Nairobi — As agrifood systems in the Global South buckle under the weight of climate change, biodiversity, and even pollution, experts such as Dr. Himanshu Pathak call for urgent innovative solutions, as, at the current pace, the problems of the Global South are going to intensify with escalating climate change.
Pathak is the director general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a global research institute focused on dryland agriculture. He has over 32 years of experience in climate resilience, soil and crop management, and sustainable agricultural systems.
Speaking to IPS at the CGIAR Science Week, he shared his insights into the deepening rural poverty and hunger across the Global South and what it would take to build agricultural resilience and sustainability.
“Changing climate, increasing temperature, and increasing pollution are going to intensify the problem of degradation of its land, water, and air. To solve these problems, we strongly believe that new science and new technology will be very useful to address those challenges. New science means developing new varieties that are resistant or tolerant to climatic changes,” he said.
“Varieties that are high yielding and at the same time better in nutrient content, which will help in promoting soil fertility, will not degrade the soil. Once we develop these varieties and new technologies, we have to reach these technologies to the farmers through a conducive policy environment.”
ICRISAT is on the frontlines of developing much-needed solutions through its regional stations in eight different countries in Africa and, in all, working with about 80 countries on different aspects of their research activities, such as on amended crops like millets, sorghum, pulses, pigeon peas, chickpeas, and oilseed-rich groundnuts.
“We do crop improvement, how to increase yield by developing new varieties, and how to improve nutrient content by developing bio-fortified varieties. We also work on how to manage soil, water, nutrients, fertilizer, and, of course, climate action, and we are actively engaged in social sciences, capacity building, education, training, and teaching.”
On why farmers do not always adopt new science and technologies, Pathak said they find it difficult to do so “without good policy and support and without good incentives. And there is also a great need for capacity building and skill development of farmers, as today’s technologies are quite knowledge intensive.”
Emphasizing that farmers need to improve their skills and knowledge to “understand and adopt these new technologies, new varieties, new water management, and so on. And to achieve all of these things, there is a need for partnership. Partnership among research organizations, partnership among farmers, donors, and policymakers.”
For sustainable changes, he spoke of an urgent need to involve women farmers, as gender equality is a central part of the solution, as is youth involvement. Stressing that this is a different generation of youth and that to attract and retain them in agriculture will take embracing new technologies such as digital agriculture, artificial intelligence, and precision agriculture, and equally important, agriculture has to be market-oriented.
Reiterating the critical role that science and technology play, David Guerena, a research scientist at the Alliance Biodiversity International-CIAT, spoke to IPS about the need to listen to what farmers are saying to understand their more preferred varieties and even what draws them to these varieties. This understanding can help breeders make more informed decisions towards more effective solutions that are better adapted to local settings. Stressing that AI and machine learning solutions for agriculture, specifically around breeding and breeding services, are also timely and critical and that, rather than leaving farmers behind, technology can connect farmers to research.
“It is important that we speak to farmers directly to help customize agricultural advisory services and linkages to markets. AI is also successfully interfacing with breeding teams. We have also seen how mobile money transfer models such as MPESA have done in rural ecosystems in supporting smallholder farmers to transact with ease,” he said.
Dr. Stephen Mutuvi from the Alliance Biodiversity International-CIAT and based in Arusha, Tanzania, specializes in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning. He leads the machine learning operations in the organization’s different projects, focusing on artificial intelligence.
He told IPS that AI is part of the solution, as “you can just record farmers as they speak, for instance, and people without literacy levels can convey their messages by just having their voices and conversations recorded.”
“And then using AI to transcribe their words automatically and applying advanced models like those similar to ChatGPT to analyze the data. So, we are at a very interesting space where the advanced technologies in AI are also getting to be useful and to be of impact to the direct users, who are the farmers in this case.”
Guerena stressed the need to find harmony between indigenous knowledge, which has sustained agriculture for thousands of years, and advanced scientific knowledge. Saying that indigenous knowledge gives a historical understanding and science is more modern and more advanced and that the two are central to developing lasting solutions.
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But a lack of access to post-production remains a pain point for smallholder farmers in the Global South. Pathak says supporting farmers to access good prices for their produce is critical: “Market-friendliness, gender-friendliness, and of course nature-friendliness of agriculture will be extremely important in building agricultural resilience and sustainability.”
As is so often the case, he affirms that innovation and science are more invested in increasing yields as aspects of post-harvest, post-production, and access to markets are left unattended. He asserts that although increasing production is crucial, it is not sufficient.
“And therefore, we are working for the full agri-food system, starting from seed to produce, and then all kinds of value addition and connecting farmers with markets. So, value addition, agri-food processing, and post-harvest management of the commodities are extremely important,” Pathak said. “Onwards, along with increasing productivity by developing new varieties and new soil and water management technologies, we also have to give equal, if not more, importance to post-harvest management for agri-value addition.”
IPS UN Bureau Report,
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