About the author

Raymond Auerbach is Project Leader for the African Organic Farming Systems Research Project, and Principal Investigator (Food Production) for the Centre of Excellence for Food Security (both funded by the SA National Research Foundation), based at Nelson Mandela University (George Campus) in South Africa’s Southern Cape. Having studied Biodynamic Farming in Australia in the seventies, he has worked in organic farming for 48 years, first as a farmer, then as a farmer trainer and over the past 10 years as a researcher and policy adviser in agro-ecology. As the African Board Member for the International Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension in the 1990s, he advocated a Farming Systems Research and Extension approach to agricultural development in Southern Africa, and in 1991 was part of a pioneering group which invited Jimmy Mascarenhas to South Africa to carry out the first Participatory Rural Appraisal training. This resulted in the spread of PRA as a tool-kit for rural community development. He received the lifetime award from the African Union Commission in Nigeria for ‘Services to Ecological Organic Agriculture in Africa’ in 2016, and received an award for Innovation in Research Engagement from Nelson Mandela University in 2015, and the Individual “Excellence in Engagement” award in 2016. He is on the Board of the South African Organic Sector Organisation, Treasurer of SA Participatory Guarantee Systems Association (PGS) and Chair of Eden PGS. He is a Trustee of the Garden Route Botanical Garden Trust, with the Environmental Education Centre and Fundraising portfolios.

Further information on the book

Part I: Conceptual and Global Perspectives

CHAPTER 1: The developing organic sector in Southern and Eastern Africa; what have we learned about sustainable development?

CHAPTER 2: An overview of global organic and regenerative agriculture

CHAPTER 3: Organic research contributes to sector development and good organic policy: the Danish, Swiss, American and African case studies

CHAPTER 4: The work of IFOAM/Organics International in training organic farmers and leaders in the developing world

CHAPTER 5: Understanding world food systems

CHAPTER 6: BERAS - a global network of food systems with examples from Sweden, Haiti, Tanzania and India

Part II: Capacity building and climate change

CHAPTER 7: The likely impact of the 2015/18 drought in South Africa: Lessons from the 2008 food price crisis and future implications

CHAPTER 8: The use of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to support organic food systems in Africa

CHAPTER 9: Strengthening participation in the organic value chain for small-scale farmers in southern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

CHAPTER 10: Participatory Guarantee Systems as an organic market entry point for small scale farmers in South Africa

CHAPTER 11: Development of an inclusive chain for peri-urban micro-farmers

CHAPTER 12: Supporting vulnerable communities in the Eastern Cape: Assessing the rainfall evidence

CHAPTER 13: Water efficiency, energy efficiency and suburban vegetable production

CHAPTER 14: Experiential training of farmers and university diploma students in KwaZulu-Natal and the Southern Cape

Part III: Supporting organic farmers

CHAPTER 15: The National Organic Agriculture Movement of Uganda

CHAPTER 16: Agronomic practices affecting adoption and disadoption of organic agriculture in Zambia

CHAPTER 17: The Rapid Incineration Field Test as an accurate, cost-effective and practical tool for estimating soil carbon in Africa

CHAPTER 18: The Nelson Mandela Long-term Comparative Organic Farming Systems Research Trials: Baseline study and trial design -

CHAPTER 19: Comparative Water Use Efficiency and water retention in the Mandela Trials

CHAPTER 20: Biological and chemical soil fumigation and pest and disease management comparisons in the Western Cape

CHAPTER 21: Initial assessment of microbiological soil health indicators in the Mandela Trials

CHAPTER 22: Soil fertility changes and crop yields from the first four years of the Mandela Trials

Part IV: Upscaling the organic sector in Africa

CHAPTER 23: Challenges and opportunities for urban and peri-urban areas of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and the implications of climate change for food security

CHAPTER 24: A future strategy for organic development in Southern Africa

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This book weighs: 1000g

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