Is Organic Farming an Unjustified Luxury in a World with too many hungry People?

The soaring food prices on the global markets over the past one to two years have given proponents of classical Green Revolution thinking an opportunity to renew their claims that high input agriculture based on chemical fertilizer and pesticides is the blanket solution for poor countries and farmers. This situation has also led others to question whether we should abandon all the environmental considerations in agricultural policies over the last 25 years, and relieve the regulatory burden on agriculture, and put food production in full throttle like in the good old days in the 1970s. However, as always, the solutions proposed depend on the perception of the problem. In fact, there is little evidence that just producing more food in the North will help solve the food insecurity in the South in a sustainable way. Nor is it evident that returning to subsi-dized artificial fertilizers in the South would make any significant contribution to addressing the food insecurity among those communities of the South that are currently food insecure

Organic agriculture in Kenya and Uganda: study visit report

The objective of the study visit to Kenya and Uganda in April 2004, sponsored by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and focusing on organic agriculture, was: ‘Improved information and communication in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries on best practices and added value production and certification of organic products (including medicinal plants)’. The 20 participants in the visit were stakeholders in the production and certification of organic products, including medicinal plants, in Uganda and Kenya. The expected results were: • Exchange of information among participants; • Analysis of best practices observed in the field; • Recommendations for follow-up actions. The participants were drawn from eight ACP countries (Grenada, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe) and one European Union(EU)country (Austria) (see Annex 2).At the opening meeting in Kampala, Uganda on 19 April, the participants were briefed on the study visit programme, aims and objectives and given information on the agricultural sector in Uganda, particularly the organic subsector. In Uganda, the participants visited projects involving rural farmers who had adopted organic agriculture, a university’s organic agriculture neighbourhood schools outreach programme, and enterprises focusing on honey production, processing and marketing, medicinal grass processing, and sweet banana and pineapple processing. In Kenya, field visits were made to organic agriculture training institutes and non- governmental organisations (NGOs), organic farms, and small honey and medicinal plant processing enterprises. @ CTA’s Working Document series consists of material that, in view of its immediate relevance and practical use to specific readerships, the Centre wishes to make available without the delays inherent in the formal publication process. These Working Documents have not gone through this process and should be cited accordingly. Comments on matters of substance are welcome, and should be addressed directly to CTA.This report was produced following a study visit to Kenya and Uganda, 19–30 April 2004. The visit was sponsored by CTA and organised in collaboration with ORREDE and SACDEP–Kenya