HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 22

that work with natural processes to conserve all resources and minimize waste and
environmental damage, while maintaining or improving farm profitability. Working
with natural soil processes is of particular importance. Such agricultural systems
are designed to take maximum advantage of existing soil nutrient and water cycles,
energy flows, beneficial soil organisms, and natural pest controls. By capitalizing on
existing cycles and flows, environmental damage can be avoided or minimized. Such
systems also aim to produce food that is nutritious and uncontaminated with pro-
ducts that might harm human health ” . The interest in organic agriculture is driven
by three main concerns: (i) that our present agricultural practices are having a negative
impact on environmental quality, and on resource availability and use; (ii) that these
practices are contributing to deterioration in human health; and (iii) that the economic
situation for producers continues to decline.
Although in research some attention was paid to organic agriculture in the 1970s
(cf. Nauta 1979), only in the 1980s did that branch really take off, partly associated
with integrated pest management.
THE FUTURE
The persistence of hunger in the developing world means that ensuring adequate and
nutritious food for the population will remain the principal challenge for policy-
makers in many developing countries (Roetter and Van Keulen 2007). However, the
rapid transformation of diets and the changes in food systems at all levels (production,
processing and distribution/retail) pose a number of important additional challenges
to food security, nutrition and health policy. Urbanization is likely to increase the
'effective demand' for food security, safety and quality.
The global economy is becoming increasingly integrated through information
systems, investments and trade, and agriculture is part of this trend. For some
countries, agricultural trade expansion - sparked by agricultural and trade policy
reforms - has contributed to a period of rapid pro-poor economic growth. Indeed,
some of the countries that have been most successful in reducing hunger and
extreme poverty have relied on trade in agricultural products, either exports or
imports or both, as an essential element of their development strategy. Many of the
poorest countries however, especially in Africa, have not had the same positive
experience. Rather, they are becoming more marginalized and vulnerable, depending
on imports for a rising share of their food needs without being able to expand and
diversify their agricultural or non-agricultural exports (Sachs 2005). For the least-
developed countries, the benefits from trade reform will only come with a comple-
mentary effort in domestic policy and institutional reform and with substantial
investment in physical and human infrastructure.
Over the past fifty years, humans have changed the face of the earth more rapidly
and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history before,
largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fibre, and
fuel. As a consequence, many ecosystem services are being degraded or used
unsustainably, including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water purification, the
regulation of regional and local climate, natural hazards, and pests. The Millennium