Despite being a small state, Sikkim’s visionary leadership is receiving extensive attention in India and appears destined to reverberate worldwide. Neighbouring countries and states show high interest in replicating and many other countries, especially in Asia, invited Sikkim to exchange its experiences.

Bhutan has already set out a new road map towards becoming a 100 per cent organic state by 2023, and now a number of Indian states are interested in following the wish of the India’s Prime Minister to see the whole of North India converting to organic agriculture. At the beginning of 2018, Uttakarand became the second Indian state to promise broader support to organic farming for its 1.6 million farmers, announcing an action plan backed by approximately EUR 189 million of federal funding for the next three years. Organic agriculture can help India to achieve its own sustainable development goals, including doubling the income of rural farmers by 2022, if more Indian states adopt Sikkim’s model of organic farming.

Ndiob’s achievements inspire others to follow its example. In particular, Ndiob’s Mayor is chairing the Network of Green Municipalities and Cities of Senegal (REVES): Some 30 mayors attended its first constitutive meeting held in Ndiob in January 2017, where they adopted a Charter of Green Municipalities and Cities of Senegal. Subsequently, REVES has developed an action plan (Declaration of Mékhé) that resulted in: 1. Capacity-building activities for mayors on agroecology and biosecurity (GMOs), e.g. two workshops were organised in 2017 with the technical support of ENDA PRONAT in the communities of Mékhé and Dramé Escale, and 2. Implementation of the agro-ecological vision of rural development in a few pilot municipalities, including that of the Mayor of Ndiob (Thiallé and Soumnane). Ndiob inspired other communities to join REVES which has become a platform for exchange of experience and methods.

The community of Ndiob consists of 18 villages that were formed into 5 village groups of a certain area, which focused on one of the five collectively defined themes. The Agriculture Development Programme includes hence five themes:

1. Agriculture, including infrastructure and agricultural equipment, seeds stocks, intensification and diversification of agroecology;
2. Livestock breeding and farming, including cattle breeding, poultry food production for livestock;
3. Soil fertility, including anti-erosion measures; desalination, composting;
4. Management of natural resources, including improving the state of the valley and ponds, restoration of soil coverage, strengthening of local governance;
5. Food security, including construction of processing and storage facilities for agricultural produce, improving nutrition projects, local bank for savings and micro-credits to support local agriculture, livestock and poultry breeding as well as the use of the ponds.

Responsible for the policies are the Mayor and Municipal Council of Ndiob, with input from the local communities. The policies are implemented through the municipality, with support of strategic partners such as ENDA PRONAT, and in cooperation with the Collective of Friends and Partners of the Community of Ndiob (CAPCOMMUN).

To implement its vision, the Ndiob Municipal Council has set itself a certain number of objectives both in terms of self-sufficiency in certified seed and production for sale of cereals and peanuts seeds which are the main cash crop of the municipality. Ndiob’s minimum goal is to produce the village’s annual consumption of 3,650 tonnes of millet and to plant peanuts on 2,500 ha to be sold as certified seeds on markets and thereby create cash revenues. It selected 84 seed breeders, each one planting one hectare for breeding stock. Each of these producers has received from Ndiob municipality and from CAPCOMMUN partners seeds and reinforcements in technical capacities.

The Good Food Purchasing Program’s metric-based, flexible framework encourages large public institutions to measure and then make shifts in their food purchases. By adopting the framework, food service institutions commit to improving their regional food system by implementing meaningful purchasing standards in all five value categories:

• Local Economics: the Good Food Purchasing Program supports local small and mid-sized agricultural and food processing operations.
• Environmental Sustainability: the Good Food Purchasing Progam requires institutions to source at least 15% of the food from producers that employ sustainable production systems.
• Valued Workforce: the Good Food Purchasing Policy promotes safe and healthy working conditions and fair compensation for all food chain workers and producers.
• Animal Welfare: the Good Food Purchasing Policy promotes healthy and humane care for farm animals.
• Nutrition: Finally, the Good Food Purchasing Policy promotes health and well-being by outlining best practices that offer generous portions of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and minimally processed foods, while reducing salt, added sugars, saturated fats, and red meat consumption, and eliminating artificial additives.

TEEBAgriFood’s Evaluation Framework answers the question: What should we evaluate about food systems? And TEEBAgriFood’s methodologies answer the question: How should we do these evaluations? TEEBAgriFood illustrates five families of applications to compare: (a) different policy scenarios; (b) different farming typologies; (c) different food and beverage products; (d) different diets/ food plates; and (e) adjusted versus conventional national or sectoral accounts.

AGRUPAR could well serve as a model for other cities and form the basis for a national policy on local production.

CONQUITO has favoured observation tours and exchanges of experiences as well as transfer of methodologies, including among ministries and NGOs, for example the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Aquaculture and Fisheries and the Peace Corps.

Since 2015, AGRUPAR contributed to both the City Region Food Systems Project of FAO and the RUAF Foundation, which evaluated Quito’s food system. As a result, AGRUPAR staff decided to work towards a food policy for the city in a more systemic sense, within which urban agriculture is a strategic activity.

Through the biofairs and other activities, AGRUPAR promotes healthy diets and sustainability. The Programme created 17 bio-fairs where 105 types of food are offered. Through these, 25% of the produce is commercialized, for about USD 350,000 per year.

Food is sold in organic produce markets – the bioferias –located in low-income neighbourhoods and peri-urban zones, as well as in better-off parts of the city. As well, the District Trade Coordination Agency has begun to consider the large-scale commercialization of agro-ecological and organic foods through its markets and opened a first market of this kind, including for farmers supported by AGRUPAR. To help producers meet food quality and safety standards, AGRUPAR has introduced improved processing technologies and the use of containers, packaging and labels. AGRUPAR is registered as a producer and marketer of organic produce at the national level allowing it to share the cost of product certification with participating producers.

In addition to the bio-fairs, networks of farmers are also formed to deliver organic produce baskets directly to producers and to hotels or restaurants selling traditional food. AGRUPAR is registered as a producer and marketer of organic produce at the national level and shares the cost of product certification with producers.

Kauswagan’s From Arms to Farms Programme is one of the 19 components that frame the strategy of the integrated SIKAD peace agenda. The programme addresses sustainable agriculture and food security while providing for the reintegration of ex-combatants through organic farming. Fighting poverty and increasing food security were prioritized. Organic farming was seen as two-fold tool to develop a resilient agricultural system that does not heavily rely on external inputs and at the same time fosters job creation, providing a source of income for the fighters that surrendered.

At the beginning, 200 rebel commanders as well as farmers were introduced to the programme through a series of meetings and workshops, implemented with help from the Philippine army and the Agricultural Training Institute. A key focus was on capacity building. The local government, together with the Assisi Development Foundation, built a school for agriculture. Once the facility was ready, the local government was able to start supporting ex-combatants and their families, as well as local farmers, to learn how to implement organic and agroecological practices.