Across Asia, on-the-ground initiatives of NGOs and local communities are now becoming the new focus for transforming Asian agriculture. Even institutions that have been considered the bastion of modern agriculture are now beginning to recognize the correctness of the many emerging local initiatives in alternative agriculture. Strategically, there has been a marked shift in emphasis from advocating to mainstreaming SA as a dominant agriculture paradigm.

Over recent years, SA in Asia has gradually progressed as a movement loosely organized, all-inclusive and multi-dimensional. NGOs and peoples’ organizations, many of whom have been practicing SA even before it acquired its present name, have now started to upscale their operations. Whereas NGOs and community groups used to work with micro-projects and demonstration farms, they are now beginning to implement SA on a larger scale (hundreds of hectares) to achieve broader impact and to begin to examine policy questions such as pricing and marketing.

Agricultural universities are also gradually incorporating agro-ecology and related courses into their curriculum. In the Philippines, the prime agriculture university in the country has adopted SA as its flagship. This is significant in itself, because the university had been the center of learning for green revolution technologies not only in the Philippines but all over Asia.

Similarly, governments, research institutions, funding agencies and other formal institutions have begun to incorporate SA in their development agendas. Intergovernmental institutions have initiated programs to facilitate the linkage between formal and informal institutions (NGOs, POs and indigenous peoples) to pursue SA. Though the process moved very slowly at the start, some interesting projects are emerging, such as the formulation of common indicators for SA in rapid rural appraisals.

But the more significant achievements in SA are found in the growing number of farmer-practitioners. In fact, the more interesting innovations in sustainable agriculture are happening in the farmers’ fields, including in-situ plant breeding, farmer-to-farmer extension and farmers’ field schools.

While documentations of these on-the-ground initiatives on SA already exist, they often remain limited, peripheral and anecdotal that cannot withstand the rigors of scientific scrutiny. Thus, over the past four years, the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) has begun an active search and documentation of on-the-ground SA initiatives of farmers, local communities and NGOs in Asia. Systematic and quantifiable methodologies are needed for SA to be mainstreamed. Rhetorical contentions need to be substantiated with solid scientific arguments, so that broader policy questions relevant to institutionalizing SA may be addressed.

Selected case studies are presented here to provide an overview of the SA movement in Asia, recount growing success stories on SA initiatives, and provoke intelligent debate on sustainability issues in agriculture.

Case Studies on SA Initiatives

In 1994, ANGOC assumed that communities have more to offer in reversing the deteriorating quality of life, both in the urban and rural areas. After four years of searching and documenting initiatives of farmers and communities, we have barely scratched the surface. But, we were right in assuming that they have a lot to offer experiences, knowledge, technologies, wisdom, hope and love. What we did not foresee is our limited capacity to absorb them. We neither speak their different languages nor have the tools to understand them. The indicators we used only measured a small portion of what sustainability is in Asia.

Readers may find in these case studies variations in interpreting the scope, operations and evolution of SA. Yet, one thing common among these communities is that they refuse the orchestration of industrialization, trade liberalization, globalization by-words of Asian governments in the pursuit of NIChood at the expense of environmental degradation, community displacement and dependence on the global market. They refuse to be the sacrificial lambs of the so-called development. They have suffered too long; hence, they want food security in their hands and not in the hands of the global market system.

The SA movement in Thailand views SA as an initiative towards self-reliance and restoration of the farmers’ control of the production process. Thai NGOs promote alternative agriculture not only as a package of environmentally sound technologies, but also a philosophy and political platform rooted in social justice and ecological enhancement. They have also started venturing into establishing alternative markets for organic products.

In Indonesia, organized farmers groups involved in SA focus on political participation at the local level, revival of indigenous knowledge systems and development of ecologically sound farming systems.

Central to the SA initiatives in the Philippines is the advocacy for a genuine and comprehensive agrarian reform of the countryside. Philippine NGOs believe that without land tenure security, agriculture will never be sustainable. NGOs in India share this view having worked with landless laborers and marginal and small farmers. They raise the issue of inequitable distribution of resources, specially land and water.

The SA movement in Bangladesh and Nepal is primarily a rejection of the pernicious effects of chemical agriculture. Thus, their efforts are focused in finding or developing organic substitutes for toxic agricultural input. In Bangladesh, the primary objective of SA advocates is to help peasants meet their food needs and improve their standard of living, and to maintain a balanced agroecosystem. Nepalese NGO advocates for SA are encouraging broad scale cooperation in developing SA technologies and adoption of community-based approaches to SA.

In Cambodia, being a war-torn country for 23 years, SA is new but perceived to mean an increase in agricultural production, and management of natural resources to address food shortages and poverty in rural areas.

Japanese NGOs and farmers focus on appropriate farming technologies and alternative trading schemes as ways towards SA.

These are some examples of the diversity in SA in Asia given the complexity of Asian agricultural realities, values and perspectives.

Sustainable Agriculture in Asia:

•  presupposes a holistic, systems-approach to agriculture.

• adopts indigenous knowledge systems that store an enormous knowledge of biological cycles and demonstrate the cultural sensitivity of SA.

•  is not limited to alternative regenerative agricultural techniques. It is equally concerned with social justice issues, and recognizes the need for economic and political restructuring. SA should form part of efforts to build a people-centered economy.

• recognizes the crucial role of women in agricultural production making their liberation from gender oppression a prime concern.

•  a highly knowledge-intensive system. SA relies greatly on local, site specific research and on farmers trained to be a research scientist of sorts, to enable him or her to tailor the appropriate SA techniques to particular farm conditions.