Worms, termites, microbes offer food security
Worms and termites are not likely to win hearts and minds, but they,
along with lichens and microbes, are vital to food security, say
biodiversity specialists who attended the United Nations conference on
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in India.
"Worms, termites, lichens and soil microbes may well be the heroes of
food production as without these species land-based biodiversity would
collapse and food production cease," Julia Marton-Lefevre,
director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature,
said.
"In this day's fierce competition for political attention and funds,
(preventing) land degradation is a tough sell," said Marton-Lefevre.
"It may be one of the most serious threats to global food production
and biodiversity over the next few decades, affecting an estimated 1.5
billion (poor) people.
"Soil biodiversity may not be the most glamorous of our biodiversity,
but it is nevertheless highly important," she added.
Safeguarding the underlying ecological foundations that support food
production, including biodiversity, will be central to feeding seven
billion inhabitants, climbing to over nine billion by 2050, says the UN
Environment Program (UNEP) study 'Avoiding Future Famines: Strengthening
the Ecological Basis of Food Security through Sustainable Food System'
released in Hyderabad.
Organism
"Soil is not an empty container, as is thought by modern
agriculturists; land is a living organism and has to be valued as such,"
emphasised internationally known Indian environmentalist and activist
Vandana Shiva.
Borrowing from Charles Darwin, Shiva said, earthworms create dams
without concrete, increase air volume within soil by 30 percent and
improve water retention capacity by 40 percent, increasing the life of
soil.
"Unfortunately, we are valuing inefficient systems like chemical
intensive monoculture, forgetting that value and benefit lie in securing
the soil that provides everything for humanity; discarding natural
farming that simultaneously provides grains, firewood and also fodder
for cattle," Shiva said.
Shiva hit out at Indian policy saying it gave "billions of dollars as
subsidy for chemical fertilisers, completely ignoring the fact that the
solution to hunger and poverty lay in biodiversity promotion - that is
being destroyed by chemical farming."
"Land degradation has been caused by misplaced investment; now we
need to change the way we view land," said Luc Gnacadja, executive
secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
At the October 8-19 CBD meet developed countries agreed to double
funding by 2015 to support developing states meet the internationally
agreed biodiversity targets set for 2020.
Governments also agreed to increase country funding in support of
action to cut the rate of biodiversity loss.
While key decisions taken at the conference mandate better
investments in marine and coastal biodiversity, proponents of soil and
agricultural biodiversity say more needs to be done on land, given that
global food security is at risk.
"In the last century as much as 70 to 80 percent of forests in many
countries have been cleared for farming.
"We now need to reverse the trend, ensure that that we focus on
revitalising agriculture in a way that it will give back the land its
health," said Gnacadja.
"The era of seemingly everlasting production based upon maximising
inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides, mining supplies of freshwater
and fertile arable land and advancements linked to mechanisation are
hitting their limits, if indeed they have not already hit them," said
UNEP executive director Achim Steiner.
"What the world needs is a green revolution with a capital G - one
that better understands how food is actually grown and produced in terms
of the nature-based inputs provided by forests, freshwaters and
biodiversity," said Steiner.
According to experts, the variety and variability of animals, plants
and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels are
necessary to sustain key functions of the ecosystem. For example, a
diverse range of soil organisms interacts with the roots of plants and
trees and ensures nutrient cycling.
Security
"The environment has been more of an afterthought in the debate about
food security," said UNEP chief scientist Joseph Alcamo, adding that,
"only now the scientific community is giving the complete picture of how
the ecological basis for food system is not only shaky but being really
undermined."
"At present, 12 million hectares of land where 20 million tonnes of
grain could have been grown disappear every year," said Marton-Leferve.
"It is no coincidence that all three critical planetary boundaries that
are today exceeded by human activities - biodiversity loss, climate
change and global nitrogen and phosphorous run-offs that create dead
zones in once fertile areas - are directly related to our land use
practices."
"The endeavour to build a land-degradation neutral world is a
paradigm shift. It means avoiding the degradation of new areas.
But where this is inevitable, we have to offset land degradation by
restoring at least an equal amount of land which is degraded, ideally in
the same landscape, in the same community, in the same ecosystem," said
Gnacadja.
"Mobilising and employing financial resources may not be so much
about hard currency but about our learning - through policy and practice
- to account for the natural capital called soil without commodifying it
and without taking shortcuts for profit with nature." Gnacadja said.
"When support is forthcoming, in whichever form, developing countries
must start walking the talk."
- OurWorld 2.0
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