Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Grain yields doubled in both developed and developing countries during 1970 to
2004, but in the LDCs, many in SSA, the growth was small, only 16%. The principal
constraint to improving crop yields in the LDCs is the limited access to essential
production inputs, such as water. Agriculture is by far the biggest user of water,
accounting for 70% of global water withdrawals. Growing demand for water for
irrigation as well as industrial and domestic uses is placing increasing pressure on
prices. In fact, prices are expected to exceed the level that is profitable for staple food
production in most countries. SSA's irrigated area as a share of total agricultural area
stagnated during the 1990s and measures only about 3% of total crop production
land. In Latin America, this share exceeded 11%, and in Asia it was 20%.
To increase yields, farmers must switch from traditional seeds to high-yielding
varieties. However, most of the new high-yielding varieties are grown in the irri-
gated land areas and require agrochemicals such as fertilizer and disease-preventing
pesticides. Currently, most of the producers in Africa are too poor to purchase agro-
chemicals. Africa's share of global pesticide consumption is very low, about 1 kg/
ha per year compared to high-end users such as Japan and Holland at 21 kg. Many
countries with high levels of fertilizer use are experiencing the environmental prob-
lems associated with intensive use of fertilizers. On the opposite end of the spectrum
is SSA, where the crops are mining the soil of its nutrients because they are not being
replaced with plant residues, manures, or fertilizers. This means potential to increase
yields for staple crops consumed by the poor is significant. The recent increase in
food prices could provide an opportunity for the countries to increase their food
production. Unfortunately, in most of these countries, agricultural supply response
to higher prices is low because of inadequate access to information, high costs of
inefficient marketing systems, and limited capital for investment.
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Food imports are expected to grow with globalization and expansion of trade agree-
ments among countries. During the last three decades, trade in staple food such as
grains, vegetable oils, and meat increased by three- to fivefold. The growth in imports
was not limited to staple food as it expanded to a variety of commodities, including
semiprocessed and processed foods. Structural factors, such as income growth and
urbanization, were behind these trends, and they are expected to continue during
the next century. Increased global access to the communication infrastructure of the
twentieth century, along with global trade liberalization, were responsible for the
rapid transition of developing country diets. The changes in diets that evolved over
more than century in Western countries have taken place in only a few decades in
developing countries. The increase in imports of processed foods at the global level—
4.5-fold—during the last three decades is a good indicator of such an evolution. In the
LDCs, imports of commodities such as concentrated fruit juice, frozen vegetables,
and canned meat that were either not imported or imported in negligible quantities
through the 1990s increased by more than 10- to 20-fold. Among the imported pro-
cessed foods, a continuation of the high import growth of hydrogenated fats (animal
and vegetable) is of concern because it has the potential of raising blood cholesterol,
which is a risk factor in the development of heart disease (Popkin, 2001).
