Farmers Dish on Food Security
Farmers Dish on Food Security
September 22, 2021
Farmer Livelihood
Food Quality & Nutrition
Food Security
Sustainability
Farmers, perhaps more than anyone, understand the importance of food security and how to strengthen global food systems. They are united in their drive to feed a hungry planet.
One of the goals of the United Nations Food System Summit is to engage people in dialogues across the entire food chain — from policymakers and business professionals to farmers and scientists — to champion sustainable production in a way that’s beneficial to everyone. In this spirit, we brought together two farmers on different continents to speak about food security, plant science technologies, sustainability, and collaboration to improve equity and livelihoods.
Dr. Gilbert arap Bor is a farmer in Uasin Gishu County, northwest Kenya, which is the largest producer of milk and grains in the country. Having grown up on a farm with cattle and grain production, he now has 25 acres of land and 30 dairy cows. He is also an instructor at Catholic University of Eastern Africa in the city of Eldoret, where he teaches marketing and business management.
“No-till farming has been discussed in Kenya for 20 years, but many farmers still believe plowing is necessary for farming. What we need is study visits by farmers from my country to other areas where no-till agriculture has taken root.”
-Dr. Gilbert arap Bor
Maria Beatriz “Pilu” Giraudo is a fifth-generation farmer located in the center of Santa Fe Province in Argentina, where she produces corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, sorghum and more. She grew up with links to sustainability as her father is a founder of the Argentina No Till Farmers Association (Aapresid). Additionally, she works as an agronomist and a consultant, having studied at the Universidad de Buenos Aires.
“Farmers are very different all around the world, but a lot of things are the same at the end of the day. We need the right voices, the right incentives and the right support for sustainable production.”
-Maria Beatriz “Pilu” Giraudo
Watch part of the online conversation between Giraudo and Bor below. This video has been edited for length.
“I urge governments to change their policy and allow the free importation of GM produce from other parts of the world. We would benefit as farmers because we would get produce from wherever it might be cheaper for us and therefore, the cost of the production of dairy produce would go down.”
-Dr. Gilbert arap Bor
“We need science to achieve human being demands for farmers. It’s a huge responsibility to achieve human being demands, and we need science-based solutions.”
-Maria Beatriz “Pilu” Giraudo
Giraudo and Dr. Bor are members of the Global Farmer Network, an organization that helps uplift farmer voices in promoting trade, technology, sustainable farming, economic growth and food security. In the lead-up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit, it’s important to keep in mind that sustainable solutions cannot be handed from the top-down: they must be developed in collaboration with the full agriculture value chain, and farmer voices are crucial to finding those solutions.