4th Agriculture and Rural Development Day at Rio+20: Focus on youth

The 4^th Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) was held on 18^th June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

The ARDD took place in parallel with the United Nation's Conference on sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. More than 500 participants attended the event comprising of high level policy makers, scientists, negociators, journalists, farmer organizations, civil societies and other stakeholders in agriculture, and an estimated additional 500 people who could not make it to Rio, followed the event through the live webcast, and got the opportunity to interact with the panellists via Twitter and Facebook.

The purpose of the ARDD was to examine implementation successes and challenges in moving towards transformed food systems that enable food security and sustainable development.

The 4th ARDD had the following 3 objectives:

• What does it take to get Agriculture, Fisheries and forestry to be part of a transformed food system that meets new food and environmental needs?
• What are the mechanisms that improve access to information, enhance interactions among land managers (such as farmers) and experts - and increase the use of appropriate technologies for sustainable land management?
• How can science contribute to providing tools, technologies and approaches in support of a more integrated management of land, forests and water resources?

The programme of the ARDD can be viewed HERE.

As a youth in Agriculture and a YPARD intern, I followed the live webcast of the ARDD and was also tweeting on the event. Discussions were on various issues related to agriculture, environment, fisheries, forests, water, energy, climate change, smallholder farmers, women, youth, science and technology among others. This blog post highlights mainly the issues on youth and agriculture that were raised at the ARDD.

The ARDD started with a video projection in which there are 7 recommendations to achieve food security sustainably. This video can be viewed below:

The issue of youth and Agriculture was raised in the first panel which was on "How Agriculture will address the Rio+20 Challenges?", with a question asked by YPARD via Twitter. The question was "How do you make farming more appealing for the next generation of youth?"

According to Anne Dalane, the Regional Director of Latin America, Yara International, people say that nobody wants to work with an old fashioned industry (like fertiliser), but what Yara International has experienced is that today Agriculture is on the top of the agenda because everybody believe that "without sustainable Agriculture, we cannot have a sustainable future". Therefore, going to university and working on global issues is something that people (youth) are actually finding "Sexy".

On the other hand, the Coordinator of the Agribusiness Center Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and former Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (Brazil), Hon. Roberto Rodrigues believes that youth are being attracted to Agriculture because they are being idealistic and beginning to understand that Agriculture has an important role in a modern world when it has to do with conservation of the environment and increasing food production. Hence, we should take this opportunity to tap their idealism of being attracted to agriculture and make the most of it. On the other hand, he also highlighted that youths need cash, respect and status, and Agriculture needs to be given more respect, and admiration by the world. This would imply concrete public policies!

In the same panel, Dyborn Chibonga, who represented farmer organizations, claimed that using Conservation Agriculture method and new technologies, youth can be attracted to Agriculture and in the next 5 years they can stay in Agriculture without having to use the hand hoe.

The issue of youth was raised again in the afternoon panel on "Responding to the Global Challenges for a food secure future", whereby the panellists recognised the importance of having women in Agriculture and they made an appeal to young women from the audience to aspire for leading positions in Agriculture research, extension, policy etc. Moreover it was also agreed that there is a need for institutional reforms and time has come to have institutions for women in Agriculture and these can be new opportunities for the youth.

Mary Robinson, the President of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice (MRFCJ), started her presentation on "Science for the people: the climate justice approach" by sharing with the audience that young people have advantages over the older generation when it comes to technology. she gave the example of how quickly her grand-children learned to play a game on her iPad when she was teaching them. According to her, we need to listen to and understand people's needs and find ways to respond to them. She linked human rights, innovation, technology, poverty, poverty and hunger and emphasised that the right to food is a basic human right. When questioned on the growth areas in terms of youth opportunities in climate justice, she said that today, young people are more "connected" to solve issues related to climate justice (social media for example) and they have to organise ways for a safe and sustainable future. There is a need to look for leadership in young people, harness their energy and capabilities to deal with climate justice.

In the last panel, which was on "Taking messages from the day forward to Rio+20 and beyond", Ann Tutwiler, the Deputy Director General, of Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), summarised the day through her presentation in which she mentioned again the need to have a leadership network and youth leadership in Agriculture. 

For those who missed the event, thay can have an over-view of the ARDD by viewing the following video which is the last part of the webcast that summarises the different panels and sessions for the day:

As concluded by Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, the Chief Executive Officer of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), the Agriculture and Rural Development Day has been a success with 1000 participants and she proposed WEFFA (Water, Energy, Fish, Forest, Agriculture) Day to be the next ARDD!

All presentations can be accessed on this Link: ARDD Presentations

All videos can be viewed on this Link: ARDD Videos

Kindly find all information on the ARDD on this Link:Agriculture and Rural Development Day

Talk on Climate Change by Professor R. Ellis, University of Reading (UK)

Each year, an external body is invited by the Faculty of Agriculture (University of Mauritius) to assess final year students on their dissertation and also the quality of the programmes being run at the Faculty. This year (2012), Professor Richard Ellis was invited as assessor at the University of Mauritius. 



Professor R.Ellis is the Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Reading. Besides teaching, he is also involved in a wide range of research areas (Crop physiology, Agronomy etc.) and has over 300 publications on his research works. Read more HERE.

A talk by Professor R.Ellis on "Climate Change: impacts on agricultural production with emphasis on grain and seed production" was organised by the Faculty of Agriculture on Thursday 14th June 2012 at the R. Burrenchobay Lecture Theatre, Reduit. Various stakeholders of the agricultural sector in Mauritius were present, including lecturers and students of the Faculty of Agriculture, other organisations involved in Research and Extension, Farmer Organizations among others. 

In his welcome note, Professor Ellis said that it was a great pleasure for him to meet and interact with final year students of the Faculty and he is glad that the future of the agricultural sector lies in good hands.

The presentation delivered by professor Ellis was a scientific one, whereby he shared some results obtained from research, showing that over the past years,

• the mean temperature has increased
• the mean sea level has increased

The evidence is here and from the results, it it can be deduced that man-made climate change is happening. In order to have a sustainable agriculture, and hence sustainable future, it will very much depend on how we are using and managing our resources for the next 30 years or so. Some of the direct effects of climate change on Agriculture would be on markets, labour, land, animal production, crop production (food, fuel, fibre) and Environmental services.

Participants listening to Professor Ellis

Challenges 

Due to climate change, there have been changes in carbon dioxide level and variability of climate present new challenges to Agribusiness. Under the effect of climate change, animals and crops in many regions over the world would be exposed to environmental stresses that are not observed today and therefore it is difficult to forecast what exactly will happen. We should change our behaviours  for mitigating the impacts of climate change.

In Animal production, different regions will have different issues. For example, the efficiency of feed utilisation at higher temperatures would be different in tropical and temperate areas. Moreover, the housing system (regarding ventilation) and health aspect of the animal (vectors of disease) will also differ.

In the crop sector, experimentation is done on small plots and the results obtained may not adapt in other scenarios. Furthermore, with climate change, the impact of heavy rainfall is severe on Agriculture. There is a need for crop producers to ADAPT to climate change.

We should know how to grow crops economically and environmentally.

Adaptation by crop producers

To manage the water requirement of the crop, irrigation and drainage systems can be added or improved. In Mauritius and other regions over the world, one of the impacts of climate change is that the seasons (summer and winter) have shifted, and to adapt to this situation, crop producers have to change crop sowing times and and growing periods to increase the yield. Also, cultivars or crops grown and crop protection strategies are altered.

The choice of seed and planting material (crop genotype) is also an important factor to consider. We should choose seeds which are more tolerant to environmental stress and new pests, and better suited for new environments. 

Other measures of adaptation consist of post-harvest and storage practices.

Crop Productivity and Climate change

In his presentation, Professor Ellis explained the dynamics of temperature and the level of carbon dioxide on crop productivity (vegetative and reproductive yield). More carbon dioxide in the environment means more photosynthesis, and when coupled with higher temperatures of shorter durations, the plants are stressed and result in flower abortion (case of groundnut). The effects of carbon dioxide and temperature on vegetative yield tend to be more amenable to estimation than those on reproductive yield. Hence, there is a need for crop adaptation to climate change.

One of the examples given was that in UK, Spanish tunnel houses are being used to produce English strawberries (by modifying the environment - photoperiod, temperature and level of carbon dioxide), so that they are available off-season.

Other examples on modifying temperature and level of carbon dioxide (wheat) to adapt to climate change were given in the presentation.

After the presentation by Professor Ellis, the was a question and answer session.

Question and answer session

Some of the points discussed during the Q&A Session are al follows:

• In Mauritius, there is a huge debate on Quality Declared Seed (QDS), and farmers are encouraged to go towards it and produce their own seeds. The guidelines on seed production have been prepared by the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit (AREU). The farmers are guided in the field and the process is monitored and evaluated by AREU. A seed test is done and the seed is certified and put on the market
• It was agreed that any problem is an opportunity to someone else. Similarly, climate change can be considered as an opportunity to adapt to its effects and improve yields. Example of Global opportunities: With climate change, Northern Canada and Russia will become productive and this will have an impact of world trade. 
• Africa and climate change: although the increase in temperature will be small, crop production is on the edge in Africa. In parts of Africa, there is desertification of land, migration etc. But despite these, there is tremendous opportunity in the African continent; With telephone revolution and ICT development, there is extreme scope for Agriculture in Africa to be more productive. 

Other discussions were focused on seed regulation and standards, and the different stakeholders present (mainly university, research and farmer organization) shared their views and experiences on the subject.

With this, the moderator of the session thanked Professor Ellis for his presentation and participants got a nice over-view on the effect on climate change on Agricultural production and the different strategies that can be used for adaptation.

YPLD Mauritius: Our first steps towards sustainability....

The Young Professionals in Local Development (YPLD), Mauritius, is part of a network envisaged as being a know-how transfer platform between young and experienced professionals in all fields of expertise that relate to international and local development. The mission of YPLD is “Growing Communities, Fostering through Innovation.” 

YPLD is a network of professionals aged between 18 and 40 involved in both international and local development through the nature of their education and professional activity. Due to their worldwide partners (currently they have partners in the USA, Asia, Europe and Africa) and their current search for regional representatives, they plan from the start to give it a global reach. 

More information on YPLD can be found on their Website.

In March 2012, YPLD Mauritius joined the YPLD global Network upon appointment of the country representative for Mauritius. YPLD Mauritius is also part of the YPLD Africa Network, along with other African Countries (Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Tunisia and Uganda). 

Establishment of YPLD Mauritius

Being involved in youth leadership organizations, I always wanted to establish an organization where I can run projects and activities related to sustainable development, especially on AGRICULTURE because I have seen many NGOs working on sustainable development issues, but very often these projects are focused only on environment and less importance is being given to agriculture. Moreover, I realised that in Mauritius, there is no association or group of young professionals who are involved in Agriculture. Through social media and networking, I found about YPLD and applied for country representative (Mauritius). 

Upon my selection as country representative, the first steps were as follows:

• Social media profiles were created (Facebook page, Twitter Account, Blogger Account)
• Application to join YPLD Mauritius was launched (posted on the above social networks)
• Members were appointed (12 members from different field of expertise appointed: Agriculture, Engineering, Health, Finance)
• Induction of members on YPLD was done 

Activities of YPLD Mauritius

Our first activities were focused on Rio+20 and the team had several meetings to discuss on sustainable development to understand the concept, so that we are able to implement it in our projects and daily activities. Team members are appointed in April 2012, and the initial activities were organized in May 2012.

Food Revolution Day

On the occasion of the Food revolution Day (19th May 2012), the YPLD Mauritius team organized a lunch (12th May 2012) among members to promote healthy and nutritious food, and discuss on topics like Food Security, Climate Change and Food Wastage. On the same occasion, a video on sustainable development was made, whereby the members of YPLD Mauritius shared their views on the issue and what should be done to address the challenges we are facing. This video can be viewed below:

Rio+20 Equity and Sustainability Field Hearings

In the context of Rio+20, YPLD Mauritius organized a field hearing with the objective to have the opinion of Mauritians on Sustainable Development, the threats and challenges we are facing in Mauritius, the actions being taken and further solutions to address these challenges.

The field hearings were conducted in April and May 2012 using 2 methods: Firstly, a focus group discussion on Sustainable Development was initiated with 7 YPLD Mauritius members from different field of studies and experience. From the outputs of the group discussion, an online questionnaire on Sustainable Development was designed and shared to individuals and institutions via email and on social networks (The questionnaire can be accessed on this link). 52 online questionnaires were filled and submitted.

The results obtained from the group discussion and survey conducted by YPLD Mauritius were compiled in a report, highlighting the following:

•  Perception of Mauritians on Sustainable Development
• Problems related to Sustainable Development in Mauritius and their causes
• Possible solutions and recommendations to address the different problems identified

This report can be read below:

As part of a project, this report and segments of the video will be presented at Rio+20 by one of our partners and through these initial activities, our voice and those of the interviewees will be heard at the UN's conference on Sustainable Development!

The YPLD Mauritius team is presently working on the concept note of some projects and we will soon be looking for partners.

We are having a quite modest start, but we believe in making a change for a sustainable future,  and we'll strive to meet our goals and run projects on agriculture to involve youth in this sector!