Reality Cheques - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 70

Could Better Policies Help?
These external costs and benefits of agriculture raise important policy
questions. In particular, should farmers receive public support for the
public benefits they produce in addition to food? Should those individuals
and organizations who pollute have to pay for restoring the environment
and human health? These two principles are called 'the provider gets' and
'the polluter pays', and they are important to both industrialized and
developing countries. Three categories of policy instruments are available:
advisory and institutional measures; regulatory and legal measures; and
economic instruments. In practice, effective pollution control and the
supply of desired public goods requires a mix of all three approaches,
together with integration across sectors.
Advisory and institutional measures have long formed the backbone
of policies to internalize costs and so prevent agricultural pollution. These
measures rely on the voluntary actions of farmers, and are favoured by
policy-makers because they are cheap and adaptable. Advice is commonly
given in the form of codes of good agricultural practice, such as recom-
mended rates of pesticide and fertilizer application, or measures for soil
erosion control. Most governments still employ extension agents who
work with farmers on technology development and transfer. A variety of
institutional mechanisms can also help to increase social capital and the
uptake of more sustainable practices, including encouraging farmers to
work together in study groups, investing in extension and advisory services
to encourage greater interaction between farmers and extensionists , and
encouraging new partnerships between farmers and other rural stakeholders ,
since regular exchanges and reciprocity increase trust and confidence, and
lubricate cooperation.
Regulatory and legal measures are also used to internalize external
costs. This can be done either by setting emissions standards for the
discharge of a pollutant, or by establishing quality standards for the
environment receiving the pollutant. Polluters who exceed standards are
then subject to penalties. There are many types of standards, such as
operating standards to protect workers; production standards to limit
levels of contaminants of residues in foods; emissions standards to limit
releases or discharges, such as silage effluents; and environmental quality
standards for undesirable pollutants in vulnerable environments, such as
pesticides in water. But the problem with such regulations is that most
agricultural pollutants are diffuse, or non-point, in nature. It is impossible
for inspectors to ensure compliance on hundreds of thousands of farms
in the way that they can with a small number of factories. Regulations