Back to Basics

Well, well!

The largest ever study done on the subject concludes that using the techniques of "agro-ecology" increases agicultural yields by nearly 80% on average.

"Agro-ecology" turns out to be a fangled name for good old-fashioned common-sense practices like (as reported by the Daily Telegraph) "planting trees and crops together, mixing livestock and arable farming and using natural predators to control pests and diseases".

As another Telegraph article has pointed out, as well as creating better yields over time than intensive farming, organic farming creates jobs in the developing world - a far better way to combat proverty than providing aid to buy complex chemicals, machinery and seeds, or to import food.

"Going organic," says this report, "almost always boosts the incomes of small Third World farmers, because they no longer have to buy expensive chemicals.

This is vital, as three quarters of the world's poorest people depend on small-scale agriculture to eke out a living. Those that have land often do not have enough, so have to buy food as well; half of the word's undernourished people are smallholders and their families.

The landless are even worse off, and have to seek work as labourers. Again, a switch to organic agriculture can help, for it employs many more people, creating more than 170,000 jobs in 2007 in Mexico alone."