Stabilisation Agriculture
Enhancing the ecological and social resilience of agricultural communities to withstand and respond to adverse conditions in disaster affected locations
Stabilisation Agriculture unit research focuses on enhancing the social and ecological resilience of communities to withstand and respond to adverse conditions in locations affected by disasters. In transitions towards more resilient food and water systems, a range of Agroecology-based practical processes, techniques and approaches are required and adapted to specific social and environmental contexts. We use transdisciplinary knowledge to underpin the development of individual components of the system as well as the whole system itself, with communities in rural and urban settings being an integral part of these systems: Integrating and mainstreaming Agroecology through programmes, policies and institutions for disaster risk reduction
Promoting Urban Agriculture for forcibly displaced persons and host communities in urban and peri-urban areas
Planning, designing and evaluation of Stabilisation Agriculture programmes
Promoting Agroecology in forced displacement settings
Mapping Stabilisation Agriculture landscape using innovations and appropriate technology
Facilitating transitions
Sustainable management of stresses in agriculture
Capacity building and continuity
Our approach Our approach consists of integrated, participatory and applied methods for the management of agriculture and food production systems during transitions and protracted crisis. Through empowerment processes, targeted communities are transformed into pro-active agents of change. Consequently, integration is achieved at the local programme, policy and institutional level, thus building capacity for local governments, non-governmental organisations, to support communities scale-up and facilitating stabilisation agriculture interventions.
Our strategy Our strategies relate to agroecology concepts and principles as a land management tool in disaster risk reduction and mitigation programmes. In post disaster phases, our research targets the swift rehabilitation of primary food production systems into systems that are more resilient than previous systems. Sustainable agriculture and interlinked food production play a pivotal role in providing peacebuilding, are thus used as a means to bring about peace and stability, and as a way to avoid the recurrence of conflicts and other disasters.
Our research experience Our research experience in stabilisation agriculture builds on 30 years of research and development experience. Institutionally, we work on sustainable agriculture in vulnerable regions of the world, frequently where humanitarian and other civil society organisations are operating. We have seen first-hand the crucial knowledge gap and necessity for developing a new way forward for agriculture in these situations. Countries that we work in include Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine, Somaliland, South Africa and Uganda. Stabilisation Agriculture research draws on the skillsets of a range of disciplinary experts within the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) and other Coventry University research centres e.g. the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPR). The expertise covered include: humanitarian food security response, peace building and conflict resolutions, permaculture, gender, soil fertility, social and horticultural therapy, invasive species, farm economics, organic production, fair trade, biodiversity, nutrition, drought mitigation and dryland farming, rainwater harvesting and water resources, natural water treatment systems, sustainable livestock, and urban agriculture.
Refugee farmers in Nakivale Refugee Settlement (Uganda) participate in the identification of the Nakivale agrobiodiversity.
Home garden in Oruchinga Refugee Camp, Uganda - Stabilisation Agriculture has a clear role to play in Oruchinga to reduce soil erosion and protect the degraded landscapes.
Integration and mainstreaming of agroecology through programmes, policies and institutions for disaster risk reduction. Our transdisciplinary research approach focuses on policies and institutional frameworks that target power relations that are adaptive to managerial, historical, cultural and socio-economic processes that enhance community self-organisation in view of disaster risk reduction and/or sustainable recovery from disasters.
We plan, design and evaluate stabilisation agriculture programmes through coordinated actions using innovation and appropriate technology.
Promotion of urban agriculture for forcibly displaced households in urban and periurban areas using a range of approaches that are tailored to address dietary needs and wellbeing at household level.
Precision unnamed aerial vehicle (UAV) are used to map Stabilisation Agriculture programmes.
Urban gardening in peri-urban City of Kampala.
Capacity building and continuity.
Young refugees in Nakivale Refugee Settlement (Uganda) use their engineering skills and locally sourced materials to solve water supply and local transport problems.
In Nakuru (Kenya), farmers are trained in environment friendly methods of composting and making charcoal from recycled materials.
Prosopis Juriflora in Somaliland.
Young Iraqi refugee proudly showing off his garden.
We promote agroecologybased farming practices in forced displacement settings, use of both scientific and local knowledge as the tools to build resilient communities, protect the environment, improve environmental sanitation and contribute to food security. Integrating a range of food production methods in forced displacement settings gives households access to adequate nutrients, thereby reducing the risk of malnutrition related diseases.
Facilitating transitions through processes that transform food aid into food production, combatants into farmers and refugees into productive returnees. By supporting countries’ strategies of self-reliance, sustainable agriculture and food production are used as a means to bring about peace and stability, and as a way to avoid the recurrence of conflicts and disasters.
Following the host country’s refugee self-reliance strategy, refugee farmers in Nakivale Refugee Settlement (Uganda) husking corns they produced using the allocated land as a means to improve food security and sustain livelihoods.
Desert locust invasion in West Africa.
Promotion of sustainable management of stresses in agriculture through preventive and sustainable solutions. At a national level, we explore policies that fit the context and social landscape. This includes integrating capacity building, assessment, mapping and prioritisation of stressors. At the local level, we focus on community awareness, monitoring and eradication of the stressor. Our participatory and applied research methods in managerial and control processes of invasive species focuses on community awareness and preparedness, thereby reducing the risk, or mitigating the negative effects of invasive species on agricultural landscape and livelihoods.
Farmers in Somaliland apply selective tree cutting strategies and charcoal production as means to sustainable management of the Prosopis Juriflora.
At Niamey City market in Niger, Ornithacris turbida cavrois and Kraussaria anguilifera locusts are sold for human consumption. Another means of maximising the potential of invasive species.
For enquiries regarding Stabilisation Agriculture please contact: Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience Coventry University Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane Ryton-on-Dunsmore Coventry CV8 3LG Tel: +44 (0) 24 77 651 679 Email: cawroffice@coventry.ac.uk