Support for urban, community and institutional gardening for home consumption and the sale of leftovers

People are trained in organic production, management skills, nutrition, food processing and marketing. AGRUPAR provides producers with seeds, seedlings, poultry, guinea pigs, bees, inputs and equipment. It supports community gardens, family gardens and gardens in schools and other institutions, as well as small livestock production units. It also promotes vertical farming. Community gardens are established on communal land, or on land that the municipality rents out for a minimal price to growers, and receive an organic certification by AGRUPAR, whilst family gardens are established on individually owned land. It should be noted that that AGRUPAR does not provide official land titles. In 2018, AGRUPAR  had plans to open an additional 200 gardens.

  • AGRUPAR provides training and inputs
  • AGRUPAR arranges for communal land or land that is rented from the municipality

Not all orchards require an official organic certification, for example the orchards intended for family self-care do not require this process. For this reason, the project has implemented an internal control system (SIC, which is very similar to a system of participatory guarantees) for all orchards (certified or not) to ensure compliance with Ecuadorian organic production regulations.

Building a comprehensive community driven plan for peace and development

When Mayor Rommel C. Arnado was elected in May 2010, Kauswagan was still heavily affected by the Moro conflict. The first initiative that the administration made was to understand the causes at the root of the conflict in its community. A multisector technical working group was established and sent out to the remotest areas of the municipality to discuss directly with civilian and fighters. Additionally, several peace workshops were organized in conflict-affected areas. Arnado and his staff came to the conclusion that to achieve peace and stability it was necessary to address food security, poverty, hunger and inequalities. Through this bottom-up approach, a comprehensive community driven plan for peace and development called Sustainable Integrated Kauswagen Development and Peace Agenda (SIKAD-PA) was initiated, of which the From Arms to Farms Programme is a subcomponent.

The programme is based on a strong and broad participation of different actors. Peace-sensitive and performance-based plans and monitoring systems were set-up to ensure accountability and transparency. Financial management and tax collection reforms were also put in place.

The Arms to Farms programme shows that agroecology can be a powerful tool for radical and beneficial changes.

Building an inclusive policy

Rooted in the Danish political ambition to design policies that enable the private and public sector to become more innovative and competitive, the Minister of Agriculture put in place clear procedures for involving relevant stakeholders in order to ensure that the plan could meet the needs of the sector. Involvement was secured at the beginning of the plan development process based on a year-long consultation process and collaboration with the organic sector.

  • Preparation was based on a comprehensive process involving more than 200 stakeholders, who participated in three large workshops.
  • The Organic Food Council, a government-led forum of relevant interest groups, was involved in prioritizing the initiatives recommended, as a result of three workshops and 35 interviews held with key actors in the organic sector.

Stakeholder involvement was key to the Danish Organic Action Plan and ultimately led to its great success.

Reorientation

The history of governmental support to organic farming in Denmark starts in 1987, when the Danish Parliament adopted the Organic Farming Act, which laid down the basic structure of Danish organic farming policy, which still remains today. Permanent subsidies for organic farming were introduced in 1994. Early Organic Action Plans (OAPs) were established from 1995 to 1999.

 

The current OAP ‘Working together for more organics’ covers the period 2011 to 2020. It was revised and expanded in 2015, following a change of Government. The plan aims at doubling the land area of organic production by 2020 (against a baseline of 2007), and earmarks specific budgets over the period 2015 to 2018 to a set of different action-points. This plan was initiated by the Ministry for Agriculture and developed with the assistance of an external consultant.

The Danish Organic Action Plan was developed through the involvement of a broad spectrum of stakeholders in charge of defining the action points of the plan through several cycles of interviews, questionnaires and workshops. Since the 80s Denmark has been a forerunner in governmental support to sustainable agriculture, but the country is also a worldwide pioneer when it comes to designing policies according to inclusive and participatory approaches.

  • Whereas in the past the focus of policy support for organic farming was often production-oriented, the current Danish OAP considers market development (including support for certain marketing channels), promotion and awareness, as well as public procurement, as priorities.
  • The OAP is a mix of push and pull actions. Push effects are meant to increase production, while pull measures aim at increasing the demand for organic products.
Piloting organic farming and launching Sikkim Organic Mission

Between 2003 and 2010, several pilot programmes supporting organic farming were launched, including the implementation of bio-villages where farmers were trained in organic farming practices and the production of organic inputs such as composting, organic fertilizers and organic pesticide using with local plants and cow urine. During this period, the government also invested substantially in the construction of vermicomposting pits. By 2009, more than 100 villages had benefited from these programmes, reaching 10,000 farmers in all four districts of the state.

 

Under the Sikkim Organic Mission, launched in 2010, a number of additional actions to support organic agriculture were implemented, including capacity building, organic seed and planting material production, setting up a seed and soil testing laboratory, operation of Sikkim Organic retail outlet at New Delhi, the inclusion of organic farming in school curricula, the conversion of the two state government farms at Nazitam and Mellidara, which became Organic Centres of Excellence for conducting organic farming demonstrations and trials, and the launch of three livelihood schools as training centres for unemployed youth.

Activities aimed at supplying farmers with quality organic seeds included strengthening the seeds laboratory testing and processing facilities, and the development of a range of local organic seed development projects, such as contracting seed producers, government purchase and distribution, and establishing automated greenhouses for quality organic seedling production.

In 2016, a National Organic Farming Research Institute (NOFRI) was established at Gangtok. The Institute promotes research and education on organic farming, and provides research and technological backstopping to organic production systems, not only for Sikkim but for the whole North East Hills Region of India.

 

Certification has also been a crucial part of the programme. Eighty per cent of the budget between 2010 and 2014 was used to build the capacity of farmers, rural service providers and certification bodies in organic farming practices, requirements and inspections, and to support farmers in acquiring certification, mainly through the Internal Control System.

Frugal Rehabilitation Demonstration (FRD): developing and adapting the methodology (FRM) through action-research

Once demonstration sites are selected, local ASM groups receive training and are contracted to implement FRM through six steps:

  1. Preparation & Planning: degradation, boundary, hydrological & equipment assessments; labor, volume estimates; waste management; OHS standards
  2. Technical Rehabilitation: infill, regrading and reprofiling; use of limited mechanisation
  3. Topsoils: identification, conservation and re-distribution across sites
  4. Biological Rehabilitation: topsoil enrichment ; natural regeneration assessments; identification of native and key vegetation communities; seed collection; seeds and natural fertilizers distribution into topsoils; tree, shrub and grass plantings
  5. Mitigation Hierarchy: integrating rehabilitation planning into active ASM design and operations so as to reduce primary environmental impacts and unnecessary rehabilitation efforts
  6. Handover of completed rehabilitation site to relevant government administrations for approval/sign-off
  • National and local government permission to implement Frugal Rehabilitation Demonstration projects.
  • Resources to fund demonstration labour effort and technical application of methodology at site.
  • ASM capacity and willingness to receive training and implement the methodology on site.
  • Successful application of the FRM: all the key physical and ecological requirements for successful rehabilitation are (with few exceptions) available within reasonable proximity of the site. They just need to be identified and adapted to context.
  • Habitat rehabilitation targeted to native vegetation communities can be successful without the use of non-native species.
  • Identification and recovery of topsoils are critical to success.
  • Biological rehabilitation works well together with topsoil seedbank  to establish a path to ecological recovery.
  • Low level mechanised approaches to heavy-lifting of material in topographic filling  can be effective but a dependence on mechanisation in the later stages of rehabilitation is not recommended. Overuse of machinery in these latter phases can result in reduced capacity for biological recovery.
  • FRM can be applied in abandoned areas, where mineral reserves are exhausted, and it can also be integrated into current ASM operations to reduce rehabilitation efforts.
  • Handover and sign-off from local authorities is key to ensure ongoing commitment.
Ministerial and Sectoral Alignment: a partnership-based approach to developing a Frugal Rehabilitation Methodology

Acknowledging and identifying conflicts between ministries and sectoral stakeholders is important. It is important at the early stages of an initiative to recognise these problems and to establish and work through a consultative platform to make the case for a methodology that is of value to all stakeholders, that is inclusive of artisanal miners and the stakeholders impacted by such mining as well as government ministries. It is only through such collaboration that a methodology can be developed that addresses environmental concerns, meets artisanal miners needs for performance-based incentives and access to land, and can be valued by government in formalising condition-based permitting for mining. It is within the context and platform of engagement that the FRM can be demonstrated to be of value to all stakeholders, and deliver outcomes at the local as well as national level.

  • Government recognition of range of problems across the sector
  • Government alignment on best environmental practices and effective enforcement
  • Government willingness to engage in wider partnerships to assess problems associated with informal ASM and to seek solutions and incentives for better environmental practices
  • National and stakeholder willingness for ASM formalisation to be conditional on environmental performance
  • ASM sector willing to implement FRM
  • Stakeholders willing to endorse ASM licensing based on improved environmental practices

It is critical for the initiative to have support from the national government, as a gateway to engaging with local government and other local stakeholders impacted by artisanal mining. Also, it is important that leading ministries that may potentially hold conflicting views (e.g. mining and environment) appreciate and support the initiatives’ capacity for developing solutions and approaches that can deliver benefits of interest to all parties (ministries).

Packages of seeds and agrochemicals

The farmers together with the technical advice by the agricultural extension service by the cooperative "Agra va Iqlim" get the opportunity to purchase directly the appropriate packages of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and other agrochemicals. As these purchases are needed at the begin of the growth season, when financial means are scarce, they are partly provided on loan basis under affordable conditions (interest rate below normal market rates).

Enabling factors are:

- Packages of seeds and agrochemicals are adapted to local growth conditions and all components are complementary;

- Inputs are made affordable during the time when they are needed, but typically farmers cannot afford them;

- Loans can be returned when farmers have income from the harvest.

The combination of agricultural extension providing side-specific advice with tailored packages of agricultural inputs and the financial mechanism (part loan at affordable conditions) are key for the adoption of new and adapted agricultural technologies and practices. If one or two of these elements would be missing the rate of adoption and succesful application would massively drop. Without specific technical advice farmers do not have the awareness and capacity to purchase suitable combinations of complementary inputs. Advice without the opportunity of direct purchase leaves too much a barrier in terms of the farmers having to find suppliers on their own and having high opportunity costs, and possibly sometimes purchasing suboptimum combinations or insufficient quality and quantity of inputs. And only the availability of a timely and affordable loan enables the farmers to purchase the full quantity of inputs and to apply the adapted technologies. 

Diversity of water sources

Irrigation water can be used from different sources. In the region, where the solution is implemented these are:

- the Syrdarya river, from where it is pumped through large pipelines;

- irrigation canals;

- wells;

- small springs, which are captured by simple means;

- rainwater collection from the roofs of houses.

 

The different water sources are related to a diversity of governance systems. The regional government owns and maintains large pipelines and canals, medium irrigation canals are in the responsibility of district water management authorities and smaller structures are cared for by the communities or by individual farmers.

 

Depending on the amounts of irrigation water available and the associated costs there are increasingly new and water efficient technologies applied for irrigation of the lands.

The diversity of sources of irrigation water is an enabling factor by itself.  Together with the availability of diverse technologies it allows for the continuation of irrigated farming under the conditions of climate changed induced increasing aridity and irrigation water shortage.

Irrigated agriculture can be effective and efficient with different sources of irrigation water. Creative innovations and the application of best practices allow for the capturing of even small sources of irrigation water and their use for the cultivation of irrigation dependent crops and thus for generation of local income. By this the resilience of land users to the impact of climate change is improved.

Partnerships and collaboration around nutritional security

Working together with other stakeholders for synergy helps in ensuring success.

Pooling human, technical and financial resources helps in achieving more for less time and money, and also helps curb replication of solutions.

All partners and the community are actively involved in the entire process thus each party takes ownership resulting to success.

  • Cordial relations among all stakeholders
  • Timely communication and coordiantion to enable participation
  • Resource allocation by each participating partner to ensure smooth operations hence no gaps/delays in service delivery

Stakeholder collaboration is essential for successful problem diagnosis, identification, planning and implemetation of any interventions in the community