Climate change is a huge problem

Because there are no irrigation systems away from the major rivers, farmers in Ethiopia are dependent on rain. The rains usually fall in February/March and then again from May to September, but mostly only in the higher regions. The church is trying to counter climate change with long- and short-term measures, reports Rev Dr. Yonas Yigezu Dibisa, president EECMY, Ethiopia. "Greening" is the keyword.

PCC: Visit to the Solidarity Farm Hof Leiser

The participants of the PKK visited the Solidarity Farm Hof Leiser in Winsen Aller.

PCC: Beyond Romanticism

An afternoon on an organic farm in northern Germany

Reiner Bohnhorst and Claudia Schievelbein have little in the way of rural romance, but they do have a deep conviction that they took the right step 26 years ago. Today, the couple farms the Oldendorf organic farm in Natendorf (Uelzen district) together with their business partner Per Morten Haram. On 400 hectares of arable land, the farmers of the two farms implement their philosophy of organic farming. For the international participants of the partner church consultation, this was an exciting insight into the everyday life of a farm that tries to manage without the "blessings" of the large agricultural corporations.

"The farm operators' credo is that "rural thinking, management in cycles that are as closed as possible, and the renunciation of synthetic chemical substances form the basis of our work. This includes a diverse crop rotation in the form of wheat, barley, rye, spelt and einkorn, triticale and corn, which are constantly alternated with field beans, peas, soybeans, lupins, clover and potatoes.

Impressive the fleet of the farm: planting and harvesting machinery, 10 tractors alone are available to the two farms. Even the weeding of the plantations is hardly ever done by hand - the hoeing and harrowing is done by a machine. No less impressive is the effort required for the limited storage of potatoes, for example - another sensitive issue that not least affects the economic viability of organic farming.

They realize all this in the awareness that, in view of climate change, a rethinking of agriculture must take place. Reiner Bohnhorst and Claudia Schievelbein not only focus on the northern German context and refer to the situation in other German states such as Brandenburg, where it has long been almost impossible to grow crops due to soil conditions and drought. And they draw a connection to the global situation, for example in Malawi or South Africa. Here, as there, climate change is leading to extreme weather conditions such as drought and floods. They destroy entire harvests. In addition, there are sometimes total losses due to pest infestations, for which there is no plant protection, as in conventional agriculture. Bioland, the association to which they belong, allows only preventive treatment with copper against fungal infestation and late blight.

Nevertheless, even with such strict regulations as in their association, one cannot avoid making compromises - be it in irrigation, without which it would not work, be it in the size of the machines and the associated compaction of the soil, or know that copper as a heavy metal is also not unproblematic.

But there is one thing they do not touch, the conviction that genetically modified seeds conditioned for the use of certain chemical pesticides in the hands of a few large international corporations is the wrong way to guarantee food security. This only promotes agricultural dependency, whether in the global South or here. That is why one of the tasks of the two farms is to produce their own "natural" seed on 20 percent of their arable land.

This closes the circle of a day that dealt with the situation of agriculture in the countries of the partner churches, the dependence not least of small farms on the promises of the agricultural industry, and the effects of climate change on global food security.