Miguel
Angel Nuñez
"Agroecology in the Venezuelan Revolution"
October
16, 2007 |
|
Professor Miguel
Angel Nuñez discusses his work on agroecology
on October 16. |
A Food Revolution: Agroecology in Venezuela
By
Tanya Kerssen
The “Bolivarian Revolution” underway in Venezuela
is “trying to build a new society without making the
mistakes that the capitalist system and the socialist system
made in the past. We are trying to build a participatory democracy.” So
spoke Venezuelan professor of agroecology Miguel Angel Nuñez
in his CLAS-sponsored talk. Indeed, Nuñez came equipped
with an impressive arsenal of statistics showing a side of
the Venezuelan revolutionary process that rarely makes headlines:
its revolution in food and agriculture.
For
Nuñez, agroecology has a key role to play in laying
the groundwork for a more sustainable food system in Venezuela
. The founder of the Institute for Production and Research
in Tropical Agriculture (IPIAT), Nuñez has also served
as an advisor on agricultural policy to the government of Hugo
Chávez since 2004.
Food Sovereignty and Agroecology
Nuñez identified “food sovereignty” as
the cornerstone of Venezuela ’s
new sustainable development agenda. Coined by the
international peasant network Via Campesina at the 1996 World
Food Summit, the phrase “food sovereignty” serves
as a rallying cry for family farmers, landless people and
indigenous people worldwide. Via Campesina defines “food
sovereignty” as the right of a people or state to define
its own agriculture and food policy. The food sovereignty
agenda calls for production for local consumption;
a halt to the “dumping” of cheap food imports
which threaten farmer livelihoods; peasant access to land,
seeds, credit and water; and the rejection of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).
Nuñez was careful to differentiate the concept of “food
sovereignty” from mere “food security.” Food
security is about having access to food, a concept which doesn’t
necessarily question where food comes from, who produces it
or how it is produced. In contrast, food sovereignty implies
a commitment to fostering self-sufficiency through land reform,
community participation, ecologically-sound methods and socially
accountable research and policy agendas.
Food
sovereignty also requires a “new science”,
said Nuñez, an alternative to the Green Revolution that
is seen as having failed in Venezuela . This new science is
to be found in agroecology, which he defined as a synthesis
of modern scientific knowledge and the traditional and indigenous
knowledge of small farmers for the creation of sustainable
food systems that meet the needs of local communities.
In contrast to the one-size-fits-all industrial model of
the Green Revolution, agroecology emphasizes the social and
cultural dimensions of agriculture. Instead of using purchased
chemical inputs, for instance, agroecological farming employs
locally-adapted techniques that maximize yields while maintaining
soil fertility. Farmers in this model are seen as key partners
in conserving the environment and managing biodiversity.
Nuñez’s
new book La Agroecología
en la Soberanía Agroalimentaria Venezolana (Agroecology
in Venezuela ’s Food and Agricultural
Sovereignty), contains data compiled by IPIAT which
details the transition from conventional to agroecological
farming in seven Venezuelan states. In these states, all
in the Northwest region, the study followed 2,267 farmers
producing 169 different crops on 3,731 hectares of land (approx.
9,220 acres) using agroecological methods.
With
the help of students from the Bolivarian University in Barinas,
IPIAT is tracking the success of agroecology with the use
of “sustainability indicators.” For
example, the level of diversity in an agro-ecosystem and
the nutritional content of each crop are measured; a diverse
farm with crops of high nutritional value would be scored
high in terms of sustainability.
Venezuela’s
Path to Food Sovereignty
The
transition to food sovereignty is a slow process in a country
that just 10 years ago imported approximately 86 percent
of its food, the result of Venezuela ’s dependence on
oil revenues and a historically weak agricultural sector. But
Nuñez is hopeful. In the last 10 years, he notes, that
number has been reduced to about 63 percent.
He
is also ambitious. By 2013, Nuñez envisions 70
percent of the country to be in a process of transition from
conventional agriculture to agroecology. Of course, this will
depend not only on the work of organizations like IPIAT but
also upon the political will and ability of the Chávez
government to implement policies that favor food sovereignty.
These policies will have to include access to credit, land
and extension services for small farmers; incentives for urban
residents to move to the countryside; and education to create
the human capital needed to carry out this agroecological revolution.
The
Bolivarian constitution, adopted in December 1999 and approved
by popular referendum, already contains language — in
33 separate articles — that compels the state to promote
sustainable agriculture as the basis for development. Rural
social movements, said Nuñez, are putting pressure on
the government to enforce these constitutional pronouncements.
Nuñez
is also vying for the explicit inclusion
of agroecology and food sovereignty in the constitution, through
the modification of Article 305 which most specifically relates
to agriculture and food security. The new Article
305 would require the state to promote agroecology as the scientific
and strategic basis of rural development; privilege domestically-oriented
production in agriculture, livestock and fishing; and advance
the necessary infrastructure, market conditions and human resources
needed to guarantee food sovereignty.
Of
course, there is also the pressing issue of hunger which
requires immediate action. To this end, the government created
Mercal, a national network of subsidized food markets, in
2002, one of a number of “missions” created to address
the needs of Venezuela ’s poor, such as healthcare and
education.
The
more long-term solutions, however, hinge primarily on the
success of one key initiative: land reform. So far, says
Nuñez, three million hectares have been recovered and
redistributed under Venezuela ’s land reform program,
enacted in November 2001. What distinguishes Venezuela ’s
land reform, and offers hope for food sovereignty, is the principle
of “social productivity” in which the use of
land takes precedence over formal ownership. Under such a law,
idle or unproductive lands may be taxed or reallocated to a
socially productive use (food production and employment) with
compensation to the owner by the government at the current
market price.
 |
Professor
Nuñez argued that Venezuela's agroecology-based
reforms will have a deeper impact than would pure land
redistribution. |
In
addition to land redistribution, the government is promoting
the creation of agricultural cooperatives and the provision
of technical assistance, special credits, infrastructure
for commercialization and education centers. In a February
19 article in the online In Motion Magazine, Nuñez
noted that approximately 7,000 agricultural co-ops have been
created in the last five years; 1,436,000 Venezuelan women
have received credit and have organized themselves into 1,389
cooperatives and 16,421 small enterprises; and approximately
480,000 small industrial enterprises are functioning with
the help of government credit.
At
the grassroots level, Venezuelans are organizing and establishing
community councils to pressure municipal governments and
gain funding for community projects. So far, over 16,000
community councils have been established, approximately 14,500
projects are currently underway and 997 communal banks have
been created to provide credit for local projects. These
projects are developed by the communities themselves, with
participatory oversight and budgeting. For Nuñez, this is what “participatory
democracy” means.
Education
plays a critical role in the advancement of food sovereignty.
However, Nuñez noted, it is important
to ask, what kind of education? A new university, created
by the Bolivarian government in partnership with Via Campesina
and the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil (MST), was established
in 2005 to train students in agroecology. The Paulo Freire
Latin American Institute for Agroecology, named after the Brazilian
educator, promotes education, training and research that addresses
the needs and technical problems faced by small farmers. In
its first semester, 250 students from various Latin American
countries enrolled at the university, over half of whom were
women.
In
the question-and-answer session, Prof. Nuñez was
asked about the connection between agroecology and oil in Venezuela
. He responded with one word: money. Unlike countries like
Bolivia or Ecuador , Venezuela has the economic resources to
make the switch to agroecology. Whether Chávez can overcome
internal divisions in his government and implement the necessary
policies remains to be seen. Nuñez appeared confident
that social movements and local organizations will play an
important role in both applying political pressure and working
towards food sovereignty on the ground.
Miguel
Angel Nuñez is a professor
of agroecology and tropical agriculture and the founder
and International Relations Coordinator of IPIAT, the Institute
for Production and Research in Tropical Agriculture in
Venezuela . He spoke at CLAS on October 16. Several of
his articles on Agroecology and Food Sovereignty in Venezuela
can be found at: www.inmotionmagazine.com.
Tanya Kerssen is a graduate student in the Latin American
Studies program.
