ORFC GLOBAL 2021

Hear emerging findings from the UK’s largest farmer-led soil carbon research project, alongside cutting-edge insight on our understanding of soil carbon and the best protocols for measuring it. With discussion on why this is increasingly relevant for farmers and the associated opportunities and challenges.

Interest in soil health and its capacity to sequester carbon has risen dramatically in recent years. In some countries, farmers receive payments for soil carbon sequestration. However, uncertainties still exist in…

In this panel we will hear directly from three countries – Honduras, Colombia and Paraguay – which have rich experiences of peasant struggle but also have very high levels of criminalization against peasants, indigenous, and afrodescendent peoples and other defenders of human rights. Each panelist, which represents a different member organization of the Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations (Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo – CLOC-Vía Campesina), the Latin American expression of La Via…

ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED. LIMITED SPACES: 30 (Full)

Globally we are starting to see women step into roles traditionally held by men while staying true to their feminine values’. If so, what are these values? Moreover, does livestock farming, with its emphasis on the cycle of life - ie reproduction, birth, and the rearing of youngstock - require specific traits considered to be inherently ‘feminine’’? How are these balanced against the goal to achieve maximum yield and…

Fires are now a staple of summer in California, which is also during one of the most important growing cycles. As California endures this new climate pattern farmers are facing the reality of burnt land, seedlings, and precious harvest lost. What can be done? What is being done? What might others learn? Come hear the diverse perspectives on how leaders in California are continuing to embody resilience in the face of these acute challenges.

Timor-Leste has faced many challenges on its path to independence, but today faces even more - environmental degradation, deforestation, poor water security, poverty and food insecurity, with climate change only magnifying these issues.

In response, local Timorese NGO Permatil (Permaculture Timor-Leste) have been working through permaculture to build food-sovereignty, environmental restoration and social change. From developing community-driven multi-year education programmes, creating a range of globally used education resources, teaching government agriculture workers and NGO…

Shumei Natural Agriculture regenerates the land, water and soil, and cultivates a renewed appreciation of traditional farming culture, which has been declining in Japan. Abandoned rice paddies have not only resulted in the loss of cultural and agricultural heritage, but also the rich biodiversity of the land.

In this session, Shumei will take audiences on a virtual tour of Natural Agriculture farms in Japan, where thousands of farmers are cultivating crops using natural seeds…

La Agricultura natural de Shumei regenera la tierra, el agua y el suelo, y cultiva un concepto renovado de la cultura de granja tradicional, que está decayendo en Japón. Los campos de arroz abandonados no sólo resultan en la pérdida de herencia cultural y agrícola, sino que también afecta a la rica biodiversidad de la tierra.

En esta sesión, Shumei llevará al público a una visita virtual de las granjas de Agricultura natural en…

Small-scale farmers in the 16 countries of the Sahel in West Africa face a dual crisis to their livelihoods: climate change and land degradation.

For many generations, farmers had lived and farmed in equilibrium with the natural environment. They maintained soil fertility, water holding capacity and crop production through fallowing and other practices.

Today, population pressure, climate change, soil erosion, misuse of agrochemicals have reduced the resiliency and sustainability of the farming system.…