Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A few years ago many hailed agro-fuels as an environmentally friendly solution
for energy security; today the result is quite the opposite: the move to biofuels has
reduced food security and some agro-fuels signiicantly contribute to climate hange
via greenhouse gas emissions (de Shuter, 2008, pp8-9). he danger agro-fuels pose
to the environment should be taken even more seriously given the general context.
Climate hange - in particular the issue of lak of water - is seen as the main threat
to agricultural production. Experts estimate severe losses in agricultural capacity due
to climate hange, for example in Africa (at 17 per cent average loss and 18 per cent
median loss) and Latin America (13 per cent average and 16 per cent median loss)(de
Shutter, 2008, pp8-9).
The decline in the productivity growth of agriculture
According to predominant economic logic, farmers as suppliers of food should be
advantaged and have an incentive to produce more - particularly when food prices
are rising. Thus, it might be difficult to understand why farmers are among the ones
that suffer most under these conditions. A distinction, though, needs to be made: it
is in reality the smallholders from poor countries that suffer most.
Since the 1980s, prices for agricultural primary commodities have generally been
low. he introduction of mehanization and improved seeds in certain developing
countries have not been followed by an increase in wages, and public financial sup-
port to farmers from developed countries has made it atractive for them to produce
and export their crops to the developing world for lower prices than those of the loc-
al peasants. he lak of material incentive or capacity for farmers from the global
South to produce muh beyond subsistence levels was low also because of the retreat
of the public sector from agriculture - the dismantling of subsidy programmes and
disinvestment from agriculture was often promoted by international financial insti-
tutions (de Shuter, 2008, p29). Now we are waking up to the impact that suh depri-
oritization has had. The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group has recently
found that too litle has been done to support agriculture in Africa in general. Spe-
ciically, underinvestment in irrigation projects and transport infrastructure, lak of
access of farmers to credit and markets, and lak of support in coping with increas-
ing input prices suh as fertilizers, has led to a decline in agricultural production
(Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank, 2007). As productivity has fallen
considerably, many sub-Saharan countries have become net food importers. Thus, it
is not the rather stereotypical and ot-cited causes - suh as diicult environmental
