Title of document: Lessons from Nature - A guide to Ecological Agriculture in the tropics Authors: Shimpei Murakami Year of publication: 1991 Over millions of years, nature has built up an intricate system of relationship of exchange and mutual dependence among its elements - land, water, air, forest, sunlight and living things - to create what we call the ecosystem. It is the life support system of all living things on this planet and provides not oniy the daily needs but also saves resources for future generations. But this very life support system is endangered by man's aggression against nature. In the last few decades, the aggression has reached unprecedented levels. Blinded by his so-called 'scientific and technological achievements' he believes in 'conquering' nature and that it can be exploited endlessly. This is nothing but arrogance and an excuse for rapacious greed. With all his bragging about science and technology he fails to understand the superior science of nature. Based on this false understanding, man's relationship with nature has turned into one of enmity. But in this war of aggression, man is certainly going to be the loser; he and other living species will face extinction. Already, the signs are foreboding - global warming, acid rain, ozone layer depletion, massive deforestation, advancing deserts, prolonged drought, marauding flooc and apocalyptical cyclones are ravaging many parts of the earth. However, the destruction of the environment is not only the result of man's arrogance of science, but also a result of the way he has organized his society - its economic, social and cultural systems. The economic system encourages monopolization of resources by a few, the social system promotes the acquisition of power by a small minority at the cost of disenfranchising many, and the cultural system advocates greed and reckless consumption in the name of individualism. If sanity does not prevail upon man, then he will soon destroy the environment and with it himself and other living things. For survival, he has to build a society which is based on equitable and sustainable sharing of resources which decentralizes social power and promotes consumption based on need, not on the greed of a few. His technology and science should try to understand the principles and laws of nature and derive sustenance in a sustainable manner by harmoniously blending technology and science with the superior technology and science of nature.   Read More

Title of document: A quantitative and qualitative historical analysis of the scientific discipline of agroecology Authors: A. Wezel; V. Soldat Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: Department of Agroecosystems, Environment and Production, ISARA, Lyon, France Year of publication: 2009 Main issues / topics addressed: agroecology, agroecosystem, agronomy, biodiversity, organic farming, rural development, sustainability In general, agroecology deals with different topics and questions related to agricultural production. In the last two decades, the term agroecology has been increasingly used with different meanings (Wezel et al., in press). On the one hand it is used for the scientific discipline of agroecology, that will be the topic of this paper; but, on the other hand the term agroecology is also used in the sense of a movement or as an agricultural practice (Wezel, 2007; Wezel, et al., in press). Environmental movements in the 1960s often emerged in opposition to industrialized agriculture, when public policies did not consider the environmental impact of agriculture, in particular pesticides, or the social aspects of rural development. Initially, the term agroecology was not used explicitly to describe a movement. It was only in the 1990s when the word started to be used in this sense, especially in the USA and in Latin America, to express a new way of considering agriculture and its relationship to society, and its place within it.   Read More

Title of document: Profiles of People’s Organizations In Rural Asia Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: ASIADHRRA; AGRITERRA Year of publication: 2002 Geographic focus: Asia This study entitled Profiles of People’s Organizations in Asia under the auspices of AsiaDHRRA and Agriterra covered seven countries: Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. It attempted to do the following: 1. generate a reliable and updated individual profile of selected farmers’ organizations (FOs); 2. identify the issues, problems and needs of these FOs; and 3. consolidate the results of the individual profile and draw a regional sketch of farmers’ organizations and their development needs. Through the study, AsiaDHRRA hopes to provide a guide to rural development stakeholders in their direction setting, program planning, and provision of services to their constituents.   Read More

Title of document: Farmers’ Sustainable Agriculture Perception in the Vietnam Uplands: the Case of Banana Farmers in Quang Tri Province Authors: Nguyen Van Thanh; Patana Sukprasert; Chinawat Yapwattanaphun Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: Department of Horticulture; Department of Extension, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. Year of publication: 2015 Geographic focus: Vietnam Main issues / topics addressed: Perception, sustainable agriculture, upland farmers Upland farmers in Vietnam are associated with the lowest income and face serious issues of natural resources degradation and environmental pollution because of poor agricultural practices. To persuade the upland farmers to adopt sustainable practices, it is vital first to assess their perception of sustainable agriculture. This study aimed to measure banana farmers’ perception towards sustainable agriculture and its determinants in the Vietnam uplands based on a case study in Quang Tri province. Stratified sample technique was used to randomly select 300 respondents from 2 upland districts of Quang Tri. The primary data were gathered by using a structured questionnaire with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.84. The results showed that the majority (84.7%) of the farmers had low to mode rate perceptions of sustainable agriculture. Farmers had positive perceptions towards sustainable agriculture in issues related to protection of agricultural resources, negative effects of agrochemicals on human health and the environment, input application, crop rotation, product consumption and roles of farmer groups; whereas, they had moderate perceptions about issues related to production profits, plant residue use and modern technology application. In addition, the study revealed that agricultural programs on TV, education, ethnic group, economic status and credit use were the factors that affected farmers’ sustainable agriculture perceptions.   Read More

Title of document: Asia at the Crossroads Prioritising Conventional Farming or Sustainable Agriculture? Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: ACTION AID; 1. Muong ethnic minotiry sisters Ban Thi Cuc, 19, left, and Ban Thi Yen, 20, work on their family rice field in Duong hamlet, Vay Nua commune, Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province, Vietnam. © Chau Doan / OnAsia / ActionAid. 2. Emergency response to floods in Cambodia © ActionAid. 3. Multi-Purpose Farm in Cambodia © CEDAC / ActionAid. 4. Limited access to water in Myanmar. © Celso Marcatto / ActionAid. 5. Pesticide use in Sanya, Hainan Island, Hainan Province, China © Li Xiaoguo / Xinhua Press / Corbis. 6. Tractor spraying fertilizer in a conventional agricultural system © Imageplus / Corbis Year of publication: 2012 Geographic focus: Asia In June of 2012, representatives of over 140 nations are expected to take part in the “Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development”. The conference – scheduled 20 years after the first Rio conference saw an agreement that the United Nations must do something to address environmental degradation and global warming – is expected to focus heavily on the concept of the “green economy”. The “green economy” includes the idea that livelihoods, growth and environmental sustainability must go hand-in-hand in developing countries. While the concept itself may be laudable, it will be an unattainable ideal unless governments show a willingness to adopt a new development model – one based on human rights as opposed to profit for elites. A key example of the need for change – both in terms of the right to livelihood, environmental sustainability and the right to sufficient and nutritious food – is the agriculture sector. This paper seeks to address fundamental questions about the agriculture sector in Southeast Asia and China and to begin to sketch what a way forward – a way towards the “green economy” – may look like.   Read More

Title of document: Agroecology and Advocacy: Innovations in Asia Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy; the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development Year of publication: 2011 Geographic focus: Asia Main issues / topics addressed: The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. Rising food prices, increasing climate instability and food riots have sparked profound political changes around the world and put agriculture high on the international agenda. What kind of agriculture is best suited to respond to those challenges, however, is the subject of profound disagreement. Too much of the current policy debate on food security, climate change and agriculture assumes that industrial agriculture and related biotechnology are the only options for feeding a growing global population. Agribusiness and agrochemical companies have created and supported this image through aggressive advertising, lobbying and support for research institutions.   Read More

Title of document: The tyranny of taste: The case of organic rice in Cambodiaapv_1458 Authors: Maylee Thavat Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National; University, Coombs Building, Fellows Road, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Year of publication: 2011 Geographic focus: Cambodia Main issues / topics addressed: agrarian transition, Cambodia, consumption studies, organic agriculture, post productivism School of agroecology: Organic Agriculture Fair-trade and organic products are often sold at price premiums justified by smaller production volumes that are associated with greater social and environmental responsibility. The consumption of these products confers on the consumer a greater sense of morality – and usually a claim to better taste. This paper tells the story of attempts to promote organic/fair-trade rice production by de facto organic Cambodian farmers for export to North American and European markets in order to assist poor farmers to trade their way out of poverty. It demonstrates that instead of promoting sustainable agriculture and fair trade between developed and developing markets, organic/fair-trade projects may impose First World consumer ideals and tastes that are out of step with the larger realities of agrarian transition in Cambodia and the wider region of developing Southeast Asia.   Read More

Title of document: VAC integrated system with entire Energy chain in Vietnam Author: Mr. Pham Van Thanh, Director of CCRD Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: The Center for Rural Communities R&D (CCRD) Year of publication: 2010 Geographic focus: Vietnam School of agroecology: Integrated Farming (VAC) 1. Brief background of Vietnam economy development 2. The basic elements of VAC integrated System 3. Example of VAC integrated System 4. The entire Energy chain in VAC Integrated System 5. VACVINA’ Biodigester System 6. Strategic Distribution Network 7. User survey & Lesson learnt 8. Barriers for Replication and scaling-up of IFES 9. Suggestions and Recommendations   Read More

Title of document: Agricultural Systems Authors: Proyuth Ly (University of Copenhagen); Lars Stoumann Jensen (University of Copenhagen); Thilde Bech Bruun (University of Copenhagen); Dominik Rutz (University of Bern), Andreas de Neergaard (University of Copenhagen). Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark; Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland Year of publication: 2012 Geographic focus: Cambodia Main issues / topics addressed: Farming system; Adapted practices; Water control; Labour inputs; Socio-economic and agro-ecological conditions School of agroecology: System of Rice Intensification (SRI) The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) has been widely promoted in Cambodia and a significant number of adopters have been reported. However, little is known about the specific conditions regarding the adapted practices of SRI, how the local rice production practices are influenced by SRI principles and the outcomes of the adaptation. This paper seeks to describe reported differences in rice farming practices as influenced by SRI practices in two regions of Cambodia, evaluate reported outcomes by type of rice farming systems and analyze farmers’ perception of the relevance of SRI practices for their socio-economic and agro-ecological conditions. We conducted a survey with 207 farmers in two districts: Tramkak in the Takeo province and Santuk in the Kampong Thom province. The study revealed that the full SRI package was not generally adopted by farmers but the introduction of SRI did have a strong influence on conventional rice farming practices in the study areas. As the SRI practices adopted by farmers represent modifications of textbook SRI principles, we call the practices ‘‘SRI-influenced practices – SRII’’. The farmers’ experience demonstrated that the implementation of some SRI practices is constrained by labour availability and agro-ecological conditions. This results in a diversity of adapted practices of SRI being implemented by individual farmers. The requirement of skilled and committed labour at transplanting explained the fact that most of the SRII farmers could not apply SRII in their entire paddy fields. The intensive labour demand in SRII was reflected in the scepticism of non-adopters and disadopters for not trying or discontinuing SRII. Intermittent irrigation as recommended in SRI is very difficult to apply due to poorly developed infrastructure and because farmers are reluctant to drain water in case the next rains are delayed. In terms of crop yields and economic return, farmers reported higher yields for plots managed under SRII practices and we estimated lower cash investment costs. However, the estimated full economic costs for plots with SRII practices were higher than for conventional practices, and the mean net income did not differ between practices. Average returns to labour also did not differ significantly for the different practices.   Read More

Title of document: ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND “SAFE” VEGETABLES IN VIETNAM: IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRO-FOOD SYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY Authors: Luke Simmons; Steffanie Scott Ministry/Government Agency/Organisation: University of Waterloo   Geographic focus: Vietnam School of agroecology: Organic Agriculture Organic agriculture is often promoted as a possible route for farmers in the global south to follow in the quest for greater agricultural sustainability. By allowing farmers better access to the global markets for organic food, it is hoped that sustainable livelihoods will develop. But what happens when this approach is viewed through the lens of a low energy future? It is increasingly recognised that world energy supplies in the form of readily available oil and natural gas are very close to peaking and will soon start to decline. This poses a serious challenge to agricultural development activities that rely on these fuels. This challenge is explored in the context of Vietnam, a fast-growing country with heavily taxed natural resources and millions of smallholder farmers seeking to improve their livelihoods. This paper reports on field research and a review of secondary sources to assess the trends and prospects for organic agriculture to address agro-food system sustainability. As certified organic agriculture is only just emerging in Vietnam, the production of safe vegetables for the domestic market is also discussed. It is argued that organic agriculture in Vietnam is not centered on environmental concerns and is instead driven largely by the demand from export markets. There has been very little development of the domestic market for organic products in Vietnam despite the fact that there are strong concerns around food safety and food quality, particularly amongst urban consumers.   Read More