RURAL EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD SECURITY: FOOD FOR FOOD (INVITED PAPER) Mara Cristina

Plencovich ABSTRACT Food security and education are closely bound. There is nothing more essential for humankind than food for growing and developing. Likewise, there is nothing more fundamental 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 to nourish, to rear, to feed. Food security means life, and education is the golden way to empower people to improve their activities or diversify them, increase their income, get and interpret information and make decisions, as well as foster resilience, strengthen social cohesion and participation, and promote ethical values. Formal and non-formal educational systems pursue these goals through the developing of core, basic and subject specific competencies. Robust evidence shows that there is a positive association between food security and education. And yet, why has education for rural people been so much neglected as a tool for food security? Rural education seems to be a contemporary, solitary Cassandra whose prophecies are always accurate but never believed or considered. The IAASTD Global Report explicitly considered that the main actors of agricultural knowledge, science and technology systems are in the vast majority smallholders and farm workers- women and indigenous communities- many of whom are poor, with limited access to external resources and formal education, but rich in indigenous and local knowledge and increasingly organized and adept at sharing knowledge and innovating. But despite rural people predominance in the developing world, they are usually discriminated (urban bias) by regional, national and local policies. In general farmers have been excluded from formal decision making in agriculture and food policies, and even if they participate under certain initiatives, only a few have negotiation competencies and communication skills to support their 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 the Crossroads,http://www.islandpress.org/); Author, Executive Summary and Summary for Decision Makers, http://www.agassessment.org/ Full Professor Agricultural Education Area, Facultad de Agronoma, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martn 4453, Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA, htpp.//www.agro.uba.ar plencovi@agro.uba.ar

produced than consumed there. Problems related to access to and distribution of food, the limited purchasing power of an important segment of the population and the lower prices paid 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 natural resources such as arable land, water and biological and cultural diversity, but these resources have been underused, for example the operation of latifundios (large estates) on arable land, or the improper use of land leading to greater loss of soil and biological diversity due to erosion, urbanization, contamination and the intensification and expansion of agriculture to less productive lands. In this region, it is clearly demonstrated that food availability is a necessary condition for food security but not sufficient, and is impaired by many factors, among others, by the lack of sustainable educational and development policies. This presentation will focus mainly on educational aspects. Apart from the need for co-ordination among 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 to education for rural people, such as epistemological and curricular issues, rural education teacher training, teacher recruitment, curriculum calendarization, time and space management in rural schools, teaching materials, learning environments, the relation among theory-practice-reflection, competency development and building citizenship and social and ethical values in inaccessible places, all of which play an important role in education for rural people. Some successful cases of formal and non-formal educational initiatives for food security will be presented and discussed. INTRODUCTION Food security and education are closely bound. There is nothing more essential for humankind than food for growing and developing. Likewise, there is nothing more fundamental 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 to nourish, to rear, to feed. Food security means life, and education is the golden way to empower people to improve their activities or diversify them, increase their income, get and interpret information and make decisions, as well as foster resilience, strengthen social cohesion and participation, and promote ethical values. Formal and non-formal educational systems pursue these goals through the developing of core, basic and subject specific competencies. Robust evidence shows that there is an association between poverty and rurality, food security and education. The vast majority of the worlds undernourished people (907 million) 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 for achieving rural development. According to Gasperini and Maguire (2001) , Education for Rural Development (ERP) implies that the function or purpose of education in rural areas is 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 the basic learning needs of rural children, out-of-school youth and adults, in the perspective of reducing rural poverty (Gasperini and Maguire, 2001).
2

And yet, why has education for rural people been so much neglected as a tool for food security? 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. Apart from the need for co-ordination among different public and private institutions and institutional arrangements, educational actors at different levels and jurisdictions have to reconsider some intrinsic, specific aspects related to education for rural people. Some successful cases of formal and non-formal educational initiatives for food security in Latin American countries will be presented and discussed.

Food security, rural and agricultural education The IAASTD Global Report explicitly considered that the main actors of agricultural knowledge, science and technology systems are in the vast majority smallholders and farm workers- women and indigenous communities- many of whom are poor, with limited access to external resources and formal education, but rich in indigenous and local knowledge and increasingly organized and adept at sharing knowledge and innovating. But despite rural people predominance in the non-industrializaed world, they are usually discriminated (urban bias) by regional, national and local policies. In general farmers have been excluded from formal decision making in agriculture and food policies, and even if they participate under certain initiatives, only a few have negotiation competencies and communication skills to support their views, knowledge, experience and values. Education is a conditio sine qua non for 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, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, The State of Food Insecurity 2001). 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 in turn is directly linked to food access and food availability through consumption (intrahousehold food distribution, equity, food quality and quantity), income (market integration, purchasing power, savings potential and credit power), productivity (productive labour, livelihood stability and diversity) and resources (natural, sustainable resources, productive assets and secure livelihoods).

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

Hence, food security is ingrained in primary, secondary- technical and non-technical- and higher education curriculum designs as subject-matter: knowledge, abilities and skills, and attitudes -beliefs, values, feelings, social (Moscovici,1981) and individual perceptions, habitus (Bourdieu, 1990), identity, etc.), and involves gender, rural poverty, and equity as cross-cutting issues. An agenda for renewal There are some intrinsic aspects which play an important role in any rural and agricultural educational agenda for renewal, such as epistemological and curricular issues, teacher training and recruitment, time and space planning, teaching materials, learning environments, the relation among theory-practice-reflection, competency development and building citizenship and social and ethical values as cross-cutting issues. We will briefly consider some intrinsic pedagogic aspects concerning food security with respect to the different levels of the formal education system, relying on four basic assumptions derived from 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 and learning about plant and animal production, agricultural machinery, home economics or even break-through technologies; it is about strengthening modern family farming opportunities, rural people culture and identity; it deals with building persons, relationships and values, it is a real Agropaideia (Plencovich, 1998). Hence, food security is not just an add-on curricular content, set off from social and cultural practices that needs to be integrated in the natural sciences curricula: it goes far beyond instructional agricultural designs and becomes deeply involved with societal needs.

(iii) The educational system cannot and should not be explained as a black box, inputoutput system. Unfortunately there are many policies in place which foster innovative approaches, 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, educational organizations need to be more participatory, less rigid an open to society issues, (iv) Achieving food security requires joint efforts to bring in different actors and institutional arrangements to learn together and explore options for action. It has to do people, 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 in 2005 worldwide was around 72 million, mostly in inaccessible regions (UNESCO, 2008). In addition, a large number of non industrialized countries suffer from high repetition and dropout rates, particularly during the first three grades (UNESCO, 2005). Apart from the geographical factors population living in rural areas may be further marginalized by ethnicity, culture, language, or religion, as well as their material poverty (Lakin and Gasperini, 2003).In most non-industrialized countries, certain groups tend to gain access to education firsturban children, boys, economically advantaged children, and ethnic majority children. Otherssuch as children, especially girls in rural areasare never served or served inefficiently by the countrys public education system (EFA, 2004). It is important 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 phenomenon which hinders rural development and food security; threatens productivity and health, limits opportunities to improve livelihoods and to promote gender equity, since illiteracy is particularly high among rural girls. Children who remain illiterate, with little or no exposure to the range of subjects offered in the school, are poorly prepared to improve their livelihood and living conditions and to adapt to changes in the rural economy. This means that are doomed to starvation, because for many children school is the only place where they can get food. School meals are a good way to channel vital nourishment to poor children. 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 to send 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 school enrolment in one year (WFP, 2009). Among the key beneficiaries are girls, who otherwise may never be given the opportunity to learn. But apart from providing food, literacy, numeracy skills, and some elements of food safety and health, primary schools in rural areas are sometimes the only possibility children have for learning social skills and values: sharing, working in teams, airing their views, giving opinions, planning, asking for turns, negotiating, developing projects, building consensus, being respected and respecting others, etc.
5

(ii) Secondary agricultural schools: The mission of rural or peri-urban agricultural schools is to strengthen and expand young people's capacities, knowledge and skills through education and training to enable them to become productive and contributing citizens of their local communities. There are two main obstacles to secondary schooling in rural areas: (1) Despite most countries are now extending universal, compulsory education to secondary level, the fact is that there are less secondary schools opportunities in rural than urban areas; (2) The relation opportunity- cost of secondary schooling is a major obstacles for poor families, because if they send their children 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 in relation to their more immediate survival needs. Consequently, schooling must offer an attractive and affordable alternative for children enrolment in school. More flexibility in the delivery system, particularly flexible timetables and curriculum designs, could help to accommodate (i) seasonal labour demand for adolescent girls and boys who help their parents on their farms, (ii) curriculum seasonal requirements, (iii) modern family farming needs, (iv) climate conditions, (v) geographical accessibility, etc. This could address the specific needs of working youth. Teacher training and support is a critical factor in rural education for development and food security. This requires that teachers learn from and about the different environments in which their pupils live and interpret and understand them in a way which leads to the development of appropriate teaching and learning methods and materials. (iii) Agricultural universities or colleges Higher education and training for rural development is not only about agriculture, but encompasses a major shift in focus from production agriculture to rural development (Atchoarena and Gasperini, 2003). A focus on rural, territorial development and modern family farming practices would allow higher education institutions to understand better the problems associated with revitalizing rural areas, poverty reduction, and food security. Teaching, research and extension: Teaching and curriculum issues: Food security public concerns or problems require multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches, while most university departments are disciplinary. Research produces fundamental knowledge under standards of rigor focused on manageable (well defined) or technical problems, not always pertinent to social needs. Teaching follows the same disciplinary pattern, moving from simple units to complex ones, so there is little latitude for interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work, though a professional practice facing hunger and poverty deal with ill-defined, complex and practical problems of agriculture that are incapable of technical solution and are intertwined with social and cultural patterns and ethical issues. There is a need for synthesis of diverse elements, and interdisciplinary approaches (IAASTD, Global Report, 2009). Despite their key role in agricultural and food production and security, agricultural information and education is not reaching women and girls. Greater awareness of womens contributions to agriculture and changing discriminatory practices and attitudes are needed to foster their participation in agricultural education and extension. Not many women professionals are trained in agriculture due to factors rooted in the gendered nature of culture 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
6

and the Caribbean, where women participate in higher education in nearly equal numbers with 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 always been followed by specific fund allocation to programs oriented to these goals, nor have interdisciplinary courses and social sciences- sociology of organizations, cultural anthropology, IP issues, food security, and some cross-cutting subjects, such as Ethicsbeen included. Change is sometimes cosmetic (IAASTD Global Report, 2009). The prevailing model is structured in discrete disciplines and focus on extensive, large-scale agricultural production systems. Over the last thirty years, limited attention has been paid to generate and disseminate technological innovations addressing the needs of the poor and hungry people. 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 agricultural subsidies that OECD countries pay to maintain their agricultural output (Kiers et al, 2008). Resources for publicly funded agricultural and food security research have been especially meagre, even though studies have indicated that investments in agricultural research and development are one of the most successful ways to alleviate hunger and poverty (Alston, 2002). Research in university has given little importance to joint work with farmers, despite food processing in many parts of the world relies on local knowledge - mostly of rural women - of preservation and packaging techniques, such as salting, 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 (for example: seed management and s seed management and selection carried out by Andean and African indigenous women). Extension requires a different epistemology of science, because it faces real, synthetic and complex problems, and needs training in communicative competences and participatory approaches. Universities seldom integrate with other institutions in extension activities. The lack of linkages seriously diminish information feedback from rural communities; whilst lack of collaborative efforts in planning and execution between research and educational areas, sometimes of the same university hamper the alignment of university policies. There is 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 the skills and sometimes knowledge to provide services concerning womens abilities to participate in decision making, negotiation, communicative and entrepreneurial skills. Fair trade, territorial identities and ethnic labeling are among the options that can be considered as outreach projects encompassing university actors, farmers, local authorities, civil society organizations, etc. to protect the interests of the marginalized and revitalize rural livelihoods and food cultures. The promotion of geographic indicators can open development 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.

opportunities for new agribusiness enterprises, such as tourism and specialty product development, 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. SYS

Constraints Illiteracy, functional illiteracy, dropping out, low attendance, poor retention rates, children rural work (flock tending, field work, running errands, household chores, sometimes engagement in hazardous labour (spraying of toxic elements, signaling spraying planes); gender issues. Economic present crisis forces families to choose food or school.

Contribution to Food Security Subject-matter: food safety, basic skills: literacy and numeracy; social skills, enhancement of cultural and identity as a foundation for attitudes and skills necessary tor rural development.

P R I M A R Y L E V E L

S E C O N D A R Y

Adolescentswork in seasonal labour, early parenthood, gender issues A few agricultural schools in rural areas, low enrollment rates insufficient application of participative approaches in curriculum design and implementation;

L E V E L

Subject-matter: food security in the context of a sustainable production (farm level) Agricultural curricula addressing the importance of food security, and the new role of market oriented agriculture, entrepreneurial skills, management for small and medium enterprises but also resource management for land, water and the environment, technical aspects of food technologies and processing.

Pedagogic and Teaching Aspects: Directions for Change include Building partnerships between different actors and institutional arrangements are crucial, synergies and complementarities must be sought. No single actor or institution has the capacity to bring about effective change in basic education. Teacher specific training and update programs in peer groups, experiential learning, micro-teaching. Constructivist pedagogy. School gardens, etc. as ways to incorporate rural development and food security in the basic education curriculum. Creation of specific school calendars according to the harvest period for rural families, accommodation to nomadic populations Project-based learning (PBL), ITC can serve as a powerful tool to enhance multi-grade learning, yet it is underutilized (even when having resources available in schools). Some cost-effective uses include one-way, twoway, low power and digital radio. Teacher specific training and update programs in team work (teacher and students), Collaborative learning approaches, socioconstructivist teaching approaches based on occupational profiles, Balancing theoretical underpinning with context-specific material, based on labour market studies and targeted needs assessments, including ICTs use. Teaching/training would need to be supported as appropriate through accessing opportunities provided by newer methodologies, including use of ICTs. (viii) Building, at the policy level, institutional capacity and leadership. This would involve, for instance, interaction with peers in national and international forums, study tours, mentoring, sabbaticals and focused training events. Adopting a longterm view for any change process. No quick fixes or panaceas are available. Teacher specific training in socioconstructivist and professional teaching and interdisciplinary approaches. University teachers should also learn! Training in gender awareness, analysis and planning. Understanding of population issues as an

U N I V E R

Elitist attitudes amongst academics, researchers and extensionists towards public university sector institutions involved in

Subject-matter: food security in the context of sustainable development. Food security polices development, ag curricula addressing the iimportance of food security, and

S I T y L E V E L

agriculture: extension services, research organizations and training institutions; green academic drain; insufficient application of participative and collaborative approaches in curricular designs, research and extension projects and plans, Productivist Models, Disciplinary Views, Mode 1 (Gibbons, 1996)

the new role of market oriented agriculture, food sovereignty issues, agricultural curricula addressing the importance of FS, and the new role of market oriented agriculture [systemic, integrated views, interdisiplinary/ transdisicplinary, Rling, 2004], entrepreneurial skills, management for small and medium enterprises; interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.

integral part of the training of all rural development professionals. Problem-based and project-based learning; Needs assessment-tools: project evaluation, use of rubrics, self and peer evolution, the processes independent evaluation of processes. Qualitative research approaches, effective use of research results by decision-makers; approaches/data/source triangulation, participative and collaborative research and extension approaches. Incentives will also have to be offered to focus on developing low cost technologies that are relatively cheap to adopt and implement

Table: Educational system levels, development and food security Education and Food Security within Latin America and the Caribbean Latin America is characterized by rich, natural resources. However, there are still some 209 million 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 in a region where everyday is a planting and a harvesting day. And it is even more surprising when we know that three times more food is produced than consumed there. Problems related to access to and distribution of food, the limited purchasing power of an important segment of the population and the lower prices paid to producers, among other factors, have prevented the translation of higher production levels into less hunger and a commensurate reduction in poverty. Food production is not severely limited by the availability of natural resources, such as arable land, water and biological and cultural diversity, but these resources have been underused, for example the operation of latifundios (large estates) on arable land, or the improper use of land leading to greater loss of soil and biological diversity due to erosion, urbanization, contamination and the intensification and expansion of agriculture to less productive lands. In this region, it is clearly demonstrated that food availability is a necessary condition for food security but not sufficient, and is impaired by many factors, among others, by the lack of sustainable educational and development policies. The role of the state is still a key factor in the region to quality life-long education to 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. There are indeed serious governance issues to be addressed as well. The structural (institutional arrangements - vertical or horizontal) and cognitive (elements of trust, reciprocity) dimensions are important elements of the mix that need to taken into account. Creating trust between individuals, institutions and communities, and establishing the appropriate links between state institutions, private sector, civil society, communities and individuals (especially the youth) is the way to go. In addition, rural educational actors and institutional arrangements have to realize that there are new landscapes and new territories and that the

rural population is not homogeneous and that there is not a panacea fitting to all purposes and 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- which started in 2003- represents a collaborative formal endeavour of 4 ministries, among which is the Ministry of Education is defined as a strategy -. The project pivots on four axes food accessibility, strengthening of modern family farming (agricultura familiar), income generation, social mobility, articulation and control, which mirror the most important concepts related to food security. Fome Zero places primary importance on the reduction of hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty, and is inspired by the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals. Extreme poverty is estimated to affect 9.3 million households or 44 million people in Brazil. While a national problem, occurring throughout the country extreme poverty has certain regional hot spots, with a concentration of the poor in the North East Region (50%) and the South East Region (26%). In particular, the plan: 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 generates important 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 with measures to broaden access to food and improve nutrition; Aims to use the growth in effective demand for food attributable to broadened access to stimulate the expansion of small farmer output without distorting price formation processes; Proposes planning and implementation with the full engagement of civil society, in line with 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 synergism and coherent set of aims facilitate the action of the different enabling bodies and creates a strong liaison among policy makers and local actors. The programme invested in crosssectoral, 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 historically been 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 medium landowners, 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,

10

district has now become a soybean producing area. New forms of farm organization in agricultural production are prevailing. The most significant one is the associative planting pools. 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 in order to diversify risks and the pool assumes management of the crop production enterprise. Under these production arrangements, the use of land is decided by highly specialized management with the best professional advice. At the local or regional level, a similar 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 and independent of entrepreneurial landowners. Still, some small landowner families, unqualified rural workers, teamsters, brick manufacturers still live in the country-side. In our research study, through in-depth interviews and in situ observations3 we were able to become acquainted with their educational practices. There are 21 rural schools in the district: 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 Photo 3, in the Appendix). Most schools provide a daily meal to children attending schools. Kids often take home rations for weekends, when they do not attend schools. School teachers qualifications are good, in general they have associate grades in primary or pre-primary education, but they have not been trained in Education for Rural Development, 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) in their only one teacher, multigrade schools. Even though they have no training in facilitating outreach processes; they are key agents in the rural communities and provide dietary, health, even psychological and conflict mediation advice to families (children, adolescents and adult population). They are constantly creating and nourishing community-school partnerships. In the land for agricultural use on the school premises, teacher and pupils apply a combination of local and external knowledge and techniques, although teachers have not been trained in agricultural practices.4 Most of their solitary, invisible work is sustained through their commitment and the collaboration of the school cooperatives, integrated by some parents, former pupils parents, some local elevators employees and grain cooperative members. These teachers try to maximize the 5limited resources schools have. Sometimes, they pay from their own salaries relevant curriculum and learning materials 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 a net of solidarity, goodwill and ethical principles. How much resilient could this net be?

PICTO Project Number 36407. Education, rurality, and territory in the Humid Pampas: actors and institutional arrangements. Research Team Leader, Dr. Alejandro O. Costantini. MINCYT-FAUBA. 4 In our in-depth interviews, they even apologized for maybe not doing things properly 5 started by the Abb Granereau in Srignac-Pboudou (France) in 1937.

11

Escuelas de la Familia Agrcola (EFAS), Family Farming Schools Many LAC countries6 have chosen the alternance agricultural school system (secondary level) shaped after the French rural movement of Maison Familiale Rurale (rural family house). Through this modality, students have an alternate training system at school, where they remain fulltime for 15 to 60 days, and then they stay at home, in their family smallholding, 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 in forty countries. The system is based on training plans collaboratively designed and implemented by educational institutions and parents. There are about 80 EFAs in Argentina and 241 in Brasil. Nowadays, alternate modality schools is a broad umbrella that encompasses 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 the reality 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 had developed in the private sector; however, in that year, within the public sector. It was designed to meet the demand coming from some communities in the province of Buenos Aires and involved experimental co-management between the federal government and small rural communities. They are now more than twenty CEPTs in the different rural areas of Buenos Aires province. These schools try to bridge the gap between theory and practice, accommodate their curricular activities to seasonal cultural practices, and help young students 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 the underprivileged rural population through activities to improve their health and nutrition. Estimates by WFP in El Salvador indicate that 87% of poor households have reduced the quantity and quality of food consumed as a result of the recent increases in food prices. The reduction in the quality of food is causing a major health risk for children. Those especially at 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: This provides a daily meal to boys and girls attending schools, to stimulate an increase in school enrolment 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 and Lactating Women and Children under five years old): It creates conditions wherein children under five, and pregnant and lactating women, can satisfy their special nutritional needs and their sanitary needs relating to nutrition, and (iii) Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation: The PRRO has the goal of improving food security for those families affected by recurring natural catastrophes through the provision of flexible and effective responses from both the government and the community.

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

12

In Peru, WFP contributes to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (1-5, and 7), 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 rural and mountain range areas, are considered to be food insecure because they do not even consume 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 Sustainable Development of Andean Micro watersheds project which includes food-for-work, foodfor-training, adult literacy, nutrition education and HIV/AIDS activities in poor rural and peri-urban areas of the Andes, the Amazon and the Coast. The project aims at protecting livelihoods in crisis situations, enhancing resilience to shocks and improving the nutrition and health of vulnerable groups of women and children, therefore contributing to offset the impact of climate change in the country's poorest regions. The intervention consists of five components: improvement of agriculture, school and housing infrastructure through foodfor-work, literacy training and nutritional education with food-for-training, mother and child nutrition and health improvement and HIV/AIDS. The project also includes a capacity-building component targeted at government sectors on specific themes, such as nutrition and disaster prevention and response. The project covers the most vulnerable rural communities of Ayacucho, Apurimac, Huancavelica, Piura, Cusco, Puno, Kandozi communities in Loreto, and peri-urban areas of Lima, and is targeted to (i) small scale farmers living in food insecure areas of some of the poorest regions of Peru; (ii) illiterate women 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 between several different stakeholders. Increasing the level of participation of different stakeholders inevitably 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 and rural development. Their main actors know quite well that improving food security and rural development is not only the concern of national or global actors. However, its institutions and arrangements reviewed under the multi-focal lens of interdisciplinary approaches (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 be acknowledged that, whilst educational is crucial for a sustainable development and food security in rural areas, it needs to be accompanied by other supportive conditions at the macro political and economic level. These will include, for example, favorable terms of trade, access (and preferably legal title) to land and other physical assets, provision of basic infrastructure, freedom from civil strife and improved levels of justice, equity and inclusion. Finally, options for action in the educational ambit include:

13

Place family farming and rural families at the forefront, understand their needs, integrate as appropriate local and traditional knowledge with formal AKSTD in curriculum designs Allow for the full engagement of rural actors in all aspects of the curricula design and 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 and development, and extension services Most of todays hunger problems can be addressed with appropriate use of current technologies, emphasizing agroecological practices. Incorporate ZF, or minimum tillage, 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.

REFERENCES
Atchoarena, 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 and Challenges. Education, Training and Extension (FAO, Rome, 2007). FAO Statistics Division, Equality of dietary energy consumption distribution, September 17, 2008. Available at http://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 at http://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 6-19 September, 2004. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)/UNICEF (2005) "Children Out of School: Measuring Exclusion from Primary Education", Education for All by 2015. Will we make it?, (2008). Unesco- Oxford University Press. World Food Programme (2008). Rises in Prices, Markets and Food and Nutritional Insecurity in Central

14

America (October 2008). World Food Programme (2009). School Meals, available at http://www.wfp.org/school-meals, access March 13, 2009.

APPENDIX

Escuela N 53 Dr. Marcelino Vargas La Cinaga - Purmamarca Jujuy, Argentina

Esc. N 37 Patricio O Byrne - Rio Grande - Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Esc. N 37 Paraje Pujol Buenos Aires - Argentina

15