UNDERSTANDING ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS FOR BETTER COMPLIANCE

TRAINING PROGRAMME September 18-22, 2017

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) New Delhi, is conducting a five days training programme on ‘Understanding Environmental Laws for better

Compliance’ to be held between September 18-22, 2017. India has a comprehensive system of regulations to protect its natural environment and the health of its people. From the enactment of Water Act in 1974, a number of laws and regulations have been put into force in this regard. However, the intended purposes of these laws are far from being fulfilled due to various reasons. One of the issues which sterns out is a holistic understanding of the different laws and how they should be looked into in a concerted manner for better environmental management.

The primary objective of the programme is to develop a better understanding and knowledge of the laws and their interrelationship.

Laws related to environmental preservation, pollution abatement, forest clearance, coastal zone regulation, and international treaties will be discussed during the programme. On completion of the training, the participants will have: 1. Better understanding of environmental governance structure of the country, major institution, and their implementation statistics 2. Increased understanding of the obligations of industry and individuals under various environmental laws and regulations and how to meet these obligations 3. Participation of concerned internal and external stakeholders in the compliance process 4. Understanding the impacts of violations and noncompliance 5. Role of National Green Tribunal (NGT), environmental courts and public interest litigation (PIL) 6. Understanding of international treaties and agreements Government of India subscribes to and the impact of non-compliance with such agreements on business 7. A clear understanding that environmental compliance is not a financial burden but a clear business opportunity

Most of Kenya received poor rains in 2016, leading to one of the worst food crises in the country since the 1990s, with the country having to rely on food imports almost throughout 2017. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (knsb) says that the country spent a whopping US$1.146 billion on food imports, or 8 per cent of the total import bill in 2016. The figure is predicted to rise in 2017 due to the drought. 2017 being one of the worst years in terms of Kenya’s food security, knsb statistics indicate that by April the country had spent about US$0.33 billion on buying food, mainly cereals— maize, wheat and rice. The figure could triple in the remaining quarters of the year.

According to Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Willy Bett, the government is doing all it can to ensure the country is food self-sufficient, by, among others, significantly increasing land under irrigation. “We agree that these past two years have been very bad as far as food production is concerned, with weather being the biggest culprit, says Bett, and adds that the country is trying to reduce its dependence on rains.

At the height of the shortage this year, a 2 kg packet of maize flour cost US $2, an amount that nearly caused food riots in the country. By August the Food and Agriculture Organization put the number of people in urgent need of food aid at 3 million in Kenya, and 16 million people in the Horn of Africa countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia.

“Over-reliance on rain-fed maize production is one key cause of suboptimal production, which occurs during years of drought. This is because arable land accounts for less than 20 per cent of the land mass in Kenya, and over time, it has been declining due to increasing population and other competing alternative land uses,” says Dennis Otieno, research fellow at Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Egerton University in Nakuru city. According to Otieno, Kenya has been unable to meet its domestic maize demand since 1994, with the average annual maize production standing at about 40 million bags while consumption is over 50 million bags. The country needs to cut post-harvest losses, which stand at 30-40 per cent of all yields across Africa, increase agriculture budget, raise numbers of extension officers, and modernise agriculture by investing in technologies.

According to Anne Mbaabu, head of Markets and Harvests, Alliance of Green Revolution in Africa, an organisation that seeks to improve agriculture across Africa, Kenya needs more investment in agriculture, including private sector investment, protection of farmers through crop and livestock insurance, investment in irrigation, storage and roads infrastructure, and a boost in its ability to respond to epidemics. More important is the political will to implement farmer-friendly policies and good prices to motivate farmers to produce more.

ZAMBIA: missing infrastructure

IN MARCH, Zambia created a flutter when it banned the import of certain fruits and vegetables. The decision was made to promote the agriculture sector. For a country that is not known for its domestic agriculture, the decision shows how desperate the situation is. In fact , the scenario is the same across the continent, with one country after another becoming dependent on imported food.

It’s important to take into account the political context that led to the ban. Historically, Zambia focused on mineral exports as the dominant economy sector. It helped Zambia earn enough to pay for food import. But during his third term, President Levy Mwanawasa was forced to diversify the economy when global copper markets tanked in the late last century and the economy collapsed.

Just like other African countries, Zambia’s imports of agricultural produce affect the local market. The list of banned items includes tomato, onion, carrot, mango, potato, pineapple, lemon and watermelon, and local farmers have greeted the decision with the hope that their produce will now have a market. But there is also a rider: farmers need right infrastructure to package, process and deliver the produces.

Frank Kayula, president of the National Union for Small Scale Farmers in Zambia, agrees that lack of infrastructure is a serious drawback, especially for small-scale farmers who produce the country’s 80 per cent food. Poor infrastructure in agriculture at sowing, harvesting or selling stages resulted in agricultural countries like Zambia not being able to meet the domestic demand, which led to net import of food, Kayula says.

For companies dealing with food produce, the absence of a robust supply chain is the biggest hurdle to benefit from the ban. Food Lovers Market, a South African fruit and vegetable supermarket that has outlets in Zambia, has cited inconsistent supply and bad quality of produce from local

Kenya received poor rains in 2016 and witnessed a severe food crisis. It had to rely on food imports almost throughout 2017

farmers as one of the reasons for its disapproval of the ban. Calestous Juma, a professor at Harvard University, questions the ban as an instrument of achieving food sovereignty. According to Juma, in many cases, imbalances in agricultural trade exist because the country has not invested enough on storage facilities and capacity building.

Julius Shawa, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, says the ban follows concerns raised by local farmers. “Just recently, we received complaints from farmers that some tomatoes from neighbouring Tanzania were being imported cheaply, hence under-cutting our farmers. Our concern as a ministry is to encourage the sourcing and supply of these products from within the country; so we have imposed an administrative restriction for now,” Shawa says. He says the country has the capacity to satisfy local demand. “We are telling our farmers, here is the market. We want to make our farmers rich,” he says.

BOTSWANA: climateproofing agriculture

WITH A population of 2 million and one of the highest per capita gdp in Africa ($18,825), Botswana shouldn’t have been worried by the rising food import bill. But it has reached such proportions that it can cause a collapse of the country’s economy, say experts.

Botswana lies in the Sub-Saharan Africa (ssa) region, where the gap between cereal consumption and production is the largest in the continent. Further, it is projected that the demand will triple between 2010 and 2050. This is much greater than in other continents including Asia. Indeed, ssa, including Botswana, is the region with the greatest risk to food security because by 2050 its population will increase 2.5 times. The region already depends on import. To meet the future demand, it would have to import even more.

What’s worse, the agriculture sector has seen a steady decline over past four-five decades. From a 42.7 per cent share in gdp at independence in 1966, agriculture fell to 1.9 per cent in 2008. Add to this the threat of climate change. Jimmy Opelo, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resource Conservation and Tourism, says, “What we need to ask ourselves is: are we ready for climate change and how can we adapt to it so as to reduce its effect in our country.” The country no longer receives normal rainfall and this has changed its agriculture cycles, he adds.

So, the government’s focus has been to not only make agriculture viable again but also to make it climate change-resilient. In an interview to Down To Earth, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security Boipelo Khumomatlhare, says, “Botswana is serious about more localised food production. So, we have included food security in the mandate of the ministry of agriculture.”

Its impacts are visible. Some 1,000 km from the capital city, Gaborone, the village of Shakawe hosts some incredible stories of making the country self-sufficient and also to fight climate change. The non-profit, Trust for Okavango Cultural and Development Initiatives (tocadi), is implementing a programme to facilitate and mobilise community-based organisation to practise subsistence farming since 2003. The initiative has resulted in slow agro-industrial and supply chain development that is needed to drive the growth of associated sub-sectors such as food processing, transport and manufacturing. This is the most important investment to make domestic food production viable in the face of rising import. Conversations with local communities indicate a turnaround in local food production.

However limited this initiative might be, it has resonance in the country’s agriculture sector. About 70 per cent of rural households derive their livelihoods from agriculture, through subsistence farming. The government has also introduced a young farmer’s fund to encourage the youth to venture into farming. The loan may be used for infrastructure development needed for the project.

UGANDA: a systemic overhaul

WHEN 65-year-old Emmanuel Ssempila of Rwentondo village in Kakoba division of Uganda’s Mbarara district joined coffee farming 42 years ago, he never envisaged how much his life would change four decades later.

In these 40 years, coffee farming has enabled him to send his six children to get university education, build a house and live a middle-class life as per Ugandan standards. He is now his village’s “nucleus coffee model farmer”. In that capacity, introduced under the government’s agriculture zoning approach, Ssempela provides some basic services to his fellow village residents, such as distributing coffee seedlings supplied by the government. With this approach—just one of an

From a 42.7 per cent share in GDP at independence in 1966, agriculture fell to 1.9 per cent in 2008 in Botswana