Retracing the Steps in Food Systems: Youth and Agro-ecology

Agro-ecology is defined as a concept that shows how agriculture is a connection between culture and food production practices. It is an integrative discipline recognising the relationship between plants, animals, humans and the environment. Agro-ecology can also be defined as the integrative study of ecology of the entire food systems. Agro-ecology is a science, a practice and a social movement. As a science, it is the interaction between ecology and agriculture, the science of agro-ecology has been developed through ecological observation of traditional farming systems. Agro-ecology is also a way of protecting natural resources with guidelines to design and manage sustainable agro-ecosystems which include productivity, stability, sustainability and equity.

Agro-ecology as a movement implies that it is not contained to a select group of people or profession. It has extended to include consumers, farmers, biologists, people in the legal profession among others and the existing interconnectedness. As a movement, agro-ecology encompasses the entire food system from production, distribution and consumption, therefore intricately connecting producers and consumers. As a practice, agro-ecology redefines processes, promoting elements such as conservation of natural resources, improvement of soil fertility adoption of technical methods to conserve soil such as zai[1] pits, mulching and saving indigenous seeds. Simply put, agro-ecology is a form of food production which works in tandem with nature and promotes the use of locally available resources with minimal utilisation of external resources which may create a negative imbalance in the ecosystem. Examples of negative external resources include the use of synthetic fertilisers which have the impact of causing toxicity on the soil making it inhabitable for micro- organisms. As observed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO), the benefits of agro-ecology include increasing food security and resilience, boosting livelihoods and local economies, improving diets, diversification of food production, safeguarding natural resources, enhancing biodiversity and promoting health and nutrition.

Young people do not like agriculture and many a times when asked what they would like to be when they grow up, many say a doctor, pilot or a lawyer, rarely does one get the answer a farmer. Agriculture is deemed as arduous, non-profitable and time consuming. I once asked university students to mention what comes to their mind when they hear the word agriculture, the responses were amazing and they included “a man wearing tattered clothing carrying a hoe”, sweating in the hot sun”, “poverty” among many negative images. Asked how many people consumed food that day, all hands were up. Food is an international connector and hunger pangs know not class boundaries, rich or poor we all need food at given times during the day. It is therefore very important that young people start looking at agriculture not as a hard task but as a way of ensuring healthy food for all. Young people should get interested not only in production of healthy food in an Agro-ecological way but can also participate in various components of the food chain. Diseases are emerging today whose causes can be traced to the types of food we it. The rates of obesity are increasing thanks to changing lifestyles which applaud fast food and demean traditional dishes. The rush to fast food is also coupled with social media where every young person wishes to be seen eating chips and fries at Subway or KFC and not in a makeshift hotel by the roadside which may be serving traditional African food. Young people are the one’s mostly affected by obesity and the subsequent body shaming which in extreme cases has resulted into depression and other forms of mental illnesses.

Conversations around youth and agro-ecology have already started, beginning with dialogues on what is agro-ecology and why we need to be conscious of the type of food we eat and where these food comes from. Through sessions such as 16 Days of Global Action on Agro-ecology, university students are encouraged to visit farming communities to understand food production process and learn from the experiences of smallholder farmers. This gives the youth an opportunity to understand what is agro-ecology and at the same time interact with farmers and understand the struggles of farming communities. These interactions also provide the youth with opportunities for self-reflection and identification of their role in the food production process and what needs to change.

It is therefore very important for every young person to be part and parcel of the agro-ecology movement.

[1] Zai pits also known as planting pits which are water efficient farming technology used in arid and semi-arid areas to maximise water utilization by crops.

References

Gimenez-Eric Holt, Patel Raj, ,Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice ,Pambazuka Press,Oxford

http://www.inadesformation.net/en/climatic-changes/les-agriculteurs-kenyans-experimentent-la-technique-zai-p

https://www.socla.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/wezel-agroecology.pdf

https://afsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/know-agreocology-a-media-guide-for-journalists-and-communicators.pdf