South African Workshop Presentations
Two Visibility Workshops have been held on the 28 – 30 January 2010 and 2-4 March 2011 and a Partner & Training Workshop on the 15 – 22 March 2013.
2.1 Abstracts of South African Workshop (January 2010)
2.1.10 Agro-Ecological Environmental Biotechnology Systems for Food and Fuel Sovereignty in Southern Africa
Presenter:
Mark Wells
People Power Africa
The presentation explores how natural environmental biotechnology incorporating integrated biogas, algal and aquaculture systems can provide small scale farmers and rural households with vital agro-ecology systems that deliver surplus clean energy and enhanced nutrient recycling from existing resources.
The relevance of this presentation is that the IAASTD, the most comprehensive assessment of agricultural knowledge, science and technology to date and which is endorsed by 45 countries, calls for governments to redirect their focus from chemical and energy intensive conventional farming systems towards productive small-scale agro-ecological farming systems that provide greater yields and more jobs per hectare and which are resilient to drought and disease whilst contributing positively towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.
In South Africa’s impoverished former homelands approximately 1.7million rural households have access to land for farming purposes. Approximately 1.2 million of these households grow farm produce (such as maize, sorghum, etc.) and 0.9 million households have livestock other than just chickens. This means that at about 1 million rural households (representing 5.2 million people, more than 10% of the South Africa’s population) have access to land and the agricultural feedstock resources required for the adoption of productive environmental integrated biogas and agro-ecological systems.
Furthermore, approximately 1 million of the rural households engaged in agriculture do not have a water source on their land are solely dependent on rain water for irrigation, a resource which is becoming increasingly unreliable due to climate change. These households require an urgent agriculture water security intervention that could be realised through the adoption of integrated agro-ecological systems that incorporates rainwater harvesting, storage, usage and recycling.
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