Browsing by Autor "Paul Van Mele"

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Agroecology in Practice
(2025) Jeffery W. Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Biodiversity
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Agroecology fosters biodiversity and sustainability in farming practices worldwide: Francisco ‘Pacho’ Gangotena’s organic, mixed farm in Ecuador achieves high yields while sequestering carbon, protecting birds and selling direct to consumers. The Ortega family on the Bolivian Altiplano integrates traditional practices with innovations like biofertilizers and greenhouses. Farmers in Cochabamba, Bolivia, implement agroforestry, planting trees alongside crops to improve soil health and create a diverse ecosystem. Development organizations in West Africa promote integrated farming systems that combine tree crops (cashew, mango) with legumes (groundnuts, soy) to provide food security during the lean season and discourage bush fires. Belgian organic farmers Johan Hons and Vera Kuijpers cultivate forgotten vegetables like rhubarb, preserving biodiversity and creating a unique market niche.
Concentration of Power in the Food System
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
The concentration of power in the food system and agriculture’s dependence on expensive farm machinery and external inputs have induced falling profits for family farmers, and a disconnect between consumers and producers. Industrial agriculture depletes soil health and reduces biodiversity, while yields have stagnated or declined. Agroecology promotes diversified cropping systems and reduces the dependency on fossil fuel-based machinery and other technologies. Ethical labels like Fairtrade empower farmers and support rural communities. Short food chains reduce our ecological footprint while connecting producers and consumers, but large wholesalers often remove farmer information from packaging, weakening consumer connection to food and limiting farmers’ negotiating power.
Ecological Pest and Disease Management
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
In many respects, farmers have a deep knowledge of insect pests and can identify many of them by name, yet farmers are often confused about beneficial insects. This contributes to an over-reliance on pesticides, killing the natural enemies of insect pests and disrupting ecosystems. Agroecological education could encourage farmers to conserve beneficial insects for pest control. For example, innovative farmers use natural techniques like herbal mixtures and ash for pest control, and certain fermented solutions with beneficial microorganisms attract weaver ants which control pests on cashew trees. While researchers can contribute to developing sustainable technologies, there are not enough of them to scientifically validate all of the worthy farmer innovations. Documenting and sharing local innovations can help to promote alternatives to pest management based on toxic chemicals.
Encouraging Farmers to Experiment with New Ideas
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Videos are one of the excellent ways to share new ideas that encourage farmers to experiment. Learning videos empower Kenyan farmers and communities to adopt agroecological practices, revitalize local food systems and improve their livelihoods. A Cameroonian agricultural expert uses Access Agriculture videos to inspire farmers across Africa, sparking many local innovations through his television programme. Inspired by farmer-to-farmer videos, Malawian smallholder Lester Mpinda successfully expands his income by cultivating new crops and establishing a community-based chilli production initiative. Strong leadership and access to videos on lupin beans empower a Bolivian women’s group to try new farming practices. An Ecuadorian farmer successfully adapts the biofertilizer techniques she learned from farmers in India, by means of a farmer-to-farmer video.
Environmental Degradation, Climate Change and Health Risks
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Global food systems grapple with mounting pressures including soil erosion, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and climate change. Conventional agriculture’s heavy reliance on chemicals exacerbates these challenges, leading to environmental degradation, public health concerns and economic instability for farmers. Case studies reveal the far-reaching consequences of unsustainable practices, such as the quinoa boom’s destruction of ecosystems and the widespread overuse of herbicides. Agroecology offers a transformative approach by prioritizing ecosystem health, social equity and climate resilience. By adopting agroecological practices, we can build more sustainable and resilient food systems.
Eroding Food Cultures
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Traditional food cultures are eroding due to industrialization, globalization and shifting lifestyles. Case studies from diverse regions, including the French Alps, South Korea and Bolivia, illustrate the decline of self-sufficient farming systems and the associated loss of biodiversity and local knowledge. The negative impacts of processed foods and excessive pesticide use on human health and traditional diets are also evident. Revitalizing local food cultures is essential for the well-being of individuals and communities, requiring a move towards more sustainable and resilient food systems. This revitalization involves preserving traditional knowledge, supporting local farmers and food processors, and promoting conscious consumer choices.
Farmer Cooperation
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Farmer associations empower farmers, especially women. For example, women’s groups in Ecuador and Bolivia are able to gain leadership skills, pool machinery and negotiate better prices as they produce high-value crops, like dairy and vegetables. A group of organic farmers in India uses digital tools for planning, marketing and home delivery of produce. A group of Kenyan women have been able to solve their disagreements about pricing and labour contributions, and successfully sell banana flour. Young organic farmers in Belgium collaborate on seed production, knowledge sharing and market diversification. Farmer groups may need outside facilitation at first, but organization helps farmers to overcome challenges, improve livelihoods and build a more sustainable food system.
Going Public: A New Extension Method
(Taylor & Francis, 2003) Jeffery W. Bentley; E. Boa; Paul Van Mele; Juan Almanza; Daniel Vásquez; Steve Eguino
Contemporary agricultural extension uses intensive face-to-face communication, especially for teaching farmers about pest and disease management. Development scholars are increasingly concerned about the cost of these programmes, and some are trying to reach more farmers through mass media. Small media is another recent option. We have developed a novel method of face-to-face extension, which we call Going Public. It makes use of places where farmers meet spontaneously, such as markets, bus terminals and other public places, to create a two-way learning channel. Going Public allows scientists, extensionists and farmer experts to show things to people, answer questions, run short experiential learning exercises and potentially to distribute material, as in any other face-to-face method, but it is quick and it allows contact with people from many areas at once. It also allows scientists to gather feedback from farmers in a social setting where the farmers are comfortable, surrounded by their friends and neighbours, but where they are also free to come and go.
Healthy Livestock
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Keeping livestock healthy is a crucial challenge for family farms everywhere. For example, in the Netherlands intensive farming has led to environmental degradation and reliance on veterinary drugs. Dutch veterinarian Katrien van’t Hooft and colleagues are working with farmers to introduce ‘natural livestock farming’ (NLF) as a solution. In India, using a transdisciplinary approach, veterinarians are also learning to combine traditional practices with scientific approaches. In Nigeria, Fulani herders once used herbal remedies for livestock ailments, but younger generations have largely abandoned these practices in favour of veterinary drugs, raising concerns about antibiotic resistance and the loss of valuable knowledge. In Bolivia, the Yapuchiris are expert farmers, who actively share and validate local knowledge, like herbal salves for wounds, ensuring the preservation and wider application of traditional veterinary practices. Peri-urban Ugandan farmers use good microorganisms to keep animal bedding healthy and odour-free.
Healthy Soils
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Techniques like soil conservation, cover crops, composting and mulching can revive degraded farm soils, stop erosion and manage weeds. Crop rotation combats nutrient losses and crop diseases. Researchers can play a crucial role to help local communities to conserve native plants that stop soil erosion, or to promote, multiply and distribute beneficial soil microorganisms. Local companies can promote the use of earthworms, while farmer-to-farmer videos help to share knowledge about homemade solutions for enhancing soil health, and pave the way for a more sustainable and productive agricultural future.
Inspiring Use of Videos by Local Organizations
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Local organizations use farmer learning videos to promote agroecology in different ways. Charging a small fee for farmer learning videos in West Africa led to higher engagement than free distribution. Rural Malawians are rapidly adopting mobile technology, creating a vibrant local video culture that can be used to share agroecology and entertainment. Videos are used in school curricula in Kenya to teach kids good attitudes towards farming. Extensionists can combine videos with cost–benefit analysis to interest farmers in new food enterprises. A radio station in Ghana creates its own content by blending farmer learning videos with interviews. A university professor in Bolivia shows videos to inspire the next generation of farmers. A young Ugandan woman becomes a successful entrepreneur and leader, using farmer learning videos to empower other women.
Local Seed
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Local seed and local crop varieties are important for biodiversity and food security, in spite of policies that favour commercial seeds. In Malawi and Guatemala, farmer seed banks and seed fairs help local people exchange and preserve their cherished crop varieties. A study in Kenya finds good germination rates for informally produced African leafy vegetable seeds. Farmers in Ghana, like Issah Bukari, innovate by growing groundnuts alongside other crops to ensure a steady supply of seed. In Peru, the Association of Guardians of Native Potatoes (AGUAPAN – Asociación de los Guardianes de la Papa Nativa del Centro del Perú) fights to keep native potato varieties alive through direct marketing and consumer education.
Making Learning Videos with Farmers
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Making videos with farmers highlights their agroecological innovations. This helps to counter the nagging persistence of top-down extension models, which often prioritize government and corporate agendas. Videos filmed with farmers on the Bolivian Altiplano highlighted their centuries-old knowledge of reading the signs of nature to predict the weather. Validating a factsheet on intercropping pigeon peas with maize in Malawi allowed the local researchers to incorporate farmers’ knowledge into their work. Combining scientific research on aflatoxins with local women’s experiences in Mali was crucial for making effective training videos. On a video from the Peruvian Andes, farmers explained how they ruined some of their land with chemical fertilizers, prompting the community to innovate with soil restoration techniques. Filming videos with farmers helps to show respect for their knowledge and experiments, and to share their ideas with farmers across the world.
Making the Most of Water
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Water is becoming an increasingly precious resource, with competing demands for drinking water, agriculture and nature. Agroecological water management in India and Sri Lanka reduces water evaporation through mulching. Drip irrigation in Africa has been limited by project-based approaches, but market demand can be stimulated with farmer-to-farmer learning videos. A case from South Sudan shows that drip irrigation can be successfully adapted using readily available resources. In Jamaica, watermelon farmers leverage pest control services provided by frogs and toads while maximizing the efficiency of water through drip irrigation and mulching.
Merging Scientific and Local Knowledge
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
The integration of scientific and local knowledge can address various agricultural challenges. For example, by counting soil organisms like earthworms, farmers can assess soil health, understand the impact of farming practices and improve soil fertility by adding organic matter and reducing tillage. Diverse insect populations, nurtured by flowering plants, can naturally control pests and improve crop yields. Rotational grazing and fodder production systems, developed through farmer-led research, have restored degraded pastures and increased livestock productivity in the Andes. Bolivian farmers and researchers collaboratively developed low-cost, portable solar dryers to reduce aflatoxin contamination in groundnuts, emphasizing the importance of farmer innovation in agricultural technology. Farmers in India create cost-effective animal feed, but careful ingredient selection is crucial, especially for fish, where coconut oil cake can be lethal. The wealth of farmers’ knowledge of African crops like sorghum and millet helped plant breeders develop climate-resilient alternatives to maize. Combined with local language videos on agroecological farming practices, the new varieties boosted the revival of these traditional crops.
Money Matters
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Financial viability in agroecology presents both challenges and opportunities. Youths in Africa, for instance, face hurdles in accessing land, capital and training, despite their interest in agriculture. Similarly, Bolivian women transitioning from conventional flower production to organic vegetables encounter difficulties securing fair prices and managing weekly deliveries of personalized food baskets to urban consumers. Complex cost–benefit analyses are often required, as exemplified by a Bolivian project integrating apple trees with vegetables. However, success stories like a small-scale watermelon farmer in the Solomon Islands and a large-scale roundtable event in Bolivia, where dozens of farmers’ associations had a chance to interact with domestic and international traders, demonstrate diverse pathways to financial prosperity in agroecology. The experience of a company producing organic fertilizers highlights the potential for both smallholders (who can produce their own inputs) and larger farms (who can buy them) to improve soil health, emphasizing the value of both commercial and on-farm solutions in replacing chemical inputs.
Organic Certification, Regulations and Policy
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Well-intentioned regulations often need adjustments to support a diverse and sustainable food system, as shown through several case studies. Food safety has evolved from combating deliberate adulteration (like brick dust in chilli powder) to navigating vulnerable globalized food chains. Piglets can get the iron they need by rooting in the soil instead of taking supplements, but Belgian regulations make that a controversial solution. Although EU regulations allow mobile slaughterhouses for better animal welfare, Belgian policies favour large-scale systems, making it harder for smallholders and local food processors to operate. A Bolivian law intended to protect consumers with food labelling may unintentionally put small-scale producers out of business. In modern Europe, hunting is regulated to control pests (like wild boars and pigeons) and maintain wildlife balance. New EU regulations on seed coatings (like the neonicotinoid ban) have increased the problem of pigeons for conventional farmers, but hunters fail to provide their services in a monocrop landscape stripped of hedgerows.
Reviving Traditional Food Cultures
(2025) Jeffery W Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Traditional food is among the best in the world, and it can be brought to life with some creative community engagement. For example the NGO Nawaya uses a kitchen training centre in Egypt to help rural women become empowered caterers, by preserving and sharing their culinary heritage. A school in Peru integrates local knowledge and biodiversity into its curriculum, with students learning through hands-on activities like establishing a school garden. La Tablée, a festive event in France, brings together organic farmers and consumers, fostering appreciation for local food traditions. In Bolivia, the NGO AGRECOL Andes empowers smallholder farmers to sell affordable organic produce in low-income communities. These cases underscore the potential of community engagement to revive traditional food cultures for a wider audience.
Sharing ideas between cultures with videos
(Taylor & Francis, 2011) Jeffery W. Bentley; Paul Van Mele
Civil servants, agricultural researchers, extension people and media experts often think that videos for farmers need to be filmed locally, so that the audience identifies with the actors. But this is not so. Farmers in southwestern and northern Nigeria reacted to videos on rice seed health (made in Bangladesh), on parboiling (filmed in Benin) and rice cultivation (from Mali). The farmers criticized the videos freely, but their remarks were about the technical pros and cons of the technologies presented in the videos. The farmers had no preference for watching videos featuring West African or Bangladeshi actors. The farmers only cared about the technical content of the film. This is an important, practical conclusion, because it is much easier and cheaper to dub a film into a second language than to film it over again.