Monday, December 3, 2007

Much has happened at the Farmers’ Dialogue in France over the past few days. There are many issues worthy of special comment.

  • The acceptance that Climate Change is real and requires urgent action
  • That something new is required to produce fair and stable markets from farm gate to the consumers’ plate
  • A paper by Bruno Parmentier in which he assessed the present situation in the world, looking over the brink past the peak in world oil production
  • This decreasing oil supply from 2020 onwards will effect Agriculture possibly leading to the end of large scale mechanized farming
  • This will mean a drastic reduction of the use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals into a world of natural pest and disease control and the use of modern plant breeding techniques
  • Facing some of the hard facts about climate change, water availability and limited carbon based fuel supplies, we are open to concepts that a few days earlier we simply would not have considered.

    Jamil Ssebalu

    Jamil Ssebalu

    Tuesday started with a very informative talk from Jamil Ssebalu, Principal of the largest business college in Uganda. His presentation on the abundant resources throughout the African continent and ways to overcome some of the difficulties the Africans face is very encouraging for the future of Africa.

    George Kamau Kiiru from Kenya, talking about the work he is doing since retiring as a forestry officer, spoke of how at first people had laughed at him when he talked about planting trees. He told how the situation changed when the damage to the environment became clear and they came to him for help. He was soon running courses for farmers and school groups. It is now fashionable to plant trees on every possible occasion such as birthdays, election meetings and marriage celebrations.

    The second part of the morning was taken up by Marcel Mazoyer, an agronomist and economist who gave an analysis of the situation in the world. This analysis led to certain points that needed to be part of any solution.

    Bruno Parmentier

    Bruno Parmentier

    In the afternoon we had a very lively public debate on 'The practical consequences for the farmers of climate change and the need for protection of the environment'. This was led by M Bruno Parmentier, Director of the ESA Group in Angers. It is clear that both the French farmers and government are taking this very seriously. In this part of France over 100 farmers have already installed photo electric solar panels on the south facing roofs of their barns. They are able to sell the electricity produced to the national supplier at prices that are economic over nine years. The point was made that environmental practices needed to be economically viable, socially acceptable and environmentally sustainable.

    Some sobering statistics to emerge during the week
    2.1% of farmers own 28 million tractors.
    18.6% 250 million farmers own and use draft animals.
    The rest, 79.3%, more than 1 billion farmers work with hand tools on less than one hectare.
    There are another 1 billion people behind these 1 billion farmers.
    There are 2 to 3 hundred million people with no access to land. 
    75% of those suffering from lack of food are farmers.

    Statements from the week!
    Is it a question of free trade or fair prices?
    Modern man is not the aeroplane maker he is the farmer.
    We now need to measure things in terms of energy and water.
    How much do we produce per litre of oil?
    How much do we produce per litre of water?
    With no bees the world’s food production stops, this is in relation to the effect diseases are having on bee populations.
    In the USA 3% of fuel comes from ethanol, if people ran their cars with the right tyre pressures they would save 3% of their fuel.
    At the moment biofuel can be thanked for raising world grain prices to the point where farming is viable.
    Climate change affects us all, so everyone must act on reducing climate change.
    To eat or to drive, is it necessary to choose?
    We need a new farming revolution.
    Farmers are not competitors, they are colleagues.
    The Antarctic, a continent, has no soil, trees or permanent population, is very cold and windy, has the longest days and nights and a very long history. The future of this will seriously affect us all, especially those of us living at or near sea level.
    To better understand it is necessary to see what is under the surface of reality, i.e. the iceberg and the Titanic.
    Turning forest into desert is easy; it is more difficult to turn desert into forest.
    Free trade is the past, fair trade is the future.