Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.1 Incentives and constraints for farmers adopting organic agriculture in less developed
countries (after Parrott and Marsden 2002 and Walaga 2000)
Incenties
Constraints
Disillusion with Green Revolution technologies
The inaccessibility or high cost of Green
Revolution technologies
Organic agriculture valorises indigenous
knowledge
The influence of the environmental and
development movements
Premiums and market opportunities
Lack of knowledge about organic agriculture
Lack of economic and political advocacy
Population pressures encourage intensification
The high cost of certification by foreign
organisations
Low literacy levels in rural areas make record-
keeping a problem
Lack of trade liberalisation in some countries
prevents development of exports
the second highest amount of land under organic production in the world and Mexico having
the greatest number of farms. With a large agricultural base, diverse environments, good labour
supplies and close proximity to North America, many organic growers in Central and South
America have been successful, principally in the export markets. However, socioeconomic con-
straints such as poverty and land tenure have shaped the process of adoption and adaptation of
organic agriculture (Parrott and Marsden 2002).
Although Argentina has 3 million hectares of land under organic production (Yussefi
2004), 74% of that land is owned by 5% of the organic farmers (Lernoud and Piovano 2004).
Remove those few large farms and the area of organic land would rank a more modest sixth
globally, between Brazil and Uruguay. Beginning in the 1980s, the Argentinian organic
movement has developed strong formal certification processes, good export links and has
received valuable government support. In a show of diversity, Argentina has also eagerly
adopted genetically modified crops, having the world's second largest area of such crops after
the USA, with 10 million hectares grown in 2000 (Coffman 2001) and 14.2 million hectares in
2003 (Human Genome Project Information 2004). Like Argentina, Mexico exports most of its
organic produce, 70% of which is coffee (Tovar and Cruz 2004). Smallholders make up about
98% of the 28,000 certified organic growers in Mexico, plus a small number of large fincas
(estates) growing crops such as cocoa, sugar and coffee. Apart from an early biodynamic
pioneer producing certified coffee in 1967, organic agriculture began to emerge in the 1980s
and 1990s with the aid of some government support and easy access to US markets. However,
Mexican organic producers still rely on overseas certifying agencies for exporting their goods
and suffer from a lack of state support for research and development, a poorly developed
domestic market, as well the dependence on foreign companies for marketing. In Cuba, the
collapse of the Soviet regime in the early 1990s caused subsidies for conventional farm inputs
to cease and the main markets to disappear, forcing the nation to seek sources of raw materials
and alternative markets (Kilcher 2001). In response, Cuba developed several programs to
promote organic agriculture including rearing biological control agents, producing bulk
compost, restructuring state farms and developing training and certification frameworks.
Although the country has not entirely moved away from intensive, export-oriented conven-
tional agriculture based on plantations, Cuba produces 65% of its rice and 50% of its fresh veg-
etables organically.
Several recognised complementary agricultural systems have also been developed in Asia
(Setboonsarng and Gilman 1999). During the Later Vedic Period (1,000 BCE-600 BCE) in
India, a series of three works codified a system of agricultural principles and practices in great
detail. This indigenous knowledge is still applied today in parts of India and acts as an aid for
 
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