Balls: Stephen Curry Reinvents Warriors To Winners, Frank Hilario Reinvents Conservation To Sustainable Agriculture!

The Golden State Warriors were losing, then Stephen Curry exploded, the final scores being 115-105 Warriors vs LA Clippers Friday, 08 January 2020[1] (Monte Poole, NBCSports.com). The Warriors were behind 85-63 with 3:15 remaining in the 3rd Q, but a true warrior finds his way to victory. Curry contributed 38 points. Mr Poole says the lesson is: “Do not accept premature burial, no matter the skill of those wielding the shovels.” The Clippers were shocked.

In an entirely different world, I am not quitting, but here is my personal shock:
Today, I realize that Conservation Agriculture/Farming has been losing all the time – the resources may be/are being conserved, but the poor farmers are not!

Saturday, I saw this Facebook sharing, “Solving South Asia’s Sustainability Issues Will Require A Systems Approach To Crop Management[2]” by Alison Doody (17 December 2020, CIMMYT.org). Miss Alison writes:

New research by an international team of scientists, including scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), (overall) shows that adopting a portfolio of conservation agriculture and crop diversification practices is more profitable and better for the environment than conventional agriculture.

“Systems approach to crop management” but not “systems approach to farmer management.” Miss Alison, you are separating “conservation agriculture” from “crop diversification practices” when the very image you are using (below), says “diversified crop rotation” is 1 of 3 principles of conservation agriculture! One is part of the other and cannot be separated.

There are 2 main reasons why I’m writing this essay:

(1) Agriculture: Those 3 are components, not principles of.
(2) Conservation Agriculture should give way to Sustainable Agriculture.

Why Sustainable Agriculture, not Conservation Agriculture?

The concept of “conservation” focuses on the resources – soil, crops, livestock, systems, while the concept of “sustainable” includes people.

Sustainable Everything: Beyond conservation, you need to make agriculture sustainable: technically feasible, economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable.

Sustainable Everyone:You target the lives of people. Now, look at my image above again; it says “4 Components of Sustainable Agriculture.” It shows only 3: (1) Minimum Tillage; (2) Permanent Soil Cover; (3) Crop Mix & Rotation. Because I am hiding the 4thcomponent, the human, at the top of the image, my logo: “Brave New World.” Most of all, in agriculture, you need to make farmers’ lives sustainable – with lives improving more and continuously. Which requires that you look at the village, not simply the individual farmers. It takes a sustainable village to nurture a sustainable farmer.

Another way of putting that is this:
It is not enough that farmers keep on earning higher and higher incomes – are they in fact escaping from poverty?

Yes, Miss Alison, as Andrew McDonald, your systems agronomist at Cornell University, puts it: “Tackling these challenges requires strong collaborative efforts from researchers, policymakers, development partners and farmers.” I’m coming from Development.

The sooner we graduate from Conservation Agriculture to Sustainable Agriculture, the better!@517

 


[1]https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/steph-currys-38-point-performance-vs-clippers-ignites-nba-twitter?fbclid=IwAR0r2VT_9WeKeY9fJFYXj5OZ9EDCA52MwsT0bZ3qrOOpu4P8mlTB6OpxMo4

[2]https://www.cimmyt.org/news/solving-south-asias-sustainability-issues-will-require-a-systems-approach-to-crop-management/

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