Food for All - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 95

complex and diverse, and they are cheap - they do not rely on costly
purchased inputs. 27
Whole System Synergies
What we do not yet know is whether a transition to sustainable agriculture
(delivering greater benefits at the scale occurring in these projects) will
result in enough food to meet the current food needs in developing
countries, let alone the future needs after continued population growth
and the adoption of more urban and meat-rich diets. But what we are
seeing is highly promising. There is also scope for additional confidence,
as evidence indicates that productivity can grow over time if natural, social
and human assets are accumulated. These findings are similar to those of
Jeff McNeely and Sara Scherr, whose recent review of ecoagriculture in
both developing and industrialized countries has also indicated that there
are novel ways in which to feed the world and to save biodiversity. 28
The issue of asset accumulation over time is important. If agricultural
systems are low in natural, social and human assets (either intrinsically low
or damaged by degradation), then a sudden switch to 'more sustainable'
practices that rely on these very assets will not be immediately successful
- or, at least, not as successful as it might be. In Cuba, for example, urban
organic gardens produced 4000 tonnes of food in 1994. Over just five
years, production grew to more than 700,000 tonnes, partly because of
an increase in the number of gardens, but also because the per area
productivity had steadily risen over time. 29
Increased productivity over time has been found in fish ponds in
Malawi. These are tiny, typically 200 to 500 square metres in size, and
are integrated within a farm so that they recycle wastes from other
agricultural and household enterprises. In 1990, yields were 800 kilo-
grammes per hectare, but rose steadily to nearly 1500 kilogrammes per
hectare over six years. Randy Brummet of the International Centre for
Aquatic Resource Management indicates why: 'As farmers gain a greater
understanding of how this new system functions, and an appreciation of its potential, they
become increasingly able to guide further evolution towards increasing productivity and
profitability.' 30 Revealingly, when non-participatory approaches were used
to work with farmers, and systems were imposed in a completed format
on farmers, then yields fell.
Each type of sustainable agriculture improvement, by itself, can make
a positive contribution to raising production. But another dividend comes
with combinations. Synergistic effects tend not to be captured or apprec-
iated by reductionist methods of analysis that measure the effects of one