Science Month 2016 theme

AGRINNOVATE
This years aim is to introduce students to Agriculture and to rekindle the Filipino
youths interest in agriculture and to raise awareness on its current situation in the
country. For a predominantly agricultural country, the Philippines has yet to realize
the importance of this sector that brings food on our table

Agriculture today is about so much more than a farmer simply planting a

seed, rearing a cow or catching a fish. It takes a whole ecosystem and a host
of actors to work together to produce the food we need for a population of
more than seven billion people.
This complex agricultural production system has evolved over time through
scientific discoveries and other innovations. It is this dynamic nature that will
equip agriculture to cope with the competing challenges of addressing food
and nutrition security, improving livelihoods, combatting climate change and
sustainably managing natural resources..

Lets take a closer look at science and innovation in agriculture: the ways it
works, the benefits it provides and the future challenges it must still help us
to overcome.

NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The worlds 570 million farmers are arguably the most important stewards of the earths land,
water and biodiversity. Worldwide, farming uses around 40% of total land area, two-thirds of
water withdrawals and 85% of water consumption today. This is up from around 7% of total land
area back in the year 1700 when the population was less than 10% of what it is today.
Advances in technology and farming practices have helped farmers become much more
productive, growing crops efficiently in areas most suitable for agricultural production.

Without these advances, far more land would need to be cultivated to produce the food we need
today. For instance, it has been estimated that we could produce the same amount of total food
grown fifty years ago on less than one-third the amount of land used back then. If yields had
stayed the same since 1961, wed need to cultivate more than double the amount of land to feed
the population today a shift from 12.2 billion acres to at least 26.3 billion acres. Thats 82% of
our total land area on earth.
Similarly, farmers tend to use water more efficiently as their yields increase. According to the
International Water Management Institute, a farmer who grows about eight times the yield of
another farmer uses only about three times as much water to do so.
AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
Innovation is not only driven by technological advances, but also through novel ways of
organizing farmers and connecting them to the information they need.
Many smallholder farmers around the world still farm the same way their ancestors did
thousands of years ago. Traditional farming approaches may continue to work for some, but new
practices can help many to substantially improve yields, soil quality and natural capital as well as
food and nutrition security.
For example, a smallholder farmer in Africa might still scatter her seeds across her land, rather
than planting evenly and in rows. This stops the plants roots taking up the maximum amount of
nutrients from the soil. She might use seed saved from generation to generation. While

indigenous seeds are important to protect genetic diversity, improved seeds could also help her to
adapt to changing climate conditions, fight crop diseases and produce higher yields. She may
plant the same crop year after year, rather than rotating her crops or planting a range of crops
together to grow more, maintain soil health and diversify her familys diet. And she might store
her harvest in such a way that leaves it susceptible to pests, diseases and rot.
Sometimes, innovations to address these issues are taken to farms via extension training. Farmers
themselves can be organized in innovative ways so they are reached more easily and effectively
with information. The type and style of the extension itself has evolved much over time. For
instance, advances in satellite mapping and information and communications technologies (ICTs)
are transforming more traditional agricultural extension work today. Farming is becoming more
precise and productive as a result.
IMPROVED INPUTS
The quality, availability and proper use of agricultural inputs is at the heart of agricultural
production and sustainability.
The crops that we grow today have been bred over the past ten thousand years to be quite distinct
from their wild ancestors. Maize, for instance, has evolved from a species called teosinte, which
is native to Mesoamerica. Similarly, modern wheat is the result of farmers in the Near East
selecting for mutations which resulted from the natural crossing of different species of wild
grass.

Farmers today are faced with a changing climate, which demands seeds that can cope with
increased incidents of droughts, heatwaves, floods and elevated salinity levels. This is happening
while arable land per capita is ever decreasing, which compels farmers to maximize harvests on
existing land.
To do this, the right inputs need to be used in the right amount and at the right time, in the right
location. This is called the 4Rs, and is an integrated part of best management practices for
improved and more efficient fertilizer application. For example, in more developed countries,
global positioning systems (GPS) are helping farmers to track their use of fertilizer and match it
very precisely to various soil types on their farm. It can also help them to identify potential pest
or disease outbreaks.
Without pesticides and other pest controls, an estimated 70% of the worlds crop might be lost,
rather than 42% today. This would require substantially more cropland being brought into
production to make up for this loss.

RESILIENCE
Resilience describes whether a farmer (and her farm) is able to withstand or recover from
stresses and shocks. Stresses are regular, sometimes continuous, relatively small and
predictable disturbances (e.g. lack of access to inputs, a declining natural resource base, climate
change and poverty) while shocks are irregular, relatively large and unpredictable (e.g. floods,
droughts, heatwaves and price volatility).
For farmers to be resilient, they must be able to bounce back from these challenges and achieve
previous levels of growth rather than suffer from reduced yields over time or even worse, a
collapse in their production. Climate change already poses a risk, especially to smallholder
farmers in the developing world. For instance:

The frequency of weather-related catastrophic events has increased six-fold since the 1950s

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has estimated there have been 8,835 climaterelated catastrophes, between 1971 and 2014, claiming 1.94 million lives and cost the global
economy $2.4 trillion.

The economic cost of natural disasters from $5 billion on average each year in the 1970s to over
$40 billion in 2010.
MARKET ACCESS
Market access allows farmers to buy the inputs they need such as improved seeds and fertilizers,
and also to bring their crops, livestock and fish to market to earn a living.
Millions of smallholder famers live in remote areas, and are often isolated from market
opportunities. Innovations in connecting these farmers to market are happening in many ways
resulting from social, technical and scientific advances. These advances help farmers find and
share up-to-date market pricing information; protect and add value to their harvests; invest in
their business; reduce and share risk; and access finance and training.
These innovations can be used and accelerated by actors all across the agricultural value chain to
reduce transaction costs and risk while helping to give farmers equal access to the opportunities
that exist through trade.

~ In order to contribute to this activity. Here are some ways for us to agrinnovate!

Aquaponic Urban Vertical Garden

Do you live in the city but have always wanted to grow
your own vegetables?

A project from Central Luzon State University in Nueva

Ecija designed by professor Chito Sace allows you to
grow a garden of leafy vegetables within one square meter
of space.
A submersible pump in a water-filled cylinder lifts the
water into hose pipes running through shelves of
vegetables.
The water being pumped through the entire system is
nutrient-rich because of the freshwater fish swimming in
the cylinder. The manure of the fish acts as organic
fertilizer for the vegetables.
After going through all the vegetables, the water streams
into a filter made of gravel (where you can also plant
more veggies). Cleansed of bits of soil it picked up along
the way, the water goes back to the cylinder for the
process to start all over again.

DIY RAIN BARREL SYSTEM