Can preserving Goa’s Khazans address climate threats?

04/04/2024 1 Comment read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science

A khazan dyke/sluice gate in Divar island, Tiswadi taluka of Goa. Photo Credit: ©Elsa Fernandes, President, Khazan Society of Goa

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 04.04.2024 (IPS): Growing up in a khazan ecosystem, the traditional agricultural practice followed in the south-western Indian state of Goa, Elsa Fernandes would love sitting in a koddo, a woven bamboo structure for storing paddy. Her family members would pour paddy around her and with the growing pile, she would rise to the top and then jump down with joy.

“Rice crop for us meant play, work and earnings. Whatever I am today is because of the khazans,” says Fernandes, an environmental architect and president of the Goa Khazan Society, an organization of concerned citizens and experts dedicated to preserving the khazan ecosystem.

The khazan ecosystem has played an intrinsic role in alleviating the effects of soil salinization, conserving biodiversity, and ensuring food security for over 3500 years. But this sustainable agriculture practice is facing increasing pressure from neglect, mismanagement, environmental degradation, and commercialization of land and fishing rights, even as threats posed by climate change loom large.

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Pacific Island Countries to develop Advanced Warning System for tuna migration

19/04/2023 0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 19.04.2023 (IPS): Climate change and warming ocean waters are causing tuna fisheries to migrate to international waters, away from a country’s jurisdiction, thereby putting the food and economic security of many Pacific Island countries and territories at risk. Now a Pacific Community (SPC) led regional initiative will help ensure that these countries are equipped to cope with climate change-induced tuna migration.

“All the climate change projections indicate that there will be a redistribution of tuna from the western and central Pacific to the more eastern and towards the polar regions, that is not Antarctica or the Arctic, but to regions outside of the equatorial zones where they primarily occur at the moment,” says SPC’s Principal Fisheries Scientist, Dr Simon Nicol.

“This has really important implications for the Pacific Island countries. Our projections suggest that about one-fifth or about USD 100 million of the income derived from the tuna industry directly is likely to be lost by 2050 by these countries,” Nicol tells IPS.

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Agri-food R&D spend ‘falling’, say experts

19/08/2022 0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 19.08.2022 (SciDev.Net): Investments in agriculture and food research are declining at a time when these sectors are facing significant risks arising from climate change, biodiversity loss and the spread of pests and diseases that affect plants, animals and humans, an international conference heard.

“As a single and sobering example of the shift in investment in agricultural research, the spending of CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network, has declined in inflation-adjusted terms by almost 40 per cent since 2014,” said Philip Pardey, co-director of the GEMS agro-informatics initiative and director of global research strategy at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Speaking at The Crawford Fund annual conference held in Canberra, Australia on 15 and 16 August, Pardey said that all available evidence supports a doubling of agri-food R&D spending. “For every dollar invested in agricultural R&D, there is a return of US$10 in social benefit, and this level of return has been consistent over many years,” he said. “Yet, agri-food R&D spending is a declining share of total R&D spending.”

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