Youth in Soil

Scaling-up Sustainable land management in Africa

Scaling-up Sustainable land management in Africa

By Atula Owade

The 2019 Global Soil Week event has an actionable theme of ‘Creating an Enabling Environment for Sustainable and Climate Resilient Agriculture in Africa’. 

In achieving the theme for the conference, it was said that Sustainable Land Management (SLM) cannot be achieved without government support and aside from policy formulation, governments also run institutions that can be used to push the SLM agenda.  

It was obvious that three of the four dimensions of the Global Soil Week directly depend on government interventions:land governance, extension and advisory services as well as local governance.  

The opening plenary on Day 3 of the conference included delegations from several African countries where each of the delegates gave insights on the government interventions for sustainable land management in their respective nations. 

Benin

The Benin delegation led by H.E. Jeanne Josette Acacha Akoha, the Cabinet Director at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. In her speech, she illustrated how land degradation was negatively affecting the country’s economy and destroying ecosystems. To counter the issue, government created several measures such as adoption of an action plan for sustainable land management; accreditation of a national fund for the environment; establishment of two research centres for resilient agriculture; and strengthening the role of the private sector and NGOs for sustainable land management. She also reiterated the government’s commitment to embracing new ideas and partnerships that give life to soils. 

Burkina Faso

The Sahel nation was represented by H.E Dr. Zacharie Segda from the Ministry of Agriculture & Hydro Agricultural Management. He started with the fact that establishing equitable land tenure for female farmers was one of the most important enabling environments for SLM and hence the government developed bottom-up legislation to achieve it.  

He further explained that the government of Burkina Faso is launching a land degradation neutrality process to counter desertification. He mentioned that some positive results have been achieved including organisation of relevant stakeholders, and review of legislation. 

He assured that going forward, the government intend to scale up these efforts to achieve sustainable land management. Dr. Segda concluded by saying that these efforts would not only protect soils, but also increase agricultural production. 

Madagascar

Located in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar has one of the most unique arrays of biodiversity on the continent and protecting it via sustainable agriculture is a key priority for the government. The country delegation was represented by H.E Ms. Ony Malalaniaina Rabearivololona, the Director General of Sustainable Development in the Ministry of Environment.  

She stated that on top of adhering to the UN declaration on climate change, the government had adopted research on sustainable solutions and developed 14 priority projects on resilient agriculture with the objective of rehabilitating soils while boosting production. Conclusively, she underscored government commitment to SLM irrespective of others economic challenges. 

 

Ethiopia

Addis Ababa was represented by H.E Etefa Diba Areri, a Member of Parliament who sits in the Agricultural Affairs Standing Committee. From his presentation, it was clear that the country heavily depends on agriculture as it employs more than 80% of the population and contributes to 42% of the GDP.  

Despite the potentials of agriculture in the country, 80% of their lands are degraded due to poor land management and unsupportive agricultural policies. Some of the government efforts include formulation of policies, development of a green economy strategy, and establishment of the Ethiopia Soils Information Service for monitoring soil health and fertility. H.E Etefa Diba Areri said the government is also promoting agroforestry alongside construction of soil and water conservation structures to protect and rehabilitate soils. 

Kenya

Lucy Njenga spoke on behalf of the GSW2019 host country’s Minister of Agriculture, Kenya, highlighting some of the progress the country was making towards SLM. She poised that the government had put in place the national soil management policy which is designed to protect the environment.  

She expressed that the policy is meant to facilitate adaptation to climate change and, working with partners such as the German government to facilitate sustainable increase in agricultural output and incomes.  

The ministry was also initiating several projects including the Kenya Climate Smart Project Strategy which will impact more than 360,000 rural farmers. With such efforts, the government intends to empower its people in undertaking SLM to protect soils and improve livelihoods of Kenyan farmers. 

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article français Benin Burkina Faso ecosystem restoration Ethiopia extension services gender Ghana GSW2019 Kenya land tenure Madagascar Malawi Nigeria partners sustainable land management sustainable land use
Youth in Soil

The woman of the soil

The woman of the soil

By Sally Kimathi

The Global Soil Week 2019 is over with much excitement of what the conference has achieved in a space of one week. On my return home from the conference, I paid keen attention to the greener landscape along the roadside. The countryside is a great place to relax; away from the air and noise pollution of the city. After such a busy week at the conference, the beautiful environment and the fresh air on the countryside is a timely well-deserved relaxation.

The fifth edition of the Global Soil Week 2019 held at the ICRAF campus in Nairobi is surely not the regular conference, given that the event was on a whole different level with regard to highlighting the plea of the farmer alongside enabling environment.

The fact that Sustainable Development Goals can only be implemented on the ground and not in conference rooms was at the finger prints of every delegates. The paintings were on the wall and the echoes filled the room that all sustainable development goals are local and require local actions and local systems.

The logistic arrangements, planning and the organization of the entire week made the conference stand out. From the Youth-in-Soil side event that gave the youth delegates a platform to air their views, learn about social media reporting and learn more on matters around sustainable agriculture and creating an enabling environment as well as case study discussions in both the technical and high level segments.

It was a participatory conference as the case studies brought reality into the conference room and the welcome dinners that gave delegates an avenue to interact and network. Maybe that is what made the conference stand out or possibly, how issues around the woman of the soil were prioritized.

One of the major highlights of the event was on how to secure land for rural women farmers in a sustainable way. With one of the moderators being a woman and a farmer, Alice Kaudia, I felt at home and the need for women to take ownership.

In opening the conference, Alice shared that her life experiences shaped her interest in agriculture and soil. It took me 10 years back to a time when I used to live with my grandmother. There is nothing I enjoyed most than scheduling for tea picking days as this gave me so much satisfaction, said Alice.

In continuation of her life-experience, she said, I remembered that my grandfather had finalized the land court case and it was time for the sons to inherit their portions and in my community back then, women had no rights to land. The community land used to be re-allocated to the sons including my grandmother’s tea plantation and alas! there was nothing to look forward to during tea picking days.

In most African countries, rural women play a major role in ensuring household food security through small scale food production. However, most rural women lack secure access to the land they plough.

 

In Burkina Faso, 50% of farmers are women and yet they lack secure access to land while in Kenya, 80% of rural women are farmers and less than 3% own land. In most cases, the land is leased or belongs to the man of the house. More so, access to land is governed by traditional laws which do not allow women to own land. These traditional laws make it difficult for women farmers to invest in sustainable agricultural technologies and further limits them in terms of timely decision making in agriculture, said Alice.

Over the past years, efforts have been directed to sustainably secure land for rural women farmers as highlighted by cases from some African countries such as Burkina Faso and Kenya at the Global Soil Week dimension workshops.

The cases showcase evident-based facts and progress made in ensuring secure land ownership by female farmers especially those in rural areas. Some of the actions highlighted were strengthening and collectivizing women to advocate for their rights, facilitating exposure visits to challenge gender stereotypes and widening the scope to address redistribution of land.

Reminiscing on the experience of being among the selected youth in soil and the many exciting experiences from the conference, I am finally home and with a warm welcome from this incredible rural woman smiles from a distance and her eyes lighting up with joy.

The excitement of seeing her daughter home after one week of learning at the Global Soil Week. In the same vein, I smile back, a smile of hope, having in mind all the promising policy recommendations made at the conference concerning rural women farmers.

This excitement is fueled with the hope that the recommendations will be implemented and this amazing woman of the soil smiling at me right now gets to benefit, amongst a thousand plus other rural women across the African continent.

Anchoring from the famous word of Wangari Mathaai, I found confidence after the conference to say, I am a proud daughter of my native soil, as my mother and father; a youth in soil, and more importantly, a proud woman of the soil.

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article français Benin Burkina Faso ecosystem restoration Ethiopia extension services gender Ghana GSW2019 Kenya land tenure Madagascar Malawi Nigeria partners sustainable land management sustainable land use