Traditional farm methods help climate adaptation

Traditional knowledge, rather than modern methods, has helped indigenous people in countries like China, Kenya and Bolivia to cope with extreme weather and environmental change, the report said.

Krystyna Swiderska, a senior researcher at the IIED and lead author of the study stated that few modern commercial varieties and intensive agriculture are being continuously promoted by policies, subsidies, research and intellectual property rights at the expense of traditional crops and practices which forces countries and communities to depend on an ever decreasing variety of crops and threatens with extinction, the knowledge and biodiversity that form the foundations of resilience.

Traditional methods include using local plants to control pests, choosing crop varieties which tolerate extreme conditions such as droughts and floods and planting a variety of crops to hedge bets against uncertain futures.

Policymakers agree that agriculture needs to be adapted to cope with rising temperatures, variable rainfall and extreme weather events to ensure future food security. However, government policies have largely overlooked long established agricultural practices in favour of intensifying production through modern methods, the report said.

Traditional knowledge and strategies to reform intellectual properties rights in agriculture should be included in the discussions by the governments, when they meet at U.N. climate summit in Durban, South Africa this month stated the report.

Source: chimalaya.org