More money for small scale farmers with ecological farming – this is the message contained in a Greenpeace Africa report released in Nairobi today. The report – based on research in Kenya and Malawi – shows that ecological farming provides substantial financial benefits to small-scale farmers when compared to those farmers that use agro-chemical
Faced with widespread hunger and the need to increase
farm production to feed a growing population, many governments in Africa and elsewhere are spending vast amounts of money on getting chemical fertilisers and pesticides to farmers. Furthermore donors like the US and Britain, as well as private philanthropies like the Gates Foundation, are also pushing for increased use of chemicals as the solution to raising farm productivity in Africa. Yet this strategy is grossly misplaced. The evidence in this report suggests that it is more profitable for small- scale farmers in Africa to practise ecological farming that uses no chemical pesticides or fertilisers than it is to use chemicals. Presenting the results of new fieldwork in Malawi and Kenya, this report shows that farmers practising agroforestry (involving the use of natural ‘fertiliser trees’ instead of chemical fertilisers) and ‘Push-Pull’ technology (which eliminates the need for chemical pesticides) achieve higher incomes and yields than those practising chemical- intensive agriculture.
You can download the report here