By Cecilia Schubert
Mary Robinson’s message at this year’s
Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) was clear. Farmers have the right
to live free and equal in dignity and respect. “There is no dignity in seeing
your child die prematurely due to malnutrition,” she said. Research on
climate change and agriculture must be linked to questions of rights and
justice; science must respond to the true needs of farmers. A climate justice
approach, which is based on science and grounded in human rights, can ensure
that the science carried out serves the needs of the people.
Ms. Robinson, President of The Mary
Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice (MRFCJ), former President of
Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, also addressed
the need to change the discourse and way of thinking about the future. Current
projections for estimate that by 2050, twenty-four million additional children
will be malnourished. We can’t accept this discourse said President Robinson.
Because envisioning and describing our future in this way is not acceptable.
She declared that the Rio+20 conference is “an opportunity… to change mindsets
and ensure implementation of action and human rights.”
Many people in the agricultural community
hope that the Rio+20 sustainable development negotiations will produce
meaningful support for farmer and sustainability development goals (SDGs) that
integrates food security and social, and environmental sustainability. What is
also needed is a more comprehensive picture of farmer’s constraints and reality
is crucial. As President Robinson pointed out during her speech, innovative
technologies alone won’t improve a smallholder farmers’ lives. Farmers need
“access to and control over resources such as land and water, access to
extension services and credit and an active role in decision making.” to truly
realise their potential and enhance their lives.
President Robinson emphasized the need for
more inclusive scientific research, suggesting that research be ‘farmer-led’,
even going as far as suggesting ‘female-farmer-led’ research, as women in
Africa perform 70 percent of agricultural work. There are several cases where
participatory farmer-led research and farmer-to-farmer mentoring, have proven
to be successful cases. “The challenge facing the scientific community is to
understand the issues facing rural and food insecure people around the world,”
said President Robinson, “and to work across disciplines to find appropriate
solutions.” How can this be achieved in practice?
In East Africa, West Africa and South Asia,
the CGIAR Research Program on Climate change, Agriculture and Food Security
(CCAFS) is putting farmers at the centre of research, via a range of
participatory approaches that seek to ensure that farmers are heard and the
research carried out will have a real impact on the ground. At a side event
on how to obtain a food secure future, organised by World Food Programme
(WFP) the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) among others,
CCAFS Director Bruce Campbell, highlighted the urgency of bringing local knowledge
into research. “We need to revolutionize the way we do research,” he said, and
allow for “more local voices at international meetings and conferences”. He
stressed the need to create forums for the local voices that have knowledge
about their reality and context specific problems but also potential solutions.
Researchers must work closely with farmers to identify what actions
farmers can help transform their lives in the face of complex challenges such
as climate change.
For the declaration made in 1992 in Rio
during the Earth Summit, not to lose its significance, there must be a
willingness for negotiators to build on it, and not take steps backward. What
we need from Rio, concluded President Robinson, is “an outcome that will
benefit poor women, men and children and not governments and organisations.”
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