ORFC Global 2021 Workshop

The community of Shashe in the central Masvingo province of Zimbabwe is home to 500 farming families. The agricultural calendar here is marked by four seasonal ceremonies and as well as many other rituals that celebrate the relationship of soil and water, that is key to their food sovereignty.

Shashe leader, Nelson Mudzingwa, says, “The soil is very important because every living organism is dependent on it. We were made of soil, live in the soil and walk on the soil. We build on the soil and we farm in the soil, and when we die we shall be returned to the soil. We are soil.” Water is also essential as “it is the blood of the soil and must flow within it, not above it. A living soil should be moist with life in it, allowing germination of plants and their growth. In our bodies water is also important as well as in all other living things that respire or transpire”.

Join Nelson Mudzwinga, La Via Campesina General Coordinator, Elizabeth Mpofu and Vongai Dube to talk about the spiritual beliefs that guide their farming practices.

Speakers:
Elizabeth Mpofu
Vongai Dube
Nelson Mudzingwa

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

West African Farmer Testimonies: How We Are Overcoming the Crisis of Climate Change in the Sahel Through Natural Regeneration of Trees on Our Farms

Small-scale farmers in the 16 countries of the Sahel in West Africa face a dual crisis to their livelihoods: climate change and land degradation. 

For many generations, farmers had lived and farmed in equilibrium with the natural environment. They maintained soil fertility, water holding capacity and crop production through fallowing and other practices. 

Today, population pressure, climate change, soil erosion, misuse of agrochemicals have reduced the resiliency and sustainability of the farming system. Farm communities have become highly vulnerable to drought. Hunger and chronic malnutrition have increased. 

This session highlights the testimonies of farmers, men and women, from 4 countries in the Sahel in overcoming these problems. They represent a wider movement adapting the principles of “agroecology” (learning how to work with nature). This grassroots, farmer-led movement has achieved remarkable success in transforming landscapes, adapting to climate change, regenerating their soils, and improving their food security. 

Their inspiring testimonies show how human determination, innovation, and collective action have brought hope to one of the most ecologically fragile, crisis prone areas in Africa.

Speakers:
Tsuamba Bourgou
Fatou Batta
Dan Banuoku

Chair:
Peter Gubbels

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

Land theft is not a thing of the past. Samwel, Kathryn, Angie and June will be talking about the different ways communities are discriminated against through land theft and dispossession. Their conversation will focus on understanding that true food sovereignty demands local control of land. Samwel’s Maasai community has faced illegal sales of their land to foreign companies; Kathryn, representing KMP (the Peasant Movement of the Philippines), has been on the frontlines of organizing to gain land rights for the nine out of ten Filipino farmers that do not own the land they till. The Provosts have been the target of predatory loans, historical deprivation and racial discrimination. Together, they will explain how ownership of land is not a narrative around regeneration or sustainability. It is an argument around sovereignty over the very land they and their ancestors tended. To be truly food sovereign, the land must be in the hands of the local communities.

Speakers:
Samwel Nangiria
Kathryn Manga
June and Angie Provost

Chair:
Freya Yost

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

Across Africa, a network of Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners is accompanying traditional and indigenous communities in the revival and enhancement of their Earth-centred customary governance systems. African Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners from West and Southern Africa will share the philosophy and practice of Earth Jurisprudence and the work that Earth Jurisprudence has inspired on the continent: stories of accompanying rural communities in the revival of their seed and food sovereignty and traditional knowledge and practices, the restoration of their sacred natural sites and associated rituals, and the strengthening of their ecological governance systems derived from the laws of the Earth.  

These civil-society-led initiatives to re-establish Earth-centred governance on the continent are founded on Africa’s rich indigenous legal traditions and cultural heritage and inspired by Earth Jurisprudence – a legal philosophy and ethical framework conceived of by eco-theologian Thomas Berry in the late twentieth century. Through the lens of community stories and Earth Jurisprudence, panellists will explore the role of the sacred in farming and how the revival of traditional farming practices and indigenous seeds can strengthen a sacred human-Earth relationship.

Speakers:
Appolinaire Oussou Lio
Gertrude Pswarayi-Jabson
Method Gundidza

Chair:
Liz Hosken

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

Communities globally are facing unprecedented strain from climate collapse, soil degradation and commercial pressures. However, a return to older varieties of crops vital to the health and wellbeing of growers and their communities has presented a promising and enriching path forward. Drawing from grassroots experiences around the world from farmers in South Africa, China, and Wales this session explores the opportunities our heritage grains present to us to reconnect with more resilient, diverse crops and vibrant traditions through a discussion of millet, rice, and oats and the people who grow them. Although climates, conditions, and situations may differ, the growers offer universal advice on reviving connections to these life-giving grains and aim to inspire similar action in other communities.

Speakers:
Method Gundidza
Gerald Miles
Zhengxi Yang

Chair:
Sinéad Fortune

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

In this talk, Adilen Roque, National Coordinator of Peasant-to-Peasant Agroecological Movement of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) of Cuba, will explain the history of the peasant-to-peasant methodology, as well as how this methodology helped to spark an “Agroecological Revolution” in Cuba which today includes more than 100,000 peasant families growing healthy food for their local communities, and has made the country more resilient against the cruel 60-year economic blockade imposed by the United States.

Speaker:
Yorlis Luna Delgado

Chair:
Ronaldo Ortiz

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

Goats play a transformative role around the world, particularly in harsh environments -  reflecting climate, vegetation or conflict. They transform the most indigestible plant material into meat, milk and skins and are also increasing the economic independence and resilience of rural women. 

Rothamsted is researching the role of goats in smallholder systems in Malawi and Botswana - focused on nutrition, socioeconomics and parasitology (through targeted selective treatment using metabolites from bioactive plants).  Goats have always been a priority for Farm Africa, providing them to vulnerable women living in rural eastern Africa - supported by animal health and business development services, empowering them to increase incomes and improve their families' nutrition. 

Meanwhile, in the UK, Bristol’s Street Goat connects families and individuals with the joys of working with animals and nature - increasing understanding of  their  food.  Local people collectively manage and care for them in urban areas, producing sustainable and healthy animal food products reared on overgrown and unusable urban land.

Chaired by Prof Mark Eisler, the workshop will reflect the transformative role goats are playing in ownership of household assets in Malawi and Botswana, transforming the lives of women and children in Ethiopia and Uganda and turning brambles into milk in Bristol.

Speakers:
Mulugeta Worku
Dr. Lovemore C. Gwiriri
Guru Thiru

Chair:
Prof Mark Eisler

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Leader of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), Nonhle Mbuthuma, share’s her farming community’s struggle to defend their ancestral land from Mineral’s Resources Limited, (MRC) an Australian mining company with British investment. The people of Xolobeni town, on the Wild Coast of South Africa, fought for many years against the proposed gold mine and finally succeeded with their “Right to Say No” campaign in 2016. The proposed mine would have destroyed a 22km area of the Amadiba people’s riparian and coastal lands, polluting the waters upon which the community depends for their food and livelihoods.

The ACC wrote petitions, protested and created blockades along the coastline but the resistance was met with deadly violence when the previous chairman, Sikosiphi ”Bazooka’ Rhadebe, was murdered. Stepping up to lead her community, Nonhle, continually risked her life to keep the mining companies out but while they defeated MRC the threat never goes away. Now the South African government are looking to push through new mining contracts, without consultation, to help with its new Covid economic regeneration plan.  

An incredible land defender, Nonhle, is now at the forefront of a campaign uniting communities across Southern Africa to assert their Right to Say No to unwanted mining. She will be interviewed by Colombian activist, Mariana Gomez Soto, who works with communities in similar situations in the Amazon. 

Speaker:
Nonhle Mbutha

Chair:
Mariana Gómez Soto

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

AFSA is currently facilitating a campaign on mainstreaming agroecology in climate policies in 12 African countries and at the Africa regional level. The campaign includes mobilizing local actors, engaging government and reaching out to the general public through various media outlets. This session will share the experiences from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Togo. Sena Alouka from Togo we will share experiences of youth in rural Togo promoting agroecology for climate action and also share on the success that have resulted in Togo adopting an agroecology policy. From Kenya, Karen Nekesa we will share experiences of working with schools and county governments to promote Agroecology for climate change. Wilberforce Laate will present on the advocacy for climate action in Ghana linking it with Indigenous Knowledge and Culture. From Nigeria Ms. Joyce Ebebeinwe will share the experiences from Nigeria focusing on civil society advocacy to include agroecology into national climate policy amidst the push from industrial agriculture.

Speakers:
Wilberforce Laate
Joyce Ebebeinwe
Karen Nekesa
Sena ALOUKA

Chair:
Bridget Mugambe

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ORFC Global 2021 Session

Three African women, Jennifer Amejja, Edna Kaptoyo and Rita Uwaka, speak about the importance of women’s cultural, traditional knowledge and practice for food sovereignty, agroecology and community forest management. How they grow nutritious food, use and protect medicinal plants, select and exchange seed, establish vital community seed banks, provide livelihoods and support the local economy. Also how they protect forests, many of which are sacred, and ensure replenishment and restoration of watersheds. 

Indigenous women are especially threatened by climate change and biodiversity destruction, yet their intimate knowledge makes them uniquely placed to protect and restore critical ecosystems; strengthen traditional food systems; conserve species; and transmit indigenous knowledge to future generations.

However, industrial plantation agriculture, often supported by governments and finance institutions in developed countries, is fuelling landgrabs, destroying local food systems, and accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss and human rights abuses, especially for women.  How should we collectively address this critical issue?

Speakers:
Jennifer Amejja
Edna Kaptoyo
Rita Uwaka

Chair:
Gertrude Pswarayi-Jabson

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