SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: INVESTING IN SUSTENANCE

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WASHINGTON, Mar 31 2008 (IPS) - Without radical changes in the way the world produces its food, the planet will suffer lasting damage, writes Hans R. Herren, Co-Chair, International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) and President of the Millennium Institute. In this article, Herren writes that modern agriculture, as currently practised, is devouring our capital. It is mining the soil, our natural resource base, and it is unsustainable, because it is both fossil energy- and capital-intensive and because it is not based on a full accounting of the externalities. The developing world is headed in the same direction. In addition, new challenges -climate change, a growing population, and demands for better food quality and diversity- will affect agriculture, disproportionally in developing countries. Business as usual is no longer an option. The author argues that raising awareness of the need for science and technology to find better solutions will actually attract funding for the multifunctional agriculture we now realise we need.

Unfortunately, though, these benefits are spread unevenly and come at an increasing price which is paid by small farmers, workers, rural communities, and the environment which sustains us all. For example, as prices for basic commodities such as wheat and maize have increased dramatically in recent months largely due to competition with feedstocks grown for biofuels, prices of the tropical commodities that dominate small-scale farmers’ production have not grown at the same rate.

Change is needed in the science and technology of agriculture. As currently practised, modern agriculture is devouring our capital. It is mining the soil, our natural resource base, and it is unsustainable, because it is both fossil energy- and capital-intensive, and is not based on a full accounting of the externalities. The developing world is headed in the same direction, except that its agriculture is less capital-intensive and uses mostly human energy.

Agriculture is facing urgent challenges – intensified climate change, growing populations, and demands for better food quality and diversity. Business as usual is no longer an option. We need to use all the knowledge we have -formal and informal, new and existing- to meet these challenges and to shape a productive, sustainable, and equitable agriculture that offers farmers a route out of poverty. This means focusing on value-added for small-scale farmers and giving more weight to agriculture’s supporting infrastructure, like markets and trade. We have not a minute to waste.

A four-year study, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), was launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 by the World Bank and the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. The final report will be released April 15 in London, Washington, and Nairobi.

Our project was to look not just at the production of food in isolation but to consider hunger, poverty, the environment, and equity together. We analysed how our accrued agricultural knowledge, science, and technology (AKST) has led us over the last half-century to the present situation and suggest options for addressing the challenges and feeding ourselves in a way that is both socially and environmentally sustainable in the next 50 years. Without radical changes in the way the world produces its food, the planet will suffer lasting damage, and food insecurity will perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

Our report is avowedly pro-poor, focused on the goals of reshaping agriculture to reduce poverty and improve rural livelihoods and human health. That does not make us anti-rich. But we do recognise that some people are consuming more than their fair share of the Earth’s resources. We say explicitly that China and India are now seriously competing for ever-larger shares of global natural resources, as developed countries have for many decades. The reality is that all countries need to use AKST to increase the resilience of their agriculture and food systems and reduce their impacts on social equity and natural resource use. We need to understand better the true costs of current practices and learn how to make markets work for sustainable development.

One of our findings is that the poorest developing countries are net losers under most trade liberalisation scenarios. We identify certain ”contentious political and economic stances”, particularly of the many OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries who are deeply opposed to any changes in trade regimes or subsidy systems. Without reforms here, many poorer countries will have a very hard time because they need to protect their own development first. Resistance to change by developed nations is likely to mean there will have been heated debate over the shape of our report before it is finally agreed.

We are also critical of corporate, profit-oriented agriculture, field-to-fork food, which continues to thrive in the unreformed system we have today. It holds sway in the North, and now it is increasingly being exported to the poor countries of the South, threatening a repeat of the same environmental, ecological, and social mistakes and further undermining the rural small-scale farm sector.

One of the criticisms levelled against the findings of the IAASTD is that it will damage the prospects of attracting funds for agricultural research. We believe, on the contrary, that raising awareness of the need for science and technology to find better solutions will actually attract funding for the multifunctional agriculture we now realise we need. Our report offers no prescriptions but rather options for action, and we remind readers that business-as-usual is now finished. In the future our practices and policies must recognise the importance of the multiple functions of agriculture and their intersection with other global concerns, including loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate change and water scarcity.

The report is aimed at the policy-makers in charge of funding decisions as well as non-experts. In many countries food is very much taken for granted, and farmers are poorly rewarded for growing it and not recognised at all as stewards of almost one-third of the earth’s land. Investment in agricultural science and its extension to farmers has decreased over time, yet sustainable, environmentally-sound, and equitable solutions for food production still urgently need to be developed and disseminated. What we have tried to do is raise awareness of the issues and show that change is inescapable. Continuing with current trends will exhaust our resources and put our children’s future in jeopardy. Investing in our sustenance should be the most basic human endeavour. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)