With this in mind, organic agriculture becomes part of the solution to climate change. Agriculture contributes to global warming but it also provides solutions.
Organic agriculture provides management practices which can help farmers to adapt to climate change by strengthening agro-ecosystems, diversifying crop and livestock production and enhancing the knowledge of farmers to prevent and confront changes in climate.
Experts believe that promoting organic farming, as opposed to conventional farming, cannot be overemphasised.
Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) chief executive officer Munshimbwe Chitalu says the use of fertilisers has an effect on the soil and food production.
Since the early 70s, farmers in Zambia have relied on fertilisers as the only way to promote good yields.
OPPAZ seeks to promote organic agriculture, as an alternative approach which maximises the performance of renewable resources and optimises nutrient and energy flows in agro ecosystems.
Mr Chitalu says it is time Zambia became independent from chemical farming and depended more, if not completely, on organic farming.
“Of late, research has shown that the use of fertilisers has been impacting negatively on the soil and has done more harm than good to agriculture the world over,” Mr Chitalu says.
As opposed to organic farming, chemical-based agriculture is centred on crop yields and not the impact of chemicals on soil.
Farmers have ignored what happens to the soil after using chemicals. They are preoccupied with harvesting good yields which promote food security.
Food security is realised when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Mr Chitalu says fertilizer life cycle assessments show that emissions in conventional production systems are always higher than in organic systems, based on the area of production.
Soil emissions of nitrous oxides and methane from arable or pasture lands can be avoided by organic management practices.
Mr Chitalu says several field trials worldwide show that organic fertilization, compared to mineral fertilization, is increasing soil organic carbon and capturing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil.
Lower greenhouse gas emissions for crop production and enhanced carbon seizure, coupled with additional benefits of biodiversity and other environmental services, give organic agriculture more advantages, including considerable potential for mitigating and adapting to climate change.
For many years, there has been increasing interest in growing and eating organic produce. Consumers cite its health benefits, more robust taste and the participation of small-scale producers as the major reasons for the interest.
The environmental benefits of organic farming over conventional farming have been a matter of a long, sometimes fierce, discussion and often, organic farming has come on the wrong side of the equation.
Nonetheless, organic produce can be less energy intensive than other kinds of agriculture. Growing and eating organic foods may also have significant benefits for the climate.
“We should continue using organic techniques as a weapon against climate change. Let’s be clear: if we want to hit our greenhouse gas targets, we need all the weapons we can get,” Mr Chitalu says.
According to Felix Mwansa, a conservation farmer of Kashitu in Ndola rural, most organic production results in lower emissions than conventional agriculture because of the more restricted use of fertilizers and higher levels of carbon captured in soils growing organic crops.
Mr Mwansa says organic farming is also expected to adapt more easily to changing climatic conditions because the soils growing organic crops are more stable and retain more water.
Mr Mwansa has been into conservation farming for five years and is certain that organic products are difficult to sell because they tend to be more expensive than conventionally produced crops.
“Whatever the reliability of those claims, the problem with organic produce is that it tends to be considerably more expensive than produce from conventional farming, partly because of the need for more weeding and more maintenance throughout the growing season. Our local people cannot afford that,” Mr Mwansa says.
He says it is difficult to determine when produce gets to the market and whether it is genuinely organic.
More sensitisation is needed for rural dwellers to adapt to this type of farming.
“The fact is that strengthening organic agriculture could increase production by up to 56 percent and despite gains in food production and food security in some countries, sub-Saharan Africa produces less food per person than it did 30 years ago.
And the number of chronically malnourished people in the region has doubled since 1970, from 96 million to over 200 million in 1996,” Mr Chitalu says.
He says these statistics reflect the wider picture that developing countries have registered outright declines in yield increases under conventional agriculture between 1972 and1992.
The expansion and strengthening of conventional farming is harmful not only to the environment, but also to the very resources essential for farming.
He says over the past two decades, some 15 million hectares of tropical forests are lost each year to provide land for agriculture, and at a tremendous loss of genetic diversity.
Mr Chitalu says during the same period, soil erosion and other forms of land degradation cost the world between five and seven million hectares of farming land every year.
Organic agriculture has the potential to reverse those trends and reduce carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane and greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming.
“Organic agriculture could double soil carbon seizure in livestock-based systems and decrease greenhouse gases by 48 to 60 percent. For example, organic systems have decreased the use of fossil fuels by between 10 to70 percent in Europe, and 29 to 37 percent in America,” Mr Chitalu says.
For organic farming, increasing soil organic matter and microbial biomass is a fundamental principle to support agro-ecosystem stability.
Mr Chitalu says mandatory crop rotation, the use of seeds and breeds which are adapted to local conditions, and the regeneration of functional biodiversity, all contribute to greater ecological balance.
He says farming is not all about chemicals but also about sustainability and that for it to be sustainable, conditions of agriculture like soil have to be maintained.
Sustainable agriculture, such as organic farming, will add nutrients to the soil and reduce the effects of climate change, nitrogen and carbon emissions.
The other contributing factor to sustainable agriculture is diversity which helps to replenish the soil with the needed nutrients.
According to Mr Chitalu, it has been proven that 27 percent of carbon remains in the soil in the application of sustainable agriculture.
Organic agriculture is a rapidly growing field aimed at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for generations to come.
This type of agriculture addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, starvation in poor nations, obesity in rich nations, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control and biodiversity depletion.
Organic agriculture interprets mechanisms of processes which occur from the molecular level, to the farming system, to the global level and finally translates into an environmentally friendly way of farming.
