Regenerative agriculture

2012 has finally arrived. What a year 2011 was. World agriculture and food once again were being challenged with more extreme shocks. The shocks came from all dimensions: geo-political shook up (eg Egyptian Spring and its spread to other Middle Eastern countries), extreme weather (floods and typhoon in ASEAN countries), and earthquake/tsunami in Japan and of course the Fukushima nuclear plants explosion. Lurking is the continuing crude oil increase and hence the thirst for biofuel. The EU’s financial crisis is starting to sip in. China continues to dominate demand. If the past is a mirror of the future, will 2012 be more of the same?

Among these shocks, the most unpredictable one is the nature’s calendar. A volcanologist may be able to predict that tectonic plates will move but the exact date and time is beyond their means, let alone the damage it brings. Despite this uncertainty, nature and its resources are the major challenges of agriculture and food. Last decade saw the occurrence of extreme weather changes which according to scientists will remain a norm in the future. The impact of the climate change coupled with unsustainable farming practices have made “sustainability” an urgent agenda. The evidences of reduction in soil and water quality are rampant in areas of intensive chemical fertilizer and input use. Excessive water usage and rapid urbanization are pushing down the water level further. This does not include excessive fishing and felling of forest with minimal concern on their future.

Has Malaysia done enough to weather this climate challenge? No policy can be enough and complete to address this issue. Nevertheless, attempts should be made to minimize impact and a sustainable development for future generation.

In the last two years Malaysia has produced a number of transformation plans, much more than it has ever produced in the last four decades (the major one being The Economic Transformation Plan). As for agriculture, the DAM (Dasar Agro-makanan) document is already out. Like all the previous agricultural policy documents, DAM sets the direction of our agriculture at least in the next 10 years. It recognizes the challenges ahead, structural deficiencies at home and hence the need to improve competitiveness through efficient resource use, innovations and so on.

Sustainability of the sector is central in the policy documents, which is commendable indeed. However, it could have been meaningful if a number of specific strategies are laid down to be impactful. The following instruments worth pursuing. Its simply towards creating a “regenerative agriculture.”

Agricultural production in Malaysia is input intensive and in some sectors (paddy, fisheries) incentives or subsidies are provided to push production. However overuse of pesticides, fertilizers, water, and fuel encourage land degradation. These should be an explicit policy shift towards significantly increasing the efficiency of fertiliser and agro chemical use and their replacement by soil-fertility-enriching (and carbon-absorptive) production methods that rely multi-cropping, integrating crop and livestock production and the use of bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides. These are the basic ingredients of regenerative agriculture, in that by farming organically, we are regenerating the soil, returning the land to its natural state.

As Malaysia imports most of her fertilizer and agro-chemical used, a drastic reduction of their consumption therefore not only benefits the environment, but also leads to a reduction of the import bill and agricultural production costs.
Food crisis 2008 pointed the neglect on agricultural investment in R&D as the major culprit for little improvement in productivity and hence inability to cope with production gap. The investment in the agriculture in Malaysia sector deserves much more than what was given. Not only higher in value but with more focus towards strategies that yield high impact on improving physical and R&D infrastructure, linkages between farmers, and greater investment into extension, education and services. These are not new ideas but they are still relevant due to years of neglect, in fact much more are needed in view of the severity of the future threat. Savings from the removal of perverse incentives can not only significantly reduce societal burden but rechannel for these productive purposes.

To achieve “regenerative agriculture” requires a paradigm shift in doing things. The old delivery method may no longer effective when the task requires commitment from all dimensions. Coordination between environmental, natural resource, energy and agricultural policies is needed to maintain a consistent set of incentives for adoption of sustainable management system and to facilitate cross-sectoral interactions. A multi-disciplinary and multi-agency support is needed to translate and implement these strategies.

One agenda that has the largest impact on natural resource management is local community empowerment to manage and conserve resources themselves with the support of the local and central authorities. This can be operationalised by collective action through producer organization. Collective action by producer organizations builds research and skill capacity, reduces transaction costs, increases market power and strengthens representation in national and international forums. Most important it strengthens the capacity of local communities in their stewardship of biodiversity, conservation of land, resources, fragile agro-ecological zones. This requires a policy framework around the stewardship of biodiversity at al levels need to be created.

Under this producer organization mode, local communities are the active participants in managing their resources. They can play a very proactive role in facilitating exchange of local knowledge to be integrated with the scientific findings and tools to improve productivity and value added. They may also be instrumental in promoting the de-centralized use of bio- and other renewable energy sources. Malaysia does have a successful story in this regard, ie., fisheries co-management project in Kuala Teriang, Langkawi. A similar model should be replicated in other areas and sectors with modifications.

Large probability that 2013 and beyond will magnify their past. And past is colored with unpredictable and wild weather that are affecting the temperature, water availability, soil condition, harvesting season and so on. Human reckless interventions have merely worsened the situation. There is a spectrum of policy strategies to safeguard the future, but a regenerative agriculture has the most promises.