
It would be unwise to exclude or neglect one or two components for the foundation of both the regenerative and resiliency aspects of agriculture in order to attain a sustainable and efficient food production system. Also, each of the components for both the regenerative and resiliency aspects directly or indirectly compliment or is linked to each other.
For example, inefficient water utilization will make it impossible to attain ecosystem restoration, while ecosystem restoration will result in more water availability. Taking it the other way around, lack of emphasis on ecosystem restoration will also lead to less water availability, especially during the dry season.
Also, climate intelligence is required for risk management and the ability to absorb shocks. Take note, however, that the ability to absorb shocks is not entirely dependent on climate intelligence. Ability to absorb shocks will also need knowledge of geography and ecosystems.
The resilience revolution
Why the need for a “resilience revolution” for agriculture?
I have discussed in my past two columns an overview of the resilience revolution for agriculture and the benefits to farmers, consumers and society in general.
And from this point, we can clearly see the need for a resilience agriculture due to the following:
– Vulnerability of food production systems;
– The extractive nature of agriculture;
– Stakeholders and actors thinking in silos;
– Focused more on production;
– Abundance of information, much of which is not applicable or is already outdated;
– Isolation of stakeholders, most especially the smallholders; and
– Focus on piloting, resulting in no real dispersal of proven technologies.
When we all succeed in the resiliency revolution for regenerative agriculture, the following should all be attained:
– Resilient food production systems;
– Regeneration of resources to cultivate food;
– Systems oriented, or sets and subsystems being connected with each other;
– Value creation, including the production of affordable and nutritious food;
– Intelligently solving problems and innovating;
– Partnerships with major stakeholders, most especially the smallholders; and
– Scaling up aggressively proven technologies and systems.
Facing the 'perfect storm'
It is definitely foolish at this point to move forward in a “business as usual” fashion, as the local and global agriculture sector now faces a “perfect storm.”
And that perfect storm is worsening and we have witnessed firsthand how much havoc it can wreak on our agriculture sector, literally.
After the pandemic, the global agriculture sector primarily faced challenges from the three Cs — climate, conflict and the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically weakened economies and households.
But things have changed rapidly and that is very obvious.
Firstly, the climate challenge is worsening as drought, flooding, heat waves and storms have become more prevalent.
Because of that, water scarcity, land degradation and biodiversity loss are accelerating at an alarming rate.
And the bad news is the “Super” El Niño will most likely occur starting next month and will last until early next year. So, just imagine the type of hardships our smallholder farmers have to endure, most especially those who already incurred massive losses from the past typhoons and monsoon rains.
Food insecurity remains unresolved, and the issue of providing affordable and nutritious meals for every household is beginning to become a primary concern of policymakers.
The Philippine economy has also slowed down, and I also blame unresolved corruption issues for that. Also, volatility on the global energy markets, most especially oil and petroleum products, is clobbering our economy.
Philippine inflation has also remained elevated since the start of the Middle East conflict.
The result of a bad economy is that more and more households are having less and less money to spend on food, worsening food insecurity.
The global geopolitical scenario has also worsened. Right after the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war started with no end in sight up to now. And the same goes for the Middle East conflict. Both wars have impacted global food systems, with the Middle East conflict affecting international fertilizer supply.
Finally, a bad economy pushes more people into poverty. And this is worsened by structures that enforce inequality, including in the agriculture sector, where millions of smallholders still form part of the “poorest of the poor.” We should be ashamed of this.
And you do not need a genius to realize that the individual issues causing the perfect storm are interconnected. So, if one issue worsens, one or several issues worsen.
In the next installment of this two-part series, I will discuss more on the policy and scientific components for us to attain resiliency and regenerative agriculture or food production system.
