What are farm system crops and why they are needed. Alexandra Perschau
www.pan-germany.org .........................................................
What are farm system crops and why they are needed
Alexandra Perschau
...
Cotton and Poverty: Developing countries’ farmers suffering from: • unstable world-market prices, • Subventions paid to US farmers • increasing input costs • pesticides and fertilisers, • energy costs, Ö often leading to a vicious cycle of indebtedness
Cotton and Hunger/ Malnutrition: • ‘Meatu is the district with the highest cotton production in Tanzania, however, over 42 % of the children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition.’(Saro Ratter, Consultant for bioRe Tansania ) • Mainly protein deficiency (pulses can help to solve the problem)
Cornerstones of organic cotton production system • Organic farming is not just leaving out pesticides & mineral fertilizer ! It is rather creating an agroecosystem, that stabilizes itself • Crop rotation and mixed cropping • Adapted varieties • Compost and Farm Yard Manure, - specialty for West Africa: adding termite soil • Bioagents and other ecological plant protection measures
Non-monetary benefits of organic cotton projects 1. Occupational health: No handling of hazardous agrochemicals 2. Increase of soil fertility 3. Risk minimization via diversification of the crop rotation 4. Exchange of experiences within the producers associations 5. Access to education programmes (production technology, alphabetisation, child labour) 6. Access to micro-credits and equipment
1. Organic premium 2. Potential to increase yield while reducing input costs 3. Further bio-products and income from crop rotation 4. Potential for added value generation within the production country
But there is more than crop rotation .... Farm system crops
Further methods to improve the agricultural production system: • Mixed cropping • Trap crops • Planting hedges • Planting trees ... and even just use for economic purposes what is there on the farm / farmland
www.pan-germany.org Example for mixed cropping .........................................................
Beans – Cotton – Beans - Peas
......................................................... Sunflower as trap crops on the borders www.pan-germany.org of cotton fields
Beurre de Karité – huge sleeping potential Number of trees far higher than local or export use Inhomogenity and quality issues prevented Shea-butter from becoming usual cosmetic commodity Companies that wanted to use it – namely Body-Shop – had to invest into development of processing chain and quality management Thus price as cosmetic commodity much higher than necessary High potential for delivering huge
Organic production is more than just ONE commodity production. But how to convert these facts into economic benefits for farmers? 1) Are there trade model options which can help reduce dependency on cotton as single source of income? 2) What would these models need to take into consideration and are there market partners available to serve these needs?
