Rio+20 (16/06/2012) – André Leu, President, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements talks about the importance to looking at Organic farming when talking about desertification and land degradation.

With the world’s deserts expanding from human activities including unsustainable land use and climate change, Leu talks about the evidence which shows organic systems of farming can help reverse this.

He says organic farming – particularly when looking at traditional farming systems in the developing world, and looking at those impacted by climate events – mainly droughts and extreme rainfall – there are signs that it can help to increase the drought tolerance of systems, increase the efficiency of rain capture and introduce better pest, weed and soil management to farmers.

He said increasing the yield of farming is most successful on small holder, organic farms, over the agribusiness in the developed world which is already very high yielding and it is this that should be the focus when looking at feeding the growing world.