Attention is gradually shifting from scientific to traditional agriculture as experts say it is eco-friendly. TEMITOPE MUSOWO writes on this.
Despite the preponderance of evidences about climate change in our world today, a lot of people still doubt if climate change is real. They believe this harsh global reality is just a broad-based agreement within the scientific community to get the world’s attention. While some doubt the reality, others are asking what exactly climate change is all about. The fact however remains that it has come to stay especially in agriculture.
In a layman’s language, climate change is the rise in average surface temperatures on earth. The primary cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal which emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, primarily carbon dioxide.
Meanwhile, even small increase in earth’s temperature caused by climate change can have severe effects. Other human activities such as agriculture and deforestation also contribute to the proliferation of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Therefore, as an adaptation and mitigation strategy for climate change caused by human activities through agriculture and deforestation, there are global calls for a transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems that ensure food security and nutrition for all, while at the same time conserving biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which agriculture depends, hence, agroecology.
Agroecology as adaptation and mitigation strategy
The coordinator of MDP/SDP programme at the Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan, Dr Olawale Olayide, a climate change expert, explained that the need to meet human and environment need makes agroecology important.
“The journey to sustainability is faster when farmers embrace agroecological practices whereby they avoid using expensive fossil fuel-based inputs and industrialised seeds, a practice that does not only enhances human food chain but also adds to the aesthetic and health of human environment.
“When people and the environment are put at the centre of planning and management, farmers would not depend on agrochemicals and oil in their farming activities; this is the sustainable agriculture we are advocating for.”
Agroecological production, according to investigation, promotes sustainable use of water and land while also preserving soil ecosystem as opposed to industrial agriculture that leads to the depletion of all.
The opposite of this is industrial agriculture which greatly contributes to deforestation, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, soil depletion and reduction in the level of greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, eosystem–based farming helps to boost cereal yields, strengthens livelihoods, reduces pressure on the environment and builds resilience to climate change.
Consumer preference and healthy food campaignA local farmer from Ijero Local Governemnt Area of Ekiti state, Mr Gabriel Eyebiokin, also gave us a tradition perspective of the subject.
According to him, “This is a system handed down to us by our forefathers, but people jettisoned this practice as a result of modernisation and the quest for greater harvest. What they, however, do not realise is that overuse of chemical on arable land often leads to loss of fertility that would eventually result in low yields.
“As you continue to use chemical on the land, it reduces the fertility of the soil with time, subsequently affects the yield.
“Although, this practice of agriculture takes effort, it could really be hectic. When we were young following our fathers to farm to cultivate land for the new farming season, after clearing the bush, we would not burn the bush, but we would pack and roll over the refuse to the boundary of the farm.
“The practice is such that the soil’s natural resources are not tampered with; therefore, biodiversity that are responsible for soil fertility remains and that is the traditional practice that sustained the soul far back then.”The harvest is always very much better than those using chemicals. Talking about food quality, the product is always the best. If you prepare pounded yam with yam grown with chemical, I cannot eat it because it doesn’t taste well.
“People who value quality appreciate the product; consumers prefer food from traditional agriculture because it is always more healthy.
“I grew up accepting this practice as the best, but the only challenge is that there is a limit to the size of land you can cultivate with this practice.”
Between industrial agriculture and traditional agriculture
Demand for agroecology continues to rise as the campaign for healthy food system built on an environment and human rights ethos increases. Agroecology is farming that centres on food production that makes the best use of nature’s goods and services while not damaging these resources.
Farming thrives, for example, when it works with local ecosystem towards improving soil and plant quality through available biomass and biodiversity rather than battling nature with chemical inputs.
According to Dr Olushola Fadairo, a senior lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, the world is presently hanging between two options of traditional agriculture to preserve the environment and meeting the food needs of the world burgeoning population through industrial agriculture.
‘’Gone are the days when people blame deforestation on the expansion of rural population. People now know better that industrial agriculture is largely responsible for deforestation, particularly in the tropical regions.”In Africa, industrial agriculture is responsible for about 30% of deforestation, though far less than the 70% in Latin America. Majority of industrial agricultural activities affecting forestland take place in the developing countries that produce for global markets.”However, as much as industrial agriculture is largely responsible for deforestation, the need to double agricultural productivity to meet the food need of the increasing population has made industrial agriculture a necessary evil.”
The issue now is the challenge of meeting up with consumption rate of the doubling global population through traditional agriculture and the urgent need to also preserve nature.

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