Irrigation Systems for Fruit Tree Agriculture

We are in a climate crisis. Yet, the impacts of climate change will disproportionately harm marginalized communities, and in the Middle East, increasing surface temperatures and frequent droughts harm vulnerable populations. In fact, the Middle East warms at twice the global average, leaving cities uninhabitable and increasing the risk for heat-related illnesses. Increasingly, though, environmental crises align with political crises, each perpetuating the other, as seen with Iraq’s political instability causing its electricity crisis.

EcoPeace, an international organization of environmentalists that aims to promote sustainable development and peace in the Middle East, recently hosted a webinar with NYT global affairs and climate journalist Thomas Friedman to discuss this relation of climate change and geopolitics in the Middle East. Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, specifically talks with Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli codirector of EcoPeace, on the Biden administration’s climate policy and its connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Friedman first points out that our current time period consists of machines driving humans and humans driving nature, which means that we have intimate relationships with one another. Our reliance on technology drives us to negatively impact nature, worsening the climate. However, this climate crisis connects and unites us, even during a dramatic change in politics. To battle this crisis, though, Friedman argues we must learn from nature on how to govern in a globalized world. Specifically, we need complex adaptive networks and coalitions to manage the deep, fused, and fast politics of today. Friedman notes that organizations, such as EcoPeace, serve as examples of these complex adaptive networks that can maximize resilience in a region.

Friedman then shifts his focus to the Biden administration’s failure to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He claims the current administration’s recent withdrawal from Afghanistan indicates a desire to separate the U.S. from the Middle East, further ignoring a huge political crisis. Moreover, Friedman argues the deep political division within the U.S. halts our ability to enact environmental change, and therefore, we must move out of an all or nothing mindset to push towards an environmental peace agenda like EcoPeace. Friedman stresses that the climate continues to deteriorate as we fail to compromise and coordinate, so we must act immediately. Without joint action, climate change will disproportionately harm vulnerable communities.

These vulnerable communities exist among smaller nations, and Friedman argues that due to failed self-governance, smaller nations do not have the complex adaptive coalitions required to face climate change. He argues sustainable development can only happen when it starts at the local level, requiring the empowerment of local leadership. With this, leadership focusing on cooperation and peace needs to come from the Middle East, but with the support of international agents, like the Biden administration and the European Union.

Although it is true sustainable development must start at the local level, Friedman’s argument shifts to blame on the small nation’s part for their dependence on foreign actors to bring solutions. He fails to acknowledge the history of colonization and foreign intervention leaving small nations in these vulnerable positions. Perhaps, instead, Friedman should advocate against large nations’ constant and disruptive interventions to support his position of international support for local leadership and cooperation.

Nevertheless, Friedman provides an interesting solution to the climate crisis: establishing complex adaptive networks. In nature, the most resilient ecosystems to environmental crises are those with complex adaptive networks, so we should adopt those same practices in our political climate. EcoPeace’s Green Blue Deal attempts to provide a framework for these networks through advocating for regional cooperation in the Middle East to mitigate climate change. Inspired by the European Union’s climate policies and the United States’ Green Deal, the Green Blue Deal aims to establish peace and political stability through environmental policies.

Uniting against a force as big as climate change could foster peace in the Middle East, especially as the region will face a 4-degree Celsius temperature increase by 2050. Before the Middle East becomes fully uninhabitable from droughts and heat waves, political leaders must act now to ensure cooperation and unity in the development of environmental policies. As Friedman stresses, Mother Nature will not hold back while we face political instability.

I attended the 2021 pre-summit for the world’s premier forum for African agriculture, the Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems (AGRF). The forum consisted of many great speakers and commentators discussing different parts of African agriculture, from the fiscal and political side to the implementation and community side.

Agriculture in Africa has been growing a lot in the past two decades, and this has led to many great advancements for the people of Africa. Higher life expectancy, social progress, less expensive food, and better lives for the farmers has all come about through the expansion and success of the agricultural sector.  Dr. Fuglie, Senior Economist of the USDA Economic Research Service, discussed how this growth in agriculture has led to better wages for farmers and more resilient economies in Africa. This resilience shined through during Covid 19, as agriculture has continued to grow even as other areas of countries have struggled.

However, Dr. Fuglie states that progress has not been even across Africa. Somewhat contrary to expectation, resource rich countries that primarily export have not experienced the same growth as other countries in Africa. Giving a somewhat cautionary ending remark, he said that while there has been wonderful growth, this growth is not sustainable at the current levels because it has been enjoyed through land acquisition and expansion of current land use for cultivation of crops. He instead gives the solution that to continue the growth in Africa, countries need to increase the productivity of the land in current use, to try to use better practices and technology to grow more crops efficiently and sustainably. The High Atlas Foundation, a foundation focusing on sustainable development and prosperity in Morocco, has taken this issue head on. The USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Morocco, implemented by HAF, applies this solution with primarily women’s and youth cooperatives by providing technical and capacity-building assistance.

The “Harvesting Prosperity: Technology and Productivity Growth in Agriculture” World Bank report was cited in the summit, discussing progress in parts of Africa and what the countries need to do to continue the growth. Ethiopia and Ghana have both seen agricultural sector growth of 5%, which has led to reductions in poverty and higher quality of life. Ethiopia launched a policy for agricultural led industrialization from 1990 onwards that has significantly helped this division of the economy. Ghana has stimulated private investment and agricultural reforms in addition to using new technology that has allowed them to experience 5% returns. Both countries significantly increased investments in agriculture R&D as well as rural infrastructure to connect farmers to markets and create a more efficient economy. 

Our panelists consisted of: Kevin, Senior Director, African Development Institute, African Development Bank group; Ms. Lulama, Chair, Technical Committee for the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI); Tilahun Amede, Head of Resilience, Climate and Soil Fertility, AGRA; and Dr. John, Research Fellow, Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development at Egerton University. 

Mr. Kevin Urama spoke about how building agricultural growth is not a linear approach. There will be times when there will be significant progress and others when there will not be as much, but he stressed that there needs to be better implementation of the policies to foster this growth. There are already policies in place that will help the agricultural sector, but they need to be uniformly enforced to see real gains. His main talking point was that investing in research and development services is key to try and have national innovation systems and increasing digitization of agriculture. Modernization of many of the practices and systems would lead to much higher productivity for farmers and land in Africa and digitization would make crops easier to produce and to sell. He finished with a call to action, relaying the need for an agriculture innovation fund for Africa. This would preferably be African-led and funded and would allow technology to be produced and shared across countries to better the lives of everyone.

Ms. Lulama Traub reiterated many of Mr. Urama’s, discussing the need for better implementation of policies as well as higher productivity in land used for growing crops. She stressed that Africa should reach the target of 1% agriculture GDP being invested into agricultural research and development, hoping to continue to find new technologies and better growing methods to continue the success of the industry. There is a need to lighten the load on Africa’s leaders through providing a timely, fiscally feasible method of change for agriculture. 

Furthermore, Mr. Tilahun Amede discussed how landscape-based approaches to agriculture would be better for the country and environment as well as improving the use of the land. He also spoke in depth about how there need to be targets set for the new technologies being used in agriculture and that there needs to be more testing. He proposed testing the new technologies in smaller locations then unveiling them to the rest of the countries in Africa. In addition, he spoke about how using the technologies in conjunction with each other, such as a good water management system and better growing practices, has a much larger cumulative effect than using them by themselves.

Finally, Dr. John Olwande conveyed the need for consistency. The consistency of messages and evidence that scientists put forth to guide policies and decisions by private sectors is very important for the growth of agriculture. Confusion leads to inaction, which does not help Africa. 

Overall, Africa is experiencing progress in agriculture and needs better implementation of policies to continue this growth. African countries should have 10% investment in agriculture and 1% investment in agricultural research and development to help foster this success.

In the closing remarks, Dr. Clara, Executive Director, Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, discussed how small-scale mechanization and innovation approaches are important to the whole of the African agricultural system. This leads to the need for partnerships with local institutes and global institutes to also strengthen their credibility and create an atmosphere of knowledge sharing and innovation. She finished by saying there should be an African peer review to promote knowledge-sharing and to maintain adequate data systems. Africa has the tools it needs to develop agriculture even further; it just needs to act on the policies and advance the technology. Working together will make achieving these goals easier and allow African countries to improve their economic output and the way of life of their farmers and people.