Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
is extended to rainforests, hillsides, and other fragile environments, soil is typically
eroded.
How can systems that are currently following degenerative trajectories be shifted to
stable or regenerative ones? Reflecting on the need for transformative change to put
the planet on the path to sustainability, Leach et al. (2012) point out the need for new
technologies, new policies, and new modes of innovation. They define three dimen-
sions requiring consideration: direction (where are we going?), diversity (how can we
acknowledge and address the multiplicity of contexts and issues with correspondingly
diverse approaches and forms of innovation?) and distribution (who are the winners
and losers of any given approach?). Considering the direction to be taken implies being
clear about the goals and principles to be applied. The goal of improving agricultural
productivity alone would lead to a different direction than the goal of equitably improv-
ing food security. If the goal of protecting species diversity were also considered, that
would again call for a different direction to be taken.
A focus on the goal of improving agricultural productivity could lead to a focus on
the industrialization of large-scale agriculture. While this could succeed in producing
greater surpluses that could benefit urban populations through lower prices, it could also
lead to the marginalization and elimination of smallholders and the expansion of urban
slums, as well as increasing the pressure on many ecosystem services. Half of the world's
food insecure people are rural smallholder farmers (Cohen 2008); the goal of increasing
their productivity might lead to a focus on improving input and output markets. While
this would benefit those within reach of population centers, market-based approaches
might increase ecological and market risks, and they would not inevitably improve food
security. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 30 percent of the rural population has poor
access to markets (World Bank 2007). For this reason and others, substantial propor-
tions of smallholder farmers consume the majority of what they produce. In 2004, for
example, 80 percent of Nigerian farmers were classified as subsistence-oriented farmers
(Davis et al. 2007, as cited in World Bank 2007). Helping these farmers to integrate into
markets is a laudable goal, but market-based approaches are more likely to squeeze out
resource-poor smallholders than to include them (Hartman 2012).
A focus on food security would have to acknowledge that increasing productivity is
necessary but not sufficient to improve the food security of resource-poor people. The
widely accepted definition of food security (USAID 1992) includes dimensions of avail-
ability, access, and utilization; some definitions also include aspects of risk and sustain-
ability (FAO 2006). The access dimension implies financial as well as logistical access
to food, and thus brings in elements of equity among and within households. The uti-
lization dimension brings in nutritional considerations, as do qualitative aspects of
the availability dimension. Thus, improving food security of the rural poor must entail
improving market access for smallholders and increasing their employment options, but
it must also improve the livelihoods of those engaged in subsistence or semi-subsistence
farming.
The goals and principles of agricultural development strategies can and must go
beyond concerns for food production and food security. Agriculture's multifunctionality
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