Combatting hunger and climate change with organic farming

Five regional knowledge hubs and a digital experience-sharing platform show farmers in 18 African countries how they can combine environmental protection, food security and resilience to mitigate climate change. After all, only if farmers follow good organic practices can they protect themselves and nature. Otherwise, they face the risk of pest infestations and declining crop yields.

Asiimwe Onesmus is a proud man. The farmer from western Uganda grows beans, tomatoes, leafy vegetables and coffee on a two-hectare plot. The difference today – it is all organic. ‘It is almost like creating microclimates and the benefits to our outcomes and health are really remarkable,’ says the farmer. Elsewhere, climate change is destroying fertile soil and causing poor harvests. Onemus’ fields tell a completely different story. ‘New ways of farming and technologies have stopped the deterioration of environments around our community,’ he explains. He is now a role model for the people in the area and has also seen an increase in crop yield and income.

At first glance, the transition from conventional to organic farming looks simple: avoid the use of artificial fertiliser and pesticides and harness the power of nature instead. Voilà, crop quality and quantity quickly start to improve. The positive impact on human health and nature is an added benefit. Yet it’s not quite so easy. Across the world, farmers are realising this when converting to organic farming. A second glance often reveals pest infestations and lower yields after the switch. Because in many places, centuries of pesticide use have resulted in the loss of the crucial ingredient for success: knowledge.

Organic farming and agroecology help combat drought

This is why the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Africa operates five regional knowledge hubs for organic farming and agroecology. Here, farmers like Asiimwe Onesmus acquire all the knowledge of organic farming that they need and then share it with others in their villages. Last year alone, the hubs and their qualified trainers, working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), trained almost three-quarters of a million people in 18 African countries. The people trained are now in a position to better protect themselves and their environment from the effects of climate change.

Henrike Hüseman is responsible for checking the impact of the knowledge hubs. ‘Taking a sack of organic fertiliser doesn’t mean you have the solution to all problems at hand,’ she says. ‘Organic farming is highly knowledge-intensive. Only when properly practised can it help in adapting to climate change.’ The prescription for growing a healthy crop and producing a rich yield is good soil fertility. It should be naturally conserved and improved. However, this is far more difficult to do than to use chemicals to kill pests or quickly inject supplements into the soil. 

Creating topsoil, using organic fertiliser, selecting seeds, cropping sequence, intercropping, shade trees – farmers need to have a good understanding of what happens in and on their farms and how the farm responds to different interventions. ‘We don’t use chemicals anymore and have integrated different activities that increase our soil quality and yields,’ says Asiimwe Onesmus. ‘All this has helped us to be better equipped to combat climate change.’ Healthy soil is less vulnerable to erosion. Moreover, crops grown in this soil are more resilient to disease, heat stress and drought. They store more water and nutrients.

Knowledge platform for the whole of Africa

The methods used by the Ugandan farmer are shared with his village community. This is important because organic practices have different effects on soil quality depending on the location. The five regional hubs therefore take local conditions and traditional knowledge into account, which in turn makes crops more resilient and reduces crop failure caused by climate change.

To ensure that precious knowledge and practical experience are not lost, GIZ and its partners have developed a digital platform where all their documentation is available for the entire continent. Imitators are explicitly welcomed. After all, agroecology offers enormous potential for sustainable transformation: it strengthens climate resilience, conserves biodiversity and creates opportunities for more just and viable agriculture.

For Onesmus, his efforts are paying dividends: ‘I now harvest 2 tons of beans, something I never achieved while I used conventional methods of farming,’ he says, while taking stock. And the rest of the world also stands to benefit because healthy soil can help regulate the climate. Each hectare of organically farmed land can absorb half a tonne of CO₂ more than conventionally farmed land. In this respect, the nearly 500,000 hectares of land being supported by the knowledge hubs in Africa since the start of the project are storing the same volume of emissions produced on average by around 100,000 private cars in Germany each year.

Last update: November 2024