Food, Agriculture and Rural Development

FAO: The State of Food Insecurity 2003 Over 840 million people are chronically undernourished (FAO webpage: 1_6) Good news: 19 countries reduced hunger by 80 million people between – Near East (1) Asia and the Pacific (5), LAC (6) Sub Saharan Africa (7) – Brazil, China…….Chad, Guinea, Namibia and Sri Lanka Bad news: Overall: decrease of 37 million , increase again. Now: only 19 million decrease over period.

FAO: TSOFI 2003 Success factors: – more rapid economic growth and specifically by more rapid growth in their agricultural sectors. – slower population growth, – lower levels of HIV infection and – higher ranking in the UNDP’s Human Development Index. “Bluntly stated, the problem is not so much a lack of food as a lack of political will” – Some countries focus on this as #1 priority Brazil, Mozambique

IFAD: emerged from 1974 World Food Conference “One of the most important insights emerging from the Conference was that the causes of food insecurity and famine were not so much failures in food production, but structural problems relating to poverty and to the fact that the majority of the developing world’s poor populations were concentrated in rural areas.”

IFAD’s holistic rural development agenda: social development gender equity income generation improved nutritional status environmental sustainability good governance.

IFAD’s concrete objectives developing and strengthening the organizations of the poor to confront the issues they define as critical; increasing access to knowledge so that poor people can grasp opportunities and overcome obstacles; expanding the influence that the poor exert over public policy and institutions; and enhancing their bargaining power in the marketplace

Key Issues Defining food security: current and long term – Malnutrition – Chronic hunger – Famine – Calories plus access The political ecology of food security – Environmental/technical production factors of food Understanding the ecological setting Using appropriate knowledge and science The political economy of food security – rural poverty – relation to rural people’s empowerment – Issues at different scales

Typologies of Agriculture Techniques Economies Intensity

Typologies of Agriculture Techniques – Traditional: Extensive: (shifting, Swidden, slash and burn) Intensive: terraces, agro forestry, labor and knowledge intensive – Industrial (Modern, Monocropping, Green Revolution, Genetically Modified)

Typologies of Agriculture Economies – Subsistence: self provisioning; bound up with local and household economies. – Market (local and export): linked to local, national and international markets – Most people now do some of both

Typologies of Agriculture Intensity – Extensive Slash and burn (Swidden ag, nomadic pastoralism ranching – Intensive: Subsistence: Labor and knowledge intensive, less land (paddy rice terraces) Industrial: Capital and input intensive

Traditional Agriculture ~1/2 people on earth Crop and biodiversity Less to More Labor intensive Traditional indigenous knowledge (TIK) Emphasizes natural/animal fertilizers – Fallow, rejuvenation – Nitrogen fixing trees and legumes – Intercropping Natural pesticides – Diverse plants don’t spread diseases – Plant complimentarity – “beneficials”

Industrial Agriculture Practiced on ~25% of world’s croplands – Typical in US Monocropping Large amounts of fossil fuels (now uses 10% of worlds fossil fuels) – Fertilizer – Pesticides – Run machinery Irrigation Mechanization (less labor intensive) Western scientific principles

The Politics of Food: The Green Revolution Originated with the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1940’s in Mexico: CIMMYT Cardenas and land reform v. conservatives who wanted to maintain power Agricultural production became a site of political struggle – Borlaug says it was designed to help peasant farmers – Carl Sauer warns of misguided technical arrogance or innocence:

Carl Sauer on Rockefeller research “A good aggressive bunch of American agronomists and plant breeders could ruin the native resources for good and all by pushing their American commercial stocks…And Mexican agriculture cannot be pointed toward standardization on a few commercial types without upsetting native economy and culture hopelessly. The example of Iowa is about the most dangerous of all for Mexico. Unless the Americans understand that, they’d better keep out of this country entirely. This must be approached from an appreciation of native economies as being basically sound.”

The Politics of Food: The Green Revolution Sauer and others recommend working “from the ground up” with existing expertise However, studies reveal “culture of the scientist/expert”—agricultural economists – We are “not interested in theories of how the rich screw the poor” CIMMYT used to promote massive industrialization of NW Mexican wheat – But ag growth was predicated on new land, increased inputs, not technological improvements – Subsidized oil: PEMEX nationalized. – Wealthy farmers benefited, not peasants

Agricultural development policies Green Revolution – Extended to India – Formed the basis for agricultural development policies in many countries from 1950’s-1980’s 1980’s: Sustainable Agriculture – Renewed interest in traditional and mixed schemes – agroforestry

Food production and technology Comparative analysis of technologies – Based on labor? – Based on fossil fuels? – Based on social/cultural factors – Based on environmental sustainability

The political geographies of food production: Gender Disease/AIDs Land tenure Water rights/irrigation State economic policies re: – Economic growth – subsistence v. export agriculture State or regional conflicts Trade