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RURAL EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND FOODSECURITY: FOOD FOR FOOD (INVITED PAPER)

Mara Cristina Plencovich

ABSTRACTFood security and education are closely bound. There is nothing more essential forhumankind than food for growing and developing. Likewise, there is nothing morefundamental than education for leading a dignified life. It is not surprising that one of the

roots of the word education originated from the Latin term educare, which means tonourish, to rear, to feed. Food security means life, and education is the golden way toempower people to improve their activities or diversify them, increase their income, get andinterpret information and make decisions, as well as foster resilience, strengthen socialcohesion and participation, and promote ethical values. Formal and non-formal educationalsystems pursue these goals through the developing of core, basic and subject specificcompetencies. Robust evidence shows that there is a positive association between foodsecurity and education. And yet, why has education for rural people been so much neglectedas a tool for food security? Rural education seems to be a contemporary, solitary Cassandrawhose prophecies are always accurate but never believed or considered. The IAASTDGlobal Report explicitly considered that the main actors of agricultural knowledge, science

and technology systems are in the vast majority smallholders and farm workers- women andindigenous communities- many of whom are poor, with limited access to external resourcesand formal education, but rich in indigenous and local knowledge and increasinglyorganized and adept at sharing knowledge and innovating. But despite rural peoplepredominance in the developing world, they are usually discriminated (urban bias) byregional, national and local policies. In general farmers have been excluded from formaldecision making in agriculture and food policies, and even if they participate under certaininitiatives, only a few have negotiation competencies and communication skills to supporttheir views, knowledge, experience and values. Latin America is characterized by rich,natural resources. However, it is the most economically inequitable region in the world.According to the IAASTD Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Report, there are still some

209 million poor and 54 million undernourished people, who account for 37% and 10%,respectively, of the total population of LAC, despite the fact that three times more food is

IAASTD (WB-FAO-UNESCO-GEF- UNDEP) CLA, Chapter II, Global Report Agriculture at theCrossroads,http://www.islandpress.org/); Author, Executive Summary and Summary for DecisionMakers, http://www.agassessment.org/Full Professor Agricultural Education Area, Facultad de Agronoma, Universidad de Buenos Aires,Av. San Martn 4453, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA, htpp.//[email protected]


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produced than consumed there. Problems related to access to and distribution of food, thelimited purchasing power of an important segment of the population and the lower pricespaid to producers, among other factors, have prevented the translation of higher production

levels into less hunger and a commensurate reduction in poverty (IAASTD LAC Report,2009; FAO, 2008). Food production is not severely limited by the availability of naturalresources such as arable land, water and biological and cultural diversity, but these resourceshave been underused, for example the operation oflatifundios (large estates) on arable land,or the improper use of land leading to greater loss of soil and biological diversity due toerosion, urbanization, contamination and the intensification and expansion of agriculture toless productive lands. In this region, it is clearly demonstrated that food availability is anecessary condition for food security but not sufficient, and is impaired by many factors,among others, by the lack of sustainable educational and development policies. Thispresentation will focus mainly on educational aspects. Apart from the need for co-ordinationamong different ministries, public and private educational actors at different levels

(preprimary, primary, secondary or post secondary education), and jurisdictions (municipal,provincial and national) have to reconsider some intrinsic, specific aspects related toeducation for rural people, such as epistemological and curricular issues, rural educationteacher training, teacher recruitment, curriculum calendarization, time and spacemanagement in rural schools, teaching materials, learning environments, the relation amongtheory-practice-reflection, competency development and building citizenship and social andethical values in inaccessible places, all of which play an important role in education forrural people. Some successful cases of formal and non-formal educational initiatives forfood security will be presented and discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Food security and education are closely bound. There is nothing more essential forhumankind than food for growing and developing. Likewise, there is nothing morefundamental than education for leading a dignified life. It is not surprising that one of theroots of the word education originated from the Latin term educare, which means tonourish, to rear, to feed. Food security means life, and education is the golden way toempower people to improve their activities or diversify them, increase their income, get andinterpret information and make decisions, as well as foster resilience, strengthen socialcohesion and participation, and promote ethical values. Formal and non-formal educationalsystems pursue these goals through the developing of core, basic and subject specificcompetencies.

Robust evidence shows that there is an association between poverty and rurality, foodsecurity and education. The vast majority of the worlds undernourished people (907million) live in developing countries, mostly of whom live and work in rural areas. In turn,education is an essential prerequisite for reducing poverty and hunger and thus forachieving rural development. According to Gasperini and Maguire (2001) , Education forRural Development (ERP) implies that the function or purpose of education in rural areasis or should be to contribute to rural development and well being, including food security,health, employment, protection of the environment and management of natural resources,thus encompassing a broad educational approach to meet effectively and equitably thebasic learning needs of rural children, out-of-school youth and adults, in the perspective ofreducing rural poverty (Gasperini and Maguire, 2001).


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And yet, why has education for rural people been so much neglected as a tool for foodsecurity? Rural education seems to be a contemporary, solitary Cassandra whose

prophecies are always accurate but never believed or considered.

This presentation will focus mainly on the educational aspects of this relationship. Apartfrom the need for co-ordination among different public and private institutions andinstitutional arrangements, educational actors at different levels and jurisdictions have toreconsider some intrinsic, specific aspects related to education for rural people. Somesuccessful cases of formal and non-formal educational initiatives for food security in LatinAmerican countries will be presented and discussed.

Food security, rural and agricultural education

The IAASTD Global Report explicitly considered that the main actors of agriculturalknowledge, science and technology systems are in the vast majority smallholders and farmworkers- women and indigenous communities- many of whom are poor, with limited accessto external resources and formal education, but rich in indigenous and local knowledge andincreasingly organized and adept at sharing knowledge and innovating. But despite ruralpeople predominance in the non-industrializaed world, they are usually discriminated (urbanbias) by regional, national and local policies. In general farmers have been excluded fromformal decision making in agriculture and food policies, and even if they participate undercertain initiatives, only a few have negotiation competencies and communication skills tosupport their views, knowledge, experience and values. Education is a conditio sine quanonfor a sustainable development and an important driver to reduce poverty and assure food

security (IAASTD Global Report, SDM and SR, 2009).

Food security [is] a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, socialand economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needsand food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, The State of Food Insecurity2001). Hence, food security cannot be separated from sustainable development.Food security is based on three pillars: food availability, access and utilization (Figure 1).Food utilization (nutrition, and health and sanitization) is driven by human capital, which inturn is directly linked to food access and food availability through consumption(intrahousehold food distribution, equity, food quality and quantity), income (marketintegration, purchasing power, savings potential and credit power), productivity (productive

labour, livelihood stability and diversity) and resources (natural, sustainable resources,productive assets and secure livelihoods).


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Figure 1. A framework for understanding food securitySource: Adapted from IAASTD Global Report, 2009 [ Webb and Rogers, 2003].

Hence, food security is ingrained in primary, secondary- technical and non-technical- andhigher education curriculum designs as subject-matter: knowledge, abilities and skills, andattitudes -beliefs, values, feelings, social (Moscovici,1981) and individual perceptions,habitus (Bourdieu, 1990), identity, etc.), and involves gender, rural poverty, and equity ascross-cutting issues.

An agenda for renewalThere are some intrinsic aspects which play an important role in any rural and agriculturaleducational agenda for renewal, such as epistemological and curricular issues, teachertraining and recruitment, time and space planning, teaching materials, learningenvironments, the relation among theory-practice-reflection, competency development andbuilding citizenship and social and ethical values as cross-cutting issues. We will brieflyconsider some intrinsic pedagogic aspects concerning food security with respect to thedifferent levels of the formal education system, relying on four basic assumptions derivedfrom the IAASTD Global and Regional Reports (2009):

(i) Hunger is not always related to productivity problems,

(ii) Education for rural people is more than agricultural instruction: teaching andlearning about plant and animal production, agricultural machinery, home economicsor even break-through technologies; it is about strengthening modern family farmingopportunities, rural people culture and identity; it deals with building persons,relationships and values, it is a real Agropaideia (Plencovich, 1998). Hence, foodsecurity is not just an add-on curricular content, set off from social and culturalpractices that needs to be integrated in the natural sciences curricula: it goes farbeyond instructional agricultural designs and becomes deeply involved with societalneeds.


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(iii) The educational system cannot and should not be explained as a black box, input-output system. Unfortunately there are many policies in place which foster innovativeapproaches, but have not been successful because they consider rural schools only as

a place where to reach large populations, in a topdown, non-participatory approach.Nor education is a panacea healing all injuries. Teachers need training, educationalorganizations need to be more participatory, less rigid an open to society issues,

(iv) Achieving food security requires joint efforts to bring in different actors andinstitutional arrangements to learn together and explore options for action. It has to dopeople, entrepreneurial skills, governance, commitment, equity, ethical issues.

Overview of Education for Rural People and Food Security

Primary schools in rural areas

The total number of primary-school-age-children not in primary or secondary school in2005 worldwide was around 72 million, mostly in inaccessible regions (UNESCO, 2008).In addition, a large number of non industrialized countries suffer from high repetition anddropout rates, particularly during the first three grades (UNESCO, 2005). Apart from thegeographical factors population living in rural areas may be further marginalized byethnicity, culture, language, or religion, as well as their material poverty (Lakin andGasperini, 2003).In most non-industrialized countries, certain groups tend to gain access toeducation firsturban children, boys, economically advantaged children, and ethnicmajority children. Otherssuch as children, especially girls in rural areasare neverserved or served inefficiently by the countrys public education system (EFA, 2004). It isimportant to raise the question about what keeps girls out of school. Is it gender? is it

poverty? Or is it both?

Illiteracy is a strong correlate of poverty and hunger and is mainly a rural phenomenonwhich hinders rural development and food security; threatens productivity and health, limitsopportunities to improve livelihoods and to promote gender equity, since illiteracy isparticularly high among rural girls. Children who remain illiterate, with little or noexposure to the range of subjects offered in the school, are poorly prepared to improve theirlivelihood and living conditions and to adapt to changes in the rural economy. This meansthat are doomed to starvation, because for many children school is the only place wherethey can get food. School meals are a good way to channel vital nourishment to poorchildren. In countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious

meal each day boosts enrolment and promotes regular attendance. Parents are motivated tosend their children to school instead of keeping them at home to work or care for siblings.In the poorest parts of the world, a school feeding programme can double primary schoolenrolment in one year (WFP, 2009). Among the key beneficiaries are girls, who otherwisemay never be given the opportunity to learn.

But apart from providing food, literacy, numeracy skills, and some elements of food safetyand health, primary schools in rural areas are sometimes the only possibility children havefor learning social skills and values: sharing, working in teams, airing their views, givingopinions, planning, asking for turns, negotiating, developing projects, building consensus,being respected and respecting others, etc.


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(ii) Secondary agricultural schools:The mission of rural or peri-urban agricultural schools is to strengthen and expand youngpeople's capacities, knowledge and skills through education and training to enable them to

become productive and contributing citizens of their local communities. There are twomain obstacles to secondary schooling in rural areas: (1) Despite most countries are nowextending universal, compulsory education to secondary level, the fact is that there are lesssecondary schools opportunities in rural than urban areas; (2) The relation opportunity- costof secondary schooling is a major obstacles for poor families, because if they send theirchildren to school, they lose the income or services derived from their childrens labour,either at home, on the farms, or in other work places. Attending school seems irrelevant inrelation to their more immediate survival needs. Consequently, schooling must offer anattractive and affordable alternative for children enrolment in school. More flexibilityin thedelivery system, particularly flexible timetables and curriculum designs, could help toaccommodate (i) seasonal labour demand for adolescent girls and boys who help their

parents on their farms, (ii) curriculum seasonal requirements, (iii) modern family farmingneeds, (iv) climate conditions, (v) geographical accessibility, etc. This could address thespecific needs of working youth. Teacher training and support is a critical factor in ruraleducation for development and food security. This requires that teachers learn from andabout the different environments in which their pupils live and interpret and understandthem in a way which leads to the development of appropriate teaching and learningmethods and materials.

(iii) Agricultural universities or colleges

Higher education and training for rural development is not only about agriculture, butencompasses a major shift in focus from production agriculture to rural development

(Atchoarena and Gasperini, 2003). A focus on rural, territorial development and modernfamily farming practices would allow higher education institutions to understand better theproblems associated with revitalizing rural areas, poverty reduction, and food security.

Teaching, research and extension:Teaching and curriculum issues: Food security public concerns or problems requiremultidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches, while most university departments aredisciplinary. Research produces fundamental knowledge under standards of rigor focusedon manageable (well defined) or technical problems, not always pertinent to socialneeds. Teaching follows the same disciplinary pattern, moving from simple units tocomplex ones, so there is little latitude for interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work,

though a professional practice facing hunger and poverty deal with ill-defined, complex andpractical problems of agriculture that are incapable of technical solution and areintertwined with social and cultural patterns and ethical issues. There is a need for synthesisof diverse elements, and interdisciplinary approaches (IAASTD, Global Report, 2009).Despite their key role in agricultural and food production and security, agriculturalinformation and education is not reaching women and girls. Greater awareness of womenscontributions to agriculture and changing discriminatory practices and attitudes are needed

to foster their participation in agricultural education and extension. Not many womenprofessionals are trained in agriculture due to factors rooted in the gendered nature ofculture and society. Womens participation in higher education in agriculture is increasing,but is still lower than that of men, even in the developed countries and in Latin America


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and the Caribbean, where women participate in higher education in nearly equal numberswith men (UNESCO, 2005).In some1 universities, curricula were broadened to encompass environmental sustainability,

poverty alleviation, hunger elimination and gender issues. But this trend has not alwaysbeen followed by specific fund allocation to programs oriented to these goals, nor haveinterdisciplinary courses and social sciences- sociology of organizations, culturalanthropology, IP issues, food security, and some cross-cutting subjects, such as Ethics-been included. Change is sometimes cosmetic (IAASTD Global Report, 2009). Theprevailing model is structured in discrete disciplines and focus on extensive, large-scaleagricultural production systems.

Over the last thirty years, limited attention has been paid to generateand disseminate technological innovations addressing the needs of the poor and hungrypeople. Only one third of all global research expenditure on agriculture has been spent

on solving the problems of agriculture in non industrialized countries(80% of global population).This respresents less than 3% of the total value of agriculturalsubsidies that OECD countries pay to maintain their agricultural output (Kiers et al, 2008).Resources for publicly funded agricultural and food security research have beenespecially meagre, even though studies have indicated that investments in agriculturalresearch and development are one of the most successful ways to alleviate hungerand poverty (Alston, 2002). Research in university has given little importance to jointwork with farmers, despite food processing in many parts of the world relies on localknowledge - mostly of rural women - of preservation and packaging techniques, such assalting, curing, curding, sun drying, smoking and fermentation (IAASTD, Global Report,2009) and on the plant breeding side, ignoring the fact that indigenous women have been

valuable custodians of unique knowledge and skills related to agricultural production (forexample: seed management and s seed management and selection carried out by Andeanand African indigenous women).

Extensionrequires a different epistemology of science, because it faces real, synthetic andcomplex problems, and needs training in communicative competences and participatoryapproaches. Universities seldom integrate with other institutions in extension activities. Thelack of linkages seriously diminish information feedback from rural communities; whilstlack of collaborative efforts in planning and execution between research and educationalareas, sometimes of the same university hamper the alignment of university policies. Thereis also a lack of opportunity and training of extensionists to analyze gender roles and

different needs. Women extensionists are mainly trained in home economics, lacking theskills and sometimes knowledge to provide services concerning womens abilities toparticipate in decision making, negotiation, communicative and entrepreneurial skills. Fairtrade, territorial identities and ethnic labeling are among the options that can be consideredas outreach projects encompassing university actors, farmers, local authorities, civil societyorganizations, etc. to protect the interests of the marginalized and revitalize rurallivelihoods and food cultures. The promotion of geographic indicators can opendevelopment opportunities based on local resources and knowledge. They also offer

1 Cfr. the syllabus courses of the Facultad de Agronoma, Universidad de Buenos Aires, at www.agro.uba.ar;but these curriculum modification are still exceptional.


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opportunities for new agribusiness enterprises, such as tourism and specialty productdevelopment, as well as for collaboration with utilities such as water companies.Some of the main aspects about the educational system levels, development and food

security are summarized below:

ED.

SYSConstraints Contribution to Food Security

PRIMARY

L

EVEL

Illiteracy, functionalilliteracy, dropping out,low attendance, poorretention rates, childrenrural work (flocktending, field work,running errands,household chores,sometimes engagement

in hazardous labour(spraying of toxicelements, signalingspraying planes);gender issues. Economicpresent crisis forcesfamilies to choose foodor school.

Subject-matter: food safety,basic skills: literacy andnumeracy; social skills,enhancement of cultural andidentity as a foundation forattitudes and skills necessary torrural development.

Pedagogic and Teaching Aspects:Directions for Change include

Building partnerships between differentactors and institutional arrangements arecrucial, synergiesand complementarities must be sought.No single actor or institution has the capacityto bring about effective change in basiceducation.Teacher specific training and updateprograms in peer groups, experientiallearning, micro-teaching. Constructivistpedagogy. School gardens, etc. as ways toincorporate rural development and foodsecurity in the basic education curriculum.Creation of specific school calendarsaccording to the harvest period for ruralfamilies, accommodation to nomadicpopulationsProject-based learning (PBL), ITC can serveas a powerful tool to enhance multi-gradelearning, yet it is underutilized (even whenhaving resources available in schools). Somecost-effective uses include one-way, two-way, low power and digital radio.

SECONDARY

LEVEL

Adolescentswork inseasonal labour, earlyparenthood, genderissues

A few agriculturalschools in rural areas,low enrollment rates

insufficient applicationof participativeapproaches incurriculum design and

implementation;

Subject-matter: food security inthe context of a sustainableproduction (farm level)Agricultural curricula addressingthe importance of food security,and the new role of marketoriented agriculture,entrepreneurial skills,management for small andmedium enterprises but alsoresource management for land,water and the environment,technical aspects of foodtechnologies and processing.

Teacher specific training and updateprograms in team work (teacher andstudents), Collaborative learning approaches,socioconstructivist teaching approachesbased on occupational profiles, Balancingtheoretical underpinning with context-specificmaterial, based on labour market studies andtargeted needs assessments, including ICTsuse. Teaching/training would need to besupported as appropriate through accessingopportunities provided by newermethodologies, including use of ICTs.(viii) Building, at the policy level, institutionalcapacity and leadership. This would involve,for instance, interaction with peers innational and international forums, studytours, mentoring, sabbaticals andfocused training events. Adopting a long-term view for any change process. No quickfixes or panaceas are available.

UNIVER

Elitist attitudes amongstacademics, researchersandextensionists towardspublic university sectorinstitutions involved in

Subject-matter: food security inthe context of sustainabledevelopment. Food securitypolices development, agcurricula addressing theiimportance of food security, and

Teacher specific training in socio-constructivist and professional teaching andinterdisciplinary approaches. Universityteachers should also learn! Training ingender awareness, analysis and planning.Understanding of population issues as an


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Table: Educational system levels, development and food security

Education and Food Security within Latin America and the CaribbeanLatin America is characterized by rich, natural resources. However, there are still some 209million poor and 54 million undernourished people, who account for 37% and 10%,respectively, of the total population (IAASTD LAC Report, 2009). This is a real paradox ina region where everyday is a planting and a harvesting day. And it is even more surprisingwhen we know that three times more food is produced than consumed there. Problemsrelated to access to and distribution of food, the limited purchasing power of an importantsegment of the population and the lower prices paid to producers, among other factors, haveprevented the translation of higher production levels into less hunger and a commensuratereduction in poverty. Food production is not severely limited by the availability of naturalresources, such as arable land, water and biological and cultural diversity, but theseresources have been underused, for example the operation of latifundios (large estates) onarable land, or the improper use of land leading to greater loss of soil and biologicaldiversity due to erosion, urbanization, contamination and the intensification and expansionof agriculture to less productive lands. In this region, it is clearly demonstrated that foodavailability is a necessary condition for food security but not sufficient, and is impaired bymany factors, among others, by the lack of sustainable educational and developmentpolicies. The role of the state is still a key factor in the region to quality life-long educationto all, even in the case of schools which are managed privately but financed by public funds.The sate (national, provincial or local) safeguards rural people inclusion in society. Thereare indeed serious governance issues to be addressed as well. The structural (institutionalarrangements - vertical or horizontal) and cognitive (elements of trust, reciprocity)dimensions are important elements of the mix that need to taken into account. Creating trustbetween individuals, institutions and communities, and establishing the appropriate linksbetween state institutions, private sector, civil society, communities and individuals(especially the youth) is the way to go. In addition, rural educational actors and institutionalarrangements have to realize that there are new landscapes and new territories and that the

SITy

LEVEL

agriculture:extension services,research organizationsand training institutions;

green academic drain;insufficient applicationof participative andcollaborativeapproaches in curriculardesigns, research andextension projects andplans,Productivist Models,Disciplinary Views,Mode 1 (Gibbons, 1996)

the new role of market orientedagriculture, food sovereigntyissues, agriculturalcurricula addressing theimportance of FS, and the newrole of market orientedagriculture [systemic,integrated views,interdisiplinary/transdisicplinary, Rling, 2004],

entrepreneurial skills,management for small andmedium enterprises;interdisciplinary andtransdisciplinary approaches.

integral part of the training of all ruraldevelopment professionals.Problem-based and project-based learning;Needs assessment-tools: project evaluation,use of rubrics, self and peer evolution, theprocesses independent evaluation ofprocesses. Qualitative research approaches,effective use of research results bydecision-makers; approaches/data/sourcetriangulation, participative and collaborativeresearch and extension approaches.Incentives will also have to be offered tofocus on developing low cost technologiesthat are relatively cheap to adopt andimplement


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rural population is not homogeneous and that there is not a panacea fitting to all purposesand healing all injuries.

There is a myriad of good practice examples in the area2 aimed at assuring food security.We will select some which are extremely contrastive in scope, organization and funding,and which involve educational actors and institutional arrangements.

Projeto Fome Zero (Zero Hunge)r in Brasil, www.mds.gov.br: This plan- whichstarted in 2003- represents a collaborative formal endeavour of 4 ministries, among whichis the Ministry of Education is defined as a strategy -. The project pivots on four axes food accessibility, strengthening of modern family farming (agricultura familiar), incomegeneration, social mobility, articulation and control, which mirror the most importantconcepts related to food security. Fome Zero places primary importance on the reduction ofhunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty, and is inspired by the World Food Summit andMillennium Development Goals. Extreme poverty is estimated to affect 9.3 million

households or 44 million people in Brazil. While a national problem, occurring throughoutthe country extreme poverty has certain regional hot spots, with a concentration of thepoor in the North East Region (50%) and the South East Region (26%). In particular, theplan:

Embodies many of the basic concepts of the human right to adequate food;

Recognises that eradicating hunger is not simply a moral imperative but also generatesimportant social and economic benefits;

Is fully inclusive and nation-wide in its approach;

Posits a twin-track approach to reducing hunger and malnutrition which combines

actions to improve the production and livelihoods of the family farming subsector withmeasures to broaden access to food and improve nutrition;

Aims to use the growth in effective demand for food attributable to broadened access tostimulate the expansion of small farmer output without distorting price formationprocesses;

Proposes planning and implementation with the full engagement of civil society, in linewith the concept of a National Alliance against Hunger (FAO/IDB/WB, 2002).

One of the most important lessons that may be drawn form Fome Zero is that its synergismand coherent set of aims facilitate the action of the different enabling bodies and creates astrong liaison among policy makers and local actors. The programme invested in cross-

sectoral, multi-actor dialogues, at all levels.

Rural primary schools in the district of Pergamino, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Pergamino district has the the best prime land in Argentina. Its production has historicallybeen devoted to extensive crops and was part of the Argentine corn-belt. Since the fifties,this area has undergone a massive exodus from rural to urban centers of small and mediumlandowners, who now live in rural villages or in Pergamino city (100,000 inhabitants). The

2 FAO Special Programme for Food Security, Aroita, Venezuela; FEDIAP-Fundacin ArgenINTA agreements

in Argentina,


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district has now become a soybean producing area. New forms of farm organization inagricultural production are prevailing. The most significant one is the associative plantingpools. These pools join investors together to finance grain production. Each pool forms rent

contracts with a large number of landowners generally located in different regions inorder to diversify risks and the pool assumes management of the crop productionenterprise. Under these production arrangements, the use of land is decided by highlyspecialized management with the best professional advice. At the local or regional level, asimilar kind of arrangement is also in place: contractors who rent land to produce grains.With these types of arrangements, the use of land in the pampas is today efficient andindependent of entrepreneurial landowners. Still, some small landowner families,unqualified rural workers, teamsters, brick manufacturers still live in the country-side. Inour research study, through in-depth interviews and in situ observations3 we were able tobecome acquainted with their educational practices. There are 21 rural schools in thedistrict: almost all are multi-grade schools and serve some 400 hundred kids. Their kids

sometimes walk two or three miles to attend disperse and isolated rural schools. (See Photo3, in the Appendix). Most schools provide a daily meal to children attending schools. Kidsoften take home rations for weekends, when they do not attend schools.

School teachers qualifications are good, in general they have associate grades in primaryor pre-primary education, but they have not been trained in Education for RuralDevelopment, or for vulnerable populations. Despite they teach in multi-grade schools,their training has been geared towards the functioning of a monograde education system.However, most of them have mainstreaming pupils (integration of disabled children) intheir only one teacher, multigrade schools. Even though they have no training in facilitatingoutreach processes; they are key agents in the rural communities and provide dietary,

health, even psychological and conflict mediation advice to families (children, adolescentsand adult population). They are constantly creating and nourishing community-schoolpartnerships. In the land for agricultural use on the school premises, teacher and pupilsapply a combination of local and external knowledge and techniques, although teachershave not been trained in agricultural practices.4 Most of their solitary, invisible work issustained through their commitment and the collaboration of the school cooperatives,integrated by some parents, former pupils parents, some local elevators employees andgrain cooperative members. These teachers try to maximize the 5limited resources schoolshave. Sometimes, they pay from their own salaries relevant curriculum and learningmaterials to improve their classes.These schools, and the many schools which are disperse in even more solitude, remoteness,

and poverty, show their actors solidarity, integration, even heroism. They rely on the on anet of solidarity, goodwill and ethical principles. How much resilient could this net be?

3 PICTO Project Number 36407. Education, rurality, and territory in the Humid Pampas: actors andinstitutional arrangements. Research Team Leader, Dr. Alejandro O. Costantini. MINCYT-FAUBA.4 In our in-depth interviews, they even apologized for maybe not doing things properly5 started by the Abb Granereau in Srignac-Pboudou (France) in 1937.


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Escuelas de la Familia Agrcola (EFAS), Family Farming Schools

Many LAC countries6 have chosen the alternance agricultural school system (secondarylevel) shaped after the French rural movement of Maison Familiale Rurale (rural family

house). Through this modality, students have an alternate training system at school, wherethey remain fulltime for 15 to 60 days, and then they stay at home, in their familysmallholding, where they put into practice the experiences they discussed in class(sometimes based on problems detected on their farms) (IAASTD, 2009; Plencovich et al.,2009). This system has disseminated all over the world and has more than 1,300 units inforty countries. The system is based on training plans collaboratively designed andimplemented by educational institutions and parents. There are about 80 EFAs inArgentina and 241 in Brasil. Nowadays, alternate modality schools is a broad umbrella thatencompasses several successful rural school experiences. In the State of Rio Grande do Sul,Brasil, unionized rural workers have kept the concept of rural education, enhancing thereality of the culture and work on the rural area. The Centres for Total Production (CEPT)

in Argentina have been shaped after this modality. Until 1988, alternated modality haddeveloped in the private sector; however, in that year, within the public sector. It wasdesigned to meet the demand coming from some communities in the province of BuenosAires and involved experimental co-management between the federal government andsmall rural communities. They are now more than twenty CEPTs in the different rural areasof Buenos Aires province. These schools try to bridge the gap between theory and practice,accommodate their curricular activities to seasonal cultural practices, and help youngstudents to run their own entrepreneurial projects on their farms.

World Food Programme (WFP) in Honduras and Per

WFP operations in Honduras seek to improve the food security of most of theunderprivileged rural population through activities to improve their health and nutrition.Estimates by WFP in El Salvador indicate that 87% of poor households have reduced thequantity and quality of food consumed as a result of the recent increases in food prices. Thereduction in the quality of food is causing a major health risk for children. Those especiallyat risk are children under the age of five, pregnant women, and breast feeding mothers

WFP operations are divided into three main projects: (i) School Meals Programme: Thisprovides a daily meal to boys and girls attending schools, to stimulate an increase in schoolenrolment in preschools and schools in the areas of the country that are most at risk: (ii)Programme to Assist Vulnerable Groups (Nutritional Programme for Pregnant andLactating Women and Children under five years old): It creates conditions wherein childrenunder five, and pregnant and lactating women, can satisfy their special nutritional needsand their sanitary needs relating to nutrition, and (iii) Protracted Relief and RecoveryOperation: The PRRO has the goal of improving food security for those families affectedby recurring natural catastrophes through the provision of flexible and effective responsesfrom both the government and the community.

6 Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay,El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela.


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In Peru, WFP contributes to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (1-5, and7), through development and emergency operations, as well as capacity building activities.Over half of Peruvians live below the poverty line: 6.5 million (25 percent) are classified as

being extremely poor (living on less than $1 per day). These people, who are living in ruraland mountain range areas, are considered to be food insecure because they do not evenconsume the basic minimum recommended diet.The main cause of food insecurity in Peru is the low level of food availability.Development interventions are carried out through The Promotion of SustainableDevelopment of Andean Micro watersheds project which includes food-for-work, food-for-training, adult literacy, nutrition education and HIV/AIDS activities in poor rural andperi-urban areas of the Andes, the Amazon and the Coast. The project aims at protectinglivelihoods in crisis situations, enhancing resilience to shocks and improving the nutritionand health of vulnerable groups of women and children, therefore contributing to offset theimpact of climate change in the country's poorest regions. The intervention consists of five

components: improvement of agriculture, school and housing infrastructure through food-for-work, literacy training and nutritional education with food-for-training, mother andchild nutrition and health improvement and HIV/AIDS. The project also includes acapacity-building component targeted at government sectors on specific themes, such asnutrition and disaster prevention and response. The project covers the most vulnerable ruralcommunities of Ayacucho, Apurimac, Huancavelica, Piura, Cusco, Puno, Kandozicommunities in Loreto, and peri-urban areas of Lima, and is targeted to (i) small scalefarmers living in food insecure areas of some of the poorest regions of Peru; (ii) illiteratewomen from rural areas, (iii) pregnant women and mothers of children less than five; and(iv) HIV/AIDS-affected people.

Many of the success stories presented here involve formal or informal partnerships betweenseveral different stakeholders. Increasing the level of participation of different stakeholdersinevitably leads to issues of power and conflicts between different groups and individuals,since rural communities, teachers, pupils or parents are not homogeneous groups,consensus has to be built sometimes through long and painful processes.

The formal educational system has contributed and is still contributing to food security andrural development. Their main actors know quite well that improving food security andrural development is not only the concern of national or global actors. However, itsinstitutions and arrangements reviewed under the multi-focal lens of interdisciplinaryapproaches (such as the IAASTD) are still too rigid, hierarchical and inflexible to serve

diverse situations. And this is where the joint policy effort is needed. Hence, it must beacknowledged that, whilst educational is crucial for a sustainable development and foodsecurity in rural areas, it needs to be accompanied by other supportive conditions at themacro political and economic level. These will include, for example, favorable terms oftrade, access (and preferably legal title) to land and other physical assets, provision of basicinfrastructure, freedom from civil strife and improved levels of justice, equity andinclusion.

Finally, options for action in the educational ambit include:


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Place family farming and rural families at the forefront, understand their needs,integrate as appropriate local and traditional knowledge with formal AKSTD incurriculum designs

Allow for the full engagement of rural actors in all aspects of the curricula designand implementation, as well as in extension and research

Recognize the critical role of women in rural education and FS and empower them(intellectual/communicative/entrepreneurial skills) to acces to property rights,credits, modern ag practices

Increase public and private sector investment in rural teaching, research anddevelopment, and extension services

Most of todays hunger problems can be addressed with appropriate use of currenttechnologies, emphasizing agroecological practices. Incorporate ZF, or minimumtillage, IPM and INRM and other agroecological practices in curriculum activities

Articulate the different levels of rural education. Is rural and agricultural education

for sustainable development a real educational system? Renew the social pact educational institutions have with society through critical

self-reflection and consensus building.

REFERENCESAtchoarena, David and Gasperini, L. (coord. & ed.) (2004). Education for rural development:

towards new policy responses. FAO and UNESCO.Bourdieu, Pierre (1990), The Logic of Practice, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press .Costantini, A.; Plencovich, MC.; Bocchicchio, A.; Ayala Torales, A.; Schindler, V. , Mella, A. and

Zcaro , G. 2008. PICTO Project Number 36407. Education, rurality, and territory in the Humid Pampas:actors and institutional arrangements. MINCYT-FAUBA.

FAO 2007. Sustainable Development Department of the FAO, Sustainable Rural Development: Progress andChallenges. Education, Training and Extension (FAO, Rome, 2007).

FAO Statistics Division,Equality of dietary energy consumption distribution, September 17, 2008.Available athttp://www.fao.org/es/ess/faostat/foodsecurity/index_en.htm, access March 13, 2009.

FAO/IDB/WB/ Report of the Joint Transition Team Working Group (2002), available athttp://www.rlc.fao.org/es/prioridades/seguridad/fomezero/pdf/eval02eng.pdf, , access March 28, 2009.

Garca-Marirrodriga, R., and P. Puig Calv. 2007. Formacin en alternancia y desarrollo local.Aidefa, Rosario.

Gasperini, L.; Maguire, C. 2001. Targeting the rural poor: the role of education and training. Rome: FAO.Gasperini, L. 2000. The Cuban education system: lessons and dilemmas. Washington DC: World Bank.Hartwell, Ash; DeStefano, Joseph and Benbow , Jane ( 2004)Achieving EFA in Underserved

Regions, EQUIP2, available at http://www.equip123.net/docs/e2- EFAregions_PolicyBrief.pdf, access

March 21, 2009.IAASTD Global Assessment (2009). Agriculture at a crossroads. Island press: Washington.Moscovici, S. (1981), On social representation, en J.P. Forgas (Comp.). Social cognition. Perspectives in

everyday life, Academic Press, London.Plencovich, Mara Cristina; Costantini, Alejandro O. and Bocchicchio, A. (2009), La educacin

agropecuaria, gnesis y estructura, Buenos Aires, Ciccus.Rling, Niels (2004). La comunicacin para el desarrollo en la investigacin, la extensin y la educacin, IX

Mesa Redonda de las Naciones Unidas sobre Comunicacin para el Desarrollo, Roma, FAO, l 6-19September, 2004.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)/UNICEF (2005) "Children Out of School: Measuring Exclusion fromPrimary Education", Education for All by 2015. Will we make it?, (2008). Unesco- Oxford UniversityPress.

World Food Programme (2008). Rises in Prices, Markets and Food and Nutritional Insecurity in Central


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America (October 2008).World Food Programme (2009). School Meals, available at http://www.wfp.org/school-meals, access March

13, 2009.

APPENDIX

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