By George Esunge Fominyen (culled from Flame of Africa)
A national movement for the defence of women’s Interests in Brazil has called for the end of the expansion of single-crop industrial farming (monocropping) in the Amazon. Sylvia Camusa and her 4000 member strong association made the call during a display on sovereignty and food security on the Pan-Amazonian Day at the World Social Forum in Belem.
Brazil, one of the world’s emerging economies, has seen an increase in the plantation of single crops like sugar-cane and soja for the production of agro-fuels and this is putting pressure on the Amazon Rainforest. In June of 2008, the Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon) registered an increase in the deforestation rate in the Amazon, principally in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, where more than 600,000 square kilometers have been devastated.
The women present in Belem, explained through sketches, traditional poetry and chants that this rapid spread in “monocropping” is destroying the bio-diversity of the Amazon and threatening the women and indigenous peoples of this area with food insecurity.
Slyvia Camusa told Flame of Africa that, multinational companies – some of which also operate in Africa – cut down trees and fruits; and provoke traditional fauna of the Amazon to disappear in complete disregard for the impact this may have on local people. The female activist blames such attitudes to greed and capitalist interests.
She said, “sugar cane and soja could be of interest to Europeans but it is not useful to us. We need our plants for our traditional pharmacopoeia and our usual foods and fruits to feed our families.” She added that the indigenous people of the Amazon had a right to live in their land according to their own ways. Some members of Sylvia’s association asked other women attending their presentation if bio-fuels could be eaten and if humans could live on sugar-cane alone.
The chairperson of the Zambia Social Forum, Jimmy Zindikilani Daka is in agreement with this view. He told Flame of Africa that in Zambia, there has been a rise in the growing of a plant called Jatropha that is supposed to be a source of bio (agri) - fuels. Daka said, farmers are encouraged to plant Jatropha as a means to fetch extra income. But he is worried that farmers would eventually opt to only grow this cash crop whereas it takes long to mature thus occupying land that would normally be used food crops. The consequence of this would be food shortage.
The issue of bio-fuels has become a contentious one in the world, especially in the context of growing threats to food security. In February of 2008, riots broke out in Cameroon and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. These events were later described as “hunger riots” related to sky-rocketing prices of basic commodities (including bread) based on wheat and other cereals.
At the time, the Cameroonian Minister of Trade explained that wheat and other cereals - had become very costly because many countries were turning to bio-fuels derived from these crops to replace hydrocarbons. Not many persons gave much thought into the matter. The voices of the Amazonian women at Belem, may be emulated in Africa sooner than later.
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