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Christian Aid, September 2011

Poverty is an outrage against humanity.It robs people o dignity, reedom and hope,o power over their own lives.

Christian Aid has a vision an end to

poverty and we believe that vision canbecome a reality. We urge you to join us.

www.christianaid.org.uk


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1

Executive summary 2

Introduction and context 7

Section 1. A green revolution or Arica? 11

Section 2. Lessions o the Asian Green Revolution 17

Section 3. What is sustainable agriculture? 23

Section 4. The benefts o sustainable agriculture 29

Section 5. Scaling up 40

Conclusion and recommendations 48

Authors and acknowledgements 51

Healthy Harvests Contents

conTEnTS


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2 Healthy Harvests Executive summary

ExEcuTiVESummARY

This report argues that smallholderarmers in Arica and Asia can

improve agricultural productivity, oodsecurity and livelihoods by adoptingsustainable 1 approaches that utiliseresource-conserving technologies andthat draw upon their own knowledge.Many thousands o communities incountries such as India, Cambodia, thePhilippines, Burkina Faso, Zimbabweand Kenya are already benefting rom

sustainable arming but they needmore support and, above all, theseapproaches need to be scaled up.

Seventy per cent o the worlds nearly1 billion hungry people are smallholderarmers and the rural landless.Marginalised smallholder armershave long been locked in a cycle olow productivity, lack o assets and

services and weak market power. Inaddition, they ace a number o newerchallenges. Many crop and livestockproducers are deeply vulnerable tothe eects o climate change. Landdegradation and groundwater depletionare increasingly posing a threat to oodsecurity and the livelihoods o ruralpeople. Meanwhile, scope to expandagricultural production into new landsis increasingly limited, and competitionor existing armland is increasing too:rom oreign investors, industry andurban developers. Rising ood prices

since the onset o the global ood crisiso 2007 to 2008 have posed a urther

challenge to smallholder armers whotend to be net ood buyers and whoalso have to meet the costs o risingertiliser prices.

This report asks the question: whatkind o agriculture can address povertyand hunger in a world in which theclimate is changing, ood demandis growing and land, soil and water

resources are increasingly underpressure; and in a way that preservesthe natural resource base or uturegenerations?

In recognition o the challenges acingagriculture, donors and governmentshave in recent years made welcomenew political and fnancialcommitments to smallholder arming,

especially in Arica. However, as thisreport outlines, the solutions or Aricaadvocated by donors, governments andthe initiatives o private oundationshave tended to centre around thepromotion o synthetic ertilisersand pesticides, which are costly orarmers and very oten resource-depleting. This drive or a new Green

Revolution or Arica has tended tosideline more sustainable, armer-led approaches. For example, recentinput-subsidy programmes in Arica


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3Healthy Harvests Executive summary

have brought signifcant short-termbenefts in certain cases, but they are

looking increasingly unsustainableand risk sidelining investment ingreener alternatives. And our researchidentifes concerns that the agro-dealernetworks unded by the Alliance ora Green Revolution in Arica (AGRA)are selling ever more quantitieso agro-chemicals to armers, thusmarginalising the space or alternative

approaches that are more sustainable.The experience o Asias GreenRevolution holds some very importantlessons or policy-makers globally.There is no denying its achievementin liting yields and reducing hunger,especially rom the 1960s to 1980s. Butthis process o change began to stallin the 1990s and this is posing major

challenges or Asian governmentstoday. One cause is the heavy burdenon the natural resource base o thewidely-adopted, intensive mono-cropping system. Soil degradation hasmeant armers have had to increasethe quantity o ertiliser used in orderto maintain their yields. This has inturn aected their proft margins andis one actor behind increasing levels oarmer debt. There have been a rangeo other serious consequences o theAsian Green Revolution (or example,the loss o on-arm biodiversity, social

inequalities, and the dangerouseects o pesticides on the health

o armworkers), which should givegovernments more than a pauseor thought.

We defne sustainable agricultureas a way o producing ood thatbalances the economic, social andenvironmental aspects o arming.It is an approach that minimisesor avoids chemical inputs, uses

resource-conserving technologies andmaterials available on the arm, anddraws and builds upon the capacity oarmers and community organisations.These principles are already beingsuccessully adopted by armingcommunities in Asia and Arica,including with the support o ChristianAid partners.

A growing body o evidence bothacademic and data and analysisavailable rom developmentprogrammes demonstrates thatsuch sustainable approaches can behighly eective in boosting production,incomes and ood security; supportingsoil and water conservation, on-armbiodiversity and crop health; improving

resilience to natural disasters andclimate change; lowering greenhousegas emissions; and empoweringcommunities. For example, in

States can and must achieve a reorientationo their agricultural systems towards modeso production that are highly productive,highly sustainable and that contribute to

the progressive realisation o the humanright to adequate ood.Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to ood


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Cambodia, the adoption o newgrowing techniques or rice, which

minimise the use o agro-chemicalsand water (known as the systemo rice intensifcation) has helpedincrease yields or armers rom anaverage o 2.5 tonnes per hectare to3.7 tonnes per hectare.2 In Zimbabwe,Christian Aid partners ZimPro andthe Dabane Trust have assisted over3,000 households to adopt conservation

agriculture. This enabled armers toincrease signifcantly their yields osorghum, millet and maize helping toimprove household ood security. Andin other countries, armers have beenable to cut back on pesticide use byadopting natural methods o tacklingpests. This has delivered both incomeand health benefts.

However, these approaches remainseverely under-supported. To scalethem up governments and donorsneed to signifcantly re-balance theircurrent ocus on quick-fx, external-input intensive solutions, towards amuch greater support or sustainable,agro-ecological approaches. Thisshould come through a re-balancingo government subsidies towardsresource-conserving technologiesand by building these approachesinto revived public research andextension programmes that place

smallholder armers, their associationsand networks at the centre o decision-

making. National seed laws shouldprimarily ocus on promoting armersrights and access to seeds o their ownchoosing, be they modern or local seedvarieties. They should also enshrinethe right o armers to reely breed,conserve and exchange traditionalvarieties. Governments will also needto increase poor peoples access to land

and smallholders security o tenure both are important pre-requisites orrural ood security and the adoption osustainable agriculture. Governmentsneed to encourage and harness thepotential o the private sector to play arole in supporting sustainable arming,while also putting in place appropriateregulations, or example to ensure thatprivate agro-dealers do not replace

government extension service as asource o advice on inputs or armers.This must also be accompanied byinitiatives that enable the creation o,and access to, markets that return airprices or small-scale producers, andglobal trade policies that saeguardthe position o domestic producers innational ood systems.

Healthy Harvests Executive summary

[With proper support or agro-ecologicalapproaches] we can see a doubling o oodproduction within 5 to 10 years in someregions where the hungry live.Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to ood


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Recommendations:

DFID, the EU and other donors should:

Meet and increase unding commitments or agriculture,with priority given to supporting sustainable, smallholderarming:

- DFID should honour its commitment to spend 1.1bnon ood security and agriculture over three years(2009/10 to 2011/12) and budget or urther increasesas overseas development assistance rises. But, aboveall, it should outline a strategy or spending this moneythat enables the scaling up o proven, sustainableapproaches (see below)

- in their budgeting or ood security and agriculturein developing countries, the EU and member states

should ensure the prioritisation o sustainableagriculture and support to small armers and theirorganisations. Future EC country programme supportin this area should be in line with the priorities o thenew Food Security Policy Framework

- all donors should set out plans to allocate a minimumo 10 per cent o ODA to agriculture and ood securityto match the 10 per cent commitment made by Aricangovernments in the Maputo Declaration o 2003.

Within research budgets, place a greater emphasis onlow-cost, sustainable and armer-led technologies, suchas the promotion o indigenous and local varieties ocrops that do not require agro-chemicals; participatoryseed breeding; organic methods o soil ertilisation (orexample cover crops, composting, crop rotation, agro-orestry, low/zero tillage); polycultures; mixed livestock-arable-aquaculture systems; soil/water conservationmeasures (or example bunding, zai pits, mulching, thesystem o rice intensication); cheap, labour-saving tools;and natural pest-control techniques.

Support more research partnerships involvingcollaboration among poor arming communities,extension services and agricultural scientists.

Ensure research programmes examine what kinds osustainable agriculture techniques, equipment and crops

can most benet women.

Signicantly boost unding or extension services, inparticular or training and dissemination o the sustainableapproaches in this report: support countries eorts toreinvigorate these services in the most marginal (andhunger-prone) agricultural zones.

Integrate a nutritional dimension into agriculturalprogrammes: this could involve increasing thediversication o smallholder agriculture, promoting

micronutrient-rich ood, especially local varieties,monitoring nutrition-related outcomes, and supportingagricultural research that is conducted rom a nutritionperspective.

Rerain rom pushing developing countries, in particularin EU trade agreements, to align their domestic seedlegislation with international accords such as UPOV andTRIPS because these limit armers ability to save andexchange seeds and sell them locally.

Ensure that trade agreements do not restraingovernments rom protecting their agricultural sectorsrom subsidised imports and import surges that undercutdomestic producers and are a disincentive or them to

invest in sustainable production.

Given its proven adaptation and mitigation benets,ensure that smallholder, sustainable agriculture is one othe sectors that receives public unding under new North-South climate nance initiatives.

Asian and Arican governments should:

Increase the percentage o budgets directed towardsagriculture, with a greater ocus on sustainableagriculture. In the case o Arican governments thiswould include meeting the 2003 Maputo commitmentsto allocate 10 per cent o budgets to agriculture. In Asia,

governments should reverse the recent decline in supportto the sector and return to 1990 unding levels (8.5 percent o state spending).

Progressively re-orientate subsidies and unds towardssustainable, resource-enhancing and aordable armingapproaches that work well or small-scale armers withlimited assets and incomes see examples above.

Support more research led by armers on sustainableagriculture, in the same areas mentioned above.

Revamp extension services with a greater ocus onarmer-to-armer knowledge transer and group-learningprocesses. These services should support the adoption

o the agro-ecological practices outlined in this report;they should also target women armers, who have beenparticularly neglected in existing extension services.Coverage should be increased in the most marginal,hunger-prone regions.



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Ensure that land and other natural-resource policiescreate incentives or the adoption o agro-ecologicalapproaches: or example, smallholder armers need

guaranteed security o tenure and landless people accessto land; and rural communities as a whole should play astronger role in the sustainable management o naturalresources, including land, water, sheries and orests.

Recognise the central role that women armers can playin scaling up sustainable approaches by increasing:

- their participation in agricultural research (see above)

- their involvement in and infuence over extensionservices and local decision-making bodies.

Strengthen local and regional markets in stapleoodstus, by supporting armers organisations suchas cooperatives; investing in roads, processing and crop

storage acilities, and providing targeted price inormationand weather/climate orecasting services.

Ensure that national seed laws give maximum scope toarmers to save, re-use, exchange and sell locally seedso their choosing including both local varieties andmodern varieties (MVs) developed by seed companies.

Put in place incentives to harness the potential o theprivate sector to contribute to sustainable arming; as wellas regulatory rameworks to ensure that a small numbero transnational corporations (TNCs) or other companiesdo not dominate markets; and that their promotion oertilisers, pesticides and MV seeds do not sideline

sustainable approaches. Prioritise sustainable agriculture in national plans on

climate change adaptation, and ood security andnutrition.

Limit the amount o pesticides used in arming byinvesting in natural methods o pest control; phase outhighly hazardous pesticides; 3 and in order to protect thehealth o small-scale users in tropical climates, and inline with section 3.5 o the FAO Code o Conduct on theDistribution and Use o Pesticides, avoid using pesticideswhose handling and application require the use opersonal protective equipment that is uncomortable,expensive or not readily available.

Endnotes

1 The terms sustainable agriculture and agro-ecology are used interchangeably

in this report see Section 3.

2 Figures recorded by the Cambodian Ministry o Agriculture.

3 See this list o highly hazardous pesticides drawn up by the Pesticides Action

Network (PAN) International in 2011, pan-germany.org/download/PAN_HHP-

List_1101.pd



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inTRoducTion

And conTExT

7Healthy Harvests Introduction and context

Locals dig boreholes into the river bed to fnd water in eastern

Kenya. The IPPC warns that by 2020 climate change could leave up

to 250 million people in sub-Saharan Arica exposed to increased

water stress.


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8 Healthy Harvests Introduction and context

This report argues that smallholder armers in Arica andAsia can raise agricultural productivity and meet oodsecurity, livelihood needs and environmental objectives by

adopting sustainable agriculture approaches. We denesustainable agriculture as a way o producing ood thatbalances the economic, social and environmental aspectso arming. It is an approach that minimises or avoidschemical inputs, uses resource-conserving technologiesand draws and builds upon the capacity o armers and theirorganisations.

In a context o persistent hunger, rural poverty, risingdemand or ood, climate change and increased pressureon natural resources, ocusing investment on approachesto ood production that rely upon intensive use o costlyand environmentally-damaging chemical ertilisers andpesticides, to the exclusion o agro-ecological alternatives,

will not pave the way or sustainable utures.O course, adoption o sustainable approaches towardsagricultural production will not provide smallholder armerswith all that is needed to escape poverty and hunger. Anumber o undamental reorms will be needed in addition.These include increased control over assets or smallholderarmers, such as land or rural communities, access tocredit and price inormation, revival o state-sponsoredresearch, and extension and support to link with markets.These reorms need to be combined with trade rules thatgive domestic producers the breathing space to growand an increase in jobs outside the arming sector in ruralareas. But, as this report demonstrates, the promotion

o sustainable agriculture is a critical part o the pictureand is likely to become more and more necessary in anincreasingly resource-constrained world.

The global context

Across the world today nearly one billion people go hungry.1Seventy per cent o them are smallholders and the rurallandless.2 Too many smallholder armers in Arica and Asiado not grow enough ood to eed themselves and theiramilies throughout the year. These marginalised armershave long been locked in a cycle o low productivity, lack oassets and services and weak market power, as has beenwell documented.

In addition, they ace a number o newer challenges.Many crop and livestock producers are deeply vulnerableto the eects o climate change, which, in addition toincreasing temperatures, also appears to be aectingnow the reliability, requency and volume o the rains onwhich most Arican and Asian smallholders depend. The

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts thatsome Arican countries could see yields rom rain-edagriculture decline by up to 50 per cent by 2020,3 with

other estimates suggesting that 29 Arican countries couldace a loss o around 35 million tonnes in potential cerealproduction.4 In south Asia, cereal yields could all by up to30 per cent by the middle o the century.5

At the same time, land degradation and groundwaterdepletion are increasingly posing a threat to ood securityand the livelihoods o rural people, who oten live onmarginal lands with very low levels o ertility. Landdegradation is aecting 38 per cent o the worlds cropland:1.9 billion hectares in all.6 Meanwhile, scope to expandagricultural production into new lands is increasingly limited,7especially in the context o population growth. And there isnew competition or land: rom investors seeking to produce

ood and biouels or export; and rom industry and urbandevelopers. In addition, water tables are plummeting, asusage or irrigation and other purposes is greater than therates o replenishment.

Smallholder armers have also been victims rather thanbeneciaries o rising ood prices. Most smallholders arenet ood buyers,8 partly the result o governments anddonors cutting unding to ood production in recent decadesand encouraging armers to produce cash crops or exportinstead. In only a small number o developing countries,including Vietnam and Madagascar, are the poor primarilynet sellers o ood. Thus ood price rises are tending tomake most poor armers poorer.

Moreover, it is not easy or small producers who are sellingcrops to respond to the opportunity o higher prices byincreasing production. They ace a range o constraintsto production, they oten have limited access to marketsand the benets o higher prices are in any case too otencaptured by those higher up the market chain. Meanwhile,input prices have risen sharply in the past decade. Forexample, in the early part o 2008 the price o someertilisers was 160 per cent higher than or the same periodin 2007.9 These price rises, caused by increased globaldemand and the rising cost o oil, were quickly passed on toarmers in many countries. So the steep rise in input costsoten simply cancelled out any gains rom higher output

prices, or armers selling in markets.

10

Despite these challenges, smallholder armers in developingcountries have huge potential to meet not only their ownood needs, but the growing requirements o increasinglyurbanised and expanding populations. Already, smallholderarmers commonly dened as those producing ood on


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9Healthy Harvests Introduction and context

holdings o less than two hectares produce more than 50per cent 11o the worlds ood.With the appropriate supportthey can not only support their own livelihoods and house-

hold ood needs, but also make a major contribution tothe overall enhanced levels o ood production that will benecessary. For this, a number o signicant changesare required.

First, a massive reinvestment in agriculture is needed andkey commitments to this eect have been made in recentyears. In 2009, the G8 countries pledged US$22bn overthree years as part o the LAquila Global Food SecurityInitiative and the European Commission has committedto support agriculture in developing countries through itsFood Facility, to which it has donated 1bn. It is welcomethat donors and governments are recognising this needand putting in place measures to turn around the previous

disinvestment in agriculture in developing countries. Aricangovernments have also committed, under the MaputoDeclaration o 2003, to increase spending to 10 per cent toaddress previous neglect o the sector.12

Second, more important even than the level o support oragriculture, is what kind o agriculture is supported. Theneed or a rethink was highlighted in the 2008 IAASTDreport.13 This World Bank- and UN-led report, endorsedby 58 governments including the UK, was highly criticalo the way in which the post-war path o input-intensiveood production had insuciently internalised its socialand environmental costs. It said that a undamental shitin policy was required i arming was to successully meet

development and environmental goals, and that thesechanges should be directed primarily at those who havebeen served least by previous approaches.

Olivier de Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the rightto ood, recently noted that In a context o ecological,ood and energy crises, the most pressing issue regardingreinvestment is not how much, but how. 14 It is this howthat is the ocus o this report. We ask the question: whatkind o agriculture can address poverty and hunger in aworld in which the climate is changing, ood demand isgrowing and land and water resources are increasingly underpressure; and in a way that preserves the natural resourcebase or uture generations? A rst step in this analysis

is to examine how small armers ared under the GreenRevolution in Asia and draw lessons rom this or the Aricancontext, where a similar revolution is being proposed.

We will argue that there needs to be a rebalancing awayrom the existing ocus o governments and donors onarming that places too great an emphasis upon costly

chemical inputs and seed technologies, and towardsincreased support or sustainable agriculture.

Report outline

The next section looks at the approaches to agriculturethat are currently being prioritised by governments andother actors or Arica, which we argue are partly basedon an overly optimistic view o the positive eects o theGreen Revolution in Asia. Section 2 examines the social,economic and environmental legacy o that process ochange in Asia and the lessons or policy-makers globally.Section 3 outlines an alternative model low-external input,armer-led sustainable agriculture. Section 4 examines

the evidence regarding the benets o this model. Wedraw on both academic literature and data available romChristian Aid and other non-governmental organisations(NGO) projects and surveys to make our case. Section 5assesses what is needed to scale up these approaches.The nal section presents our conclusions and a short set orecommendations or policy-makers.

This report ocuses on smallholder arming in Asia andArica. There are also many examples o sustainableagriculture to be ound in Latin America and although theseall beyond what it has been possible to cover in this report,some o the global studies examined in Section 4 do includedata rom projects in that region.


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10 Healthy Harvests Introduction and context

Endnotes

1 Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) o the UN, State o Food Insecurity in

the World, 2010.

2 World Bank, World Development Report 2008: Agriculture or Development,

Washington: World Bank, 2007.

3 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007, Synthesis Report:

Summary or Policymakers, Table SPM.2, 2007.

4 Gunther Fischer, Mahendra Shah, Harrij van Velthuizen and Freddy

Nachtergaele. Global Agroecological Assessment or Agriculture in the 21st

Century, FAO and IIASA, 2001.

5 IPCC, Fourth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007: Working Group II:

Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, 10.4.1.1, 2007.

6 International Assessment o Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology

or Development (IAASTD), Agriculture at a Crossroads: Synthesis Report, 2008,

p59.

7 Some estimates suggest that only 12 per cent o new land is available to

expand into see International Fund or Agriculture Development (IFAD) Rural

Poverty Report, 2011, p148; or Economist, A special report on eeding the

world, 24 February 2011.

8 Alberto Zezza et al, The Impact o Rising Food Prices on the Poor, ESA

Working Paper 08-07, FAO, August 2008; Rising ood prices: the oppositions

opening statement, Economist, 29 July 2008; Daniel Gustason, Biouels and

Food Security, FAO, 2008.

9 FAO, The State o Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009, p35. The percentage

relates to the price rise in US dollars or triple superphosphate and muriate o

potash.

10 FAO, The State o Agricultural Commodity Markets 2009, p31-7.

11 Miguel A Altieri, Small Farms as a Planetary Ecological Asset: Five Key

Reasons Why we Should Support the Revitalisation o Small Farms in the

Global South, Penang: Third World Network, 2009, agroeco.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/smallarmes-ecolasset.pd

12 Average spending on agriculture or 31 Arican countries in 2003 stood at

only 5.6 per cent o total budgets. Even in Asia where the Green Revolution

was underpinned by strong state investment average spending ell rom 8.5

per cent o total budgets in 1990 to around 4 per cent in 2008.

13 IAASTD, Agriculture at a Crossroads: Synthesis Report, 2008, p59.

14 Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to ood, Agroecology

and the Right to Food, 2011, p1.


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11Reprt ttle Section 1. A Green Revolution or Arica?

SEcTion 1.A gREEn REVoLuTion

oR ARicA?

For a number o years now several key actors notably theWorld Bank, Department or International Development(DFID), USAID, the Rockeeller and Gates Foundations and

Arican governments themselves have promoted the ideathat Arica needs a Green Revolution (see box What wasthe Green Revolution?below). In sub-Saharan Arica theaverage yield or cereals has been stagnant since the 1960s,at around 1 tonne per hectare.1 Average annual growthin per capita ood production was -0.01 per cent in Aricacompared to 2.3 per cent in Asia between 1980 and 2000.2Looking to the benets o the Asian Green Revolution which in its early years increased ood productionand reduced hunger proponents o the Arican GreenRevolution seek to replicate these successes while, theyclaim, appreciating the need to avoid any negative impacts.This would be a uniquely Arican approach.

There are a number o supporters o this approach. Onemajor initiative is the Alliance or a Green Revolution in Arica(AGRA), which was ounded in 2006 by the Rockeeller andBill and Melinda Gates Foundations, with DFID joining as aunding partner in 2008 and with urther support rom theArican Development Bank and, recently, Sweden.3 AGRAworks in 12 Arican countries, mainly supporting researchinstitutes, private sector entities and armers groups. Itunds projects promoting improved seeds, soil health,market access, nance and policy work.4 AGRA identiesdeclining soil ertility as a key challenge aced by small-scalearmers. It also aims to improve productivity by improvingarmers access to mainly hybrid seeds that can be higheryielding and inputs such as chemical ertilisers. AGRAs key

activities in this regard include unding the training o Aricanagricultural scientists to develop hybrid seeds and improvedcrop varieties and networks o rural agro-dealers to expandsmall armers access to inputs.5

Christian Aid is concerned that the agro-dealer networks

unded by AGRA (in eight countries) are selling ever morequantities o chemicals to armers, and increasing theirreliance on such inputs. Sustainable agriculture alternatives

are being marginalised as a consequence. Added to this,these agro-dealer networks are becoming an increasinglyimportant source o extension advice to armers.

In Malawi, or example where AGRA provided a US$4.3mgrant or an Agro-dealer Strengthening Program between2007 and 2010 Christian Aid research ound that theproject literature reerred to the task o creating demand orinputs such as hybrid seed, ertiliser and pesticides amongarmers.6 Agro-dealers act as vessels or promoting inputsuppliers products, one internal evaluation notes.7 Theprincipal beneciaries o these eorts are the key supplierso the inputs, mainly Monsanto.8 These agro-dealers areselling only those hybrids supplied by the seed companies

and in the majority o cases these require more ertiliserand pesticides than other seeds.9 At the same time, trainingo agro-dealers on product knowledge a key part o theAGRA programme has partly been undertaken by thesame transnational company (TNC) suppliers. Christian Aidis concerned about the independence o the training givenby TNCs, who will be interested in promoting their ownproducts.

Christian Aid is concerned that there is no space in thisagro-dealer programme to promote sustainable agriculture;the agro-dealers are not trained in this and are primarilytasked with selling chemicals. Yet these same agro-dealers are becoming an increasingly important source

o extension advice or armers, in eect displacing thegovernment service. A World Bank report on the AGRA-unded agrodealer networks in Kenya, Uganda and Malawinotes that the agro-dealers have become the mostimportant extension nodes or the rural poor. It also statesthat a new orm o private sector-driven extension system

The gree Revlt reerst the press tesat evelpwrl arltre that ea the -1960s aelvere sharp rses tres ereal yels thetw-a-a-hal eaes thatllwe. The pstvepat the revlt was

elt st Asa a LatAera; ts eets Arawere h re lte.

oe the key trers rths hae was theevelpet the early1960s ew shrt-straw,ast-rw, ertlser-respsve er varetes

wheat, aze a re see Seeds and

sustainability, page 26.These varetes weretre evelptres a, t ptseyels, they were rw asltres wth healertlsers, pestes arrat. The ew syste

vlve the plat twr eve three rps wheata re the sae year. iAsa, verets alsveste heavly thesetr, rratprjets, sss thept pakae, relattpt pres a pay rew arltral researh.

What was the gree Revlt?


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12 Healthy Harvests Section 1. A Green Revolution or Arica?

is emerging in these countries as the major agricultural inputsupply companies are increasingly conducting commercialdemonstrations o new technologies in rural areas with rural

stockists.

10

(See box Renewing Aricas extension services,below.)

In Malawi, AGRA does und the training o studentsand research on soil health and intends to scale up thedissemination o soil ertility technologies. It has alsoprovided a grant or seed multiplication, which plays animportant role in enabling small armers to access openpollinated variety (OPV) seeds. These initiatives arepositive. However, such projects appear to be small in scalecompared to the agro-dealer network discussed above.O the 12 projects supported by AGRA in the country which, in addition to soil health and seed multiplication,have also included grants or market access projects and

or research into hybrid seeds by ar the biggest has beenthe agro-dealer network, which ended in 2010. Accordingto our research the latter was unded to the tune o US$4.3million, while grants to all the other projects combinedadded up to little more than hal o this.

Another case researched by Christian Aid is that o AGRAsrole in promoting pesticide usage in Ghana. In Ghana AGRAis unding a US$2.5m project to train over 2,000 agro-dealers in business skills and sae handling o inputs tomake agro-inputs more available and aordable in remoterural areas.11 However, our research nds that althoughthe training in sae handling o pesticides is welcome,there does not appear to be any training in alternative

approaches, such as integrated pest management (IPM),which helps to minimise pesticide use, or organic pestcontrol methods. According to the AGRA website, the

agro-dealer shop owners will be trained in providing elddemonstrations and soil testing thereby transorming theminto providers o basic extension services and creating aninvaluable source o knowledge and advice to armers.12This is worrying in light o the limited access o Ghanaianarmers to government extension services. A recent studynotes that only 12 per cent o men-headed householdsand a minuscule 2 per cent o women-headed householdshave access to extension services.13 AGRAs promotion opesticides should be viewed in the context o only limitedregulation o pesticide use in Ghana. Farmer deaths linked toinadequate pesticide storage have recently been reported,while there are numerous academic studies nding thepresence o dangerous levels o pesticide residues in sh,

water, ruit, vegetables and meat, as well as in peoplesbodies and breast milk.14

It is not just AGRA and other donors but also Aricangovernments and continental initiatives such as theComprehensive Arica Agriculture Development Programme(CAADP), that have been advocating or an Arican GreenRevolution. In June 2006, at the Arican Fertilizer SummitArican ministers issued the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizeror an Arican Green Revolution. This stated that Aricawas trapped in a ertilizer crisis due to its under-use, andresolved that Arican states would accelerate the timelyaccess o armers to ertilizers by increasing their use rom

i the past tw eaes st Ara tres,pl vestet etes serves hasllapse er pressrer rs seek reestate vlveet arltre. At the saete, ay states haveerae a h reater

rle r the prvate setr angos elveretes serves. i Keya,r eaple, ar e-th the 10,000 r s etesserve prvers are wprvate paes, a

ar 16 per et arengos; the veretserve ats r ar40 per et.15 These servesare sppse t e ea-rve where arersartlate ther ees rtra a ave apayet (st revery) ssally reqre r thse

serves prve y theprvate setr.

chrsta A eleves thatthere are vars ways thatetes serves a eprve eetvely a thatthe prvate setr a have

a prtat rle t play.16i the past, ay state-rserves were t tp-wa t setly aaptet arers ees. Hwever,there s stll a ajr ee rthe veret t vestaeqately h retha presetly, sttres esr a

eet veretetes serve, a theres als a ee r reeserves t e prve tpr sall arers. Thereqreet r searers t pay r serves

a ele ay raess t the altether,wth we epartlarly aralser these serves.17 it stals e rese thatay the prest arersare t ale t easerves aeqately sethey are t rase

arer rps; aa,veret spprt s tereqre t altate theestalshet theserps t ake the systewrk.

Reew Aras etes serves


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13Healthy Harvests Section 1. A Green Revolution or Arica?

the average o 8kg per hectare to at least 50kg per hectareby 2015. Targeted input subsidies programmes were to bepromoted and agro-dealer networks in rural areas scaled

up.

18

The summit had been unded by a number o keydonors, including the Rockeeller Foundation and DFID.A ew months later AGRA was born.

Many Arican governments have in recent years re-introduced ertiliser subsidy programmes (ater seeingthem removed at donor insistence in the 1990s). Countries

including Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Malawinow have substantial government programmes seekingto expand the use o ertiliser by armers in order to boost

malaw wth a pplat 13 ll, 40 per et wh lve pverty hasae rht a aever ay years, taly

2004 whe t rte thewrst rss a eaea the Wrl Prrae reqeste a r a thr thepplat. i 2005, hwever,the veret tre aew pt ssy sheetee t rease theprt the trys staple, aze, aassve sale. The sheeprve 1.5 ll arerswth tw vhers tprhase tw 50k as

ertlser a a sall a hyr see at a rat the arket pre.ipleete every yearse, the ssyprrae has satlyrease aze prt.malaw has resteresrpls aze prtse 2006, pr ver14 ll tes azer the rst ve years the ssy shee,pare t jst ver 8ll the ve years

ere ts trt.19 Theer peple reqr a has alle rseveral ll t a ewhre thsa.20

malaws rease

prt has ee welytrpete. bt espte thssess, there s reas t eats at the etet twhh malaws stratey s a

el r ther tres tllw.

rst, the ssyprrae ats r aassve 60 per et themstry Arltreset, whh eas thatmalaw s spe verylttle ther spprtserves t arers sh asetes serves (jst 7 peret ts et) aarltral researh (2 peret), whle the prvs

ret t arers s vrtally-estet.21 Yet theseserves are rtal eal arers t prvether prtvty ver thel ter. istea, theaer s that they aree epeet ssse ertlser asees whe there are aratees that thsprrae wll rea plae ver the l ter ate t reaarale a st-eetve.

Se, pats p theevret a p theqalty sls that ee te preserve r treprt are t ater whe easr thesess the shee. r

eaple, setattet has ee pa tpats p rk waterqalty a the prtvty Lake malaws shery

resres as a reslt ertlser r ; r t theaa eets theertlsers sl strtre,whh s lea t lak water a tret retet.A relate aer s thatmalaws arers are eerae y theprrae t stay azear rppstea versy tew rps that ht ere trts r alesa er etter arket

pprttes the tre.

Thr, there s a aer thatthe stratey prrtsertlser s ermalaws apt resstaale arltreapprahes. The veretreses the prtae sstaale arltre as prt ths t seetet.22 r eaple,arrestry systes aree prte, stre- trees, t

esre sstae rwth aze prt preparat r the e-ter stat whe ertlsersses ay have t esale ak r wthraw.by -2009, ver 120,000

malawa arers hareeve tra a treeaterals r theprrae.23 Theveret (wth

r rs) s alsspprt servatarltre. Althh theseprraes are prtat,the epetre levelle atthe s ar less tha thatve t ertlsers, a thss refete the er arers prats eretapprahes. r eaple, a2009 reprt r the Ao testhat malaw has jst 47,000hetares er se r servat arvlv 5,000 rps

arers t wth ly 1,000hetares that a trly esa t e pratsservat ar.24

The pt ssy sheerases the qest whether t s a etter se resres ver the l tertha a eqally pltaltet t evelpsstaale arltre.

These sses are plea there are ay eretvews the sjet, tthey rase qests, at least,at the apprprateess ertlser ssyprraes the tet era sstaalearltre.

malaws ertlser ssy prrae


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ood production, especially o staples. Malawis Farm InputsSubsidy programme has received the most attention, sinceit has substantially boosted maize production ater years o

decits and ood aid. Christian Aid, along with other NGOs,has applauded the success o Malawis scheme, though wealso believe it contains several faws (see Malawis ertilisersubsidy programmeon previous page).

Christian Aid believes that governments o developingcountries must have the right (and policy space) to promoteinput subsidies. Such programmes can be especiallyimportant or the poorest armers in more remote areaswhere there are ew market suppliers o key inputs, orwhere those that are available are unaordable.

However, governments also need to weigh up careullywhat is in the best long-term interests o armers, as wellas considering the impact on the environment. Fertiliser

subsidy programmes can certainly provide a quick x oincreased arm production. But their nancial costs andenvironmental impacts can be large and, as noted in thebox on Malawi (page 13), they can reinorce a dependenceby armers on such inputs and do little to improve theirprospects over the long term.

Even worse is where subsidies undermine armingstrategies that are better adapted to an areas climate. Forexample, in southern and eastern Arica, subsidies or maizeinputs (hybrid seeds and ertilisers) have to a certain extentmarginalised indigenous crops that are better adapted tothe regions climate. This in turn has led to a reduction incrop diversity on arms and increased the vulnerability o

resource-poor small armers to erratic rainall and croppests and diseases (see box Aricas frst experiments witha Green Revolution, page 15). As in Malawi, one danger isthat such subsidies i ocused narrowly on one staple crop discourage armers rom diversiying.

The problem currently is that there is a big imbalance anoverwhelming ocus by governments on high external inputagriculture (hybrids seeds together with chemical ertilisersand pesticides) as the solution to low ood production, andtoo little investment in sustainable agriculture alternatives.

It is hard to pin down precise gures on how muchgovernments are investing in agro-chemical-based arming

as compared to sustainable agriculture, but the evidenceindicates that the ormer considerably outweighs the

latter. The Ugandan Government, or example, recognisesthe importance o sustainable land management but itsDevelopment Strategy and Investment Plan or Agriculture

(DSIP) the roadmap or agricultural strategy proposesallocating only 3.8 per cent o the ideal DSIP budget tothis area, while only 0.8 per cent o the Medium TermExpenditure Framework budget is allocated to the same.25Moreover, while many developing countries are devotingsizeable proportions o their agriculture budgets to ertiliser-subsidy programmes, very ew have comprehensivesustainable agriculture strategies in place. Similarly, mostdeveloping countries spend very little agricultural researchmoney on organic arming, with most unds supportingconventional arming.26

To take another country example, in Ghana, where thegovernment introduced a ertiliser-subsidy programme in

2008, the 350-page agriculture strategy the Medium TermAgriculture Sector Investment Plan makes only one briemention o the promotion o organic arming ( encourageorganic production o yams or export market).27 Ghanasprevious agriculture strategy the Food and AgricultureDevelopment Policy(FASDEP II), drawn up in 2007 makesno mention at all o organic arming. Small units exist inthe Ministry o Food and Agriculture and EnvironmentalProtection Agency, and there are some donor-undedprojects training some armers on the use o integrated pestmanagement (IPM) and alternatives to pesticides, includingorganic approaches. But these activities appear to be lowlevel and underunded, reaching ew armers.28 A study orIFPRI ound that only 5 to 10 per cent o Ghanaian armers

use organic ertilisers.29

The Arican Green Revolution approach is at risk oundermining the more successul examples across Aricao sustainable soil management and yield increases that donot involve a ocus on chemical inputs and hybrid seeds examples that are documented in Section 4 o this report.With more government and donor support, these could besignicantly scaled up.

Beore moving on to outline the benets o alternative,sustainable approaches, as we do in Section 4, Section 2provides a reminder o the problems that arose in parts oAsia that ollowed the Green Revolution route, as well as

drawing out some lessons or Arica and Asia today.


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15Healthy Harvests Section 1. A Green Revolution or Arica?

Whle less well etetha the Asa greeRevlt, t s prtat takwlee that Ara hasals ha ts w epereeswth gree Revltapprahes, whh larelyale.

As part the sae etwrk researh stttes thatprte the greeRevlt Asa aelsewhere (kw as thecsltatve grp iteratal ArltralResearh r cgiAR),researh stttes sh asthe iteratal isttte rTrpal Arltre(estalshe nera 1967) were set p t evelper see varetes rse Aras rpsa prte the se ertlsers a pestes aspart the pt pakae.bt t te the tptsr these stttes ttake t at the

realtes verse Araar systes alates, a ths thetehles ale t takehl arss the tet tthe sae etet aselsewhere. A where thetehles et

apte, prles appearelater .

r eaple, Zimbabwethe gree Revlttehles, prpallyertlsers a hyr sees,were apte y eralarers as early as the 1940sa y sallhler arers the 1960s. Sallhlerarers reasly apteew, prarly hyr azevaretes te ltres, whh raplyreplae e systeswhere aze wasterrppe wth tratalsall ras sh assrh a llet. Thelatter rps were aprtat part arers-serty stratees, asthey are re trts thaaze a have reaterresstae t rht. As aleay, aze tes tate eve areasprevsly sere try r aze ltvat. The

rease (stly hyr)aze ltvat was areslt veretprt the ew sees,al wth ertlsers reeprt paks, as well asthe se aze ashees.

Hwever, the prvs ree r ssse ertlser rret y the veretwas t sstae asseqetly sallhlerarers l t ar ty the ertlser. They eep plat the hyr azewtht sat se ertlser, leav thewtht the prse yelprveets t wth thelss tratal ras aar versty that haee rtal t serty.

Araly, ths sht rpp patters has aesallhlers resseptle t rht 30 asaze s als hhlyvlerale t stre stressa teperatre haesa therere severelyaete y late hae.

i ases where ertlserswere wely se, sl teeae erae. iZambia, r eaple, a 1999sty y the isttte

E a SalResearh at the uversty Zaa ete thepats azerpp r the1960s t the 1990s. itshwe hw the heavyapplat heal

ertlser preaat a a ret sl ra atter,31pats that were alswesprea Asa. Aslar leay s aer ther stherAra tres, wherelarely hyr aze wasspprte thrhveret ssyprraes the pst-epeee per.

i ther ases, ew greeRevlt varetesevelpe y researhstttes a prte yverets were splyt take p ease thepress t vlvearers, t take tat ther s-erstaes a were taapte t lal ts.oe eaple s Uganda,whh reeve 200 les sweet ptat the 1990s.These ha ee evalate eret ar-eles a

t was that early 100per et the varetes weret aapte t the lalrw ts rstale r estspt.32

Aras rst eperets wth a gree Revlt


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Endnotes

1 World Bank, World Development Report 2008, gure 2.1, p51.

2 Forum or Agricultural Research in Arica (FARA), Framework or Arican

Agricultural Productivity, June 2006, Table 2, p11.

3 AGRA (Alliance or a Green Revolution in Agriculture) lists its partnerships

at: agra-alliance.org/section/links See also, CAADP, Sweden invests in

strengthening role o Arican women armers in ood production to achieve ood

security, 5 January 2011, caadp.net/news/?p=942

4 AGRA website, agrasyntaxdev.orumone.com/section/work

5 agra-alliance.org/

6 University o Malawi, Centre or Agricultural Research and Development

(CARD), Malawi Agro-Dealer Strengthening Program, Interim Evaluation Phase 1

Report, December 2009, pviii.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid, p19.

9 CARD, Malawi Agro-dealer Strengthening Program: Interim Report 7,

November 2010, p13. More pesticides are oten needed since hybrid maize in

Malawi produces soter grains that more easily become inested with pests

whereas conventional seed grains are harder and store better.

10 World Bank, Developing rural agricultural input supply systems or armers

in Arica, in Fertilizer Toolkit: Promoting Efcient and Sustainable Fertiliser Use in

Arica, worldbank.org/ar/ertilizer_tk/

11 AGRA, AGRA partners with IFDC to launch agro-dealer program in Ghana,

25 November 2008, www.agra-alliance.org

12 AGRA, AGRA partners with IFDC to launch agro-dealer program in Ghana,

25 November 2008, www.agra-alliance.org

13 Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Engendering agricultural research, Paper presented at

Global Conerence on Agriculture and Rural Development, March 2010, p23,

gcardblog.les.wordpress.com/2010/03/engendering-agricultural-research.pd

14 Presbyterian Agricultural Services and Christian Aid, Ghanas Pesticide Crisis:

When will the Government Really Act?, drat December 2010 (orthcoming

report); Pesticides Action Network, Communities in Peril: Global Report

on Health Impacts o Pesticide use in Agriculture, 2010; D Essumang et al,

Pesticide residues in the water and sh samples rom lagoons in Ghana,

Bulletin o the Chemical Society o Ethiopia, 2009, ajol.ino; Godred Darko,

Dietary intake o organophosphorus pesticide residues through vegetables

rom Kumasi, Ghana, February 2009, p.8, tpsalliance.org; Godred Darko et al,

Persistent organochlorine pesticide residues in sh, sediments and water rom

Lake Bosomtwi, Ghana, KNUST, 2008, www.sciencedirect.com

15 Republic o Kenya, Ministry o Planning, National Development and Vision

2030, Public Expenditure Review: Policy or Prosperity 2010, p143.

16 See IFAD, FAO and World Bank, Gender in Agriculturesourcebook, 2009,

p268, or seven types o extension service in use today.

17 The World Bank-sponsored Gender in Agriculturesourcebook states

that: It is hard to see how the rural poor, including women, could pay or

extension services, no matter how cost eective they are (p269) and: It will be

impossible or less-advantaged groups such as women armers and indigenous

people to pay or extension services, which makes it imperative to rethink the

trend toward privatizing or outsourcing extension, or both, which until recently

has been considered a public good. IFAD, FAO and World Bank, Gender in

Agriculturesourcebook, 2009, p258.

18 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer or an Arican Green Revolution , nepad.org/

system/les/Abuja%20Declaration%20on%20Fertilizers%20or%20an%20

Arican%20Green%20Revolution.pd; Elenita Dano, Unmasking the New Green

Revolution in Arica: Motives, Players and Dynamics, Third World Network, 2007.

19 Glenn Denning et al, Input subsidies to improve smallholder maize

productivity in Malawi: toward an Arican Green Revolution, PLoS Biology 7(1):

e10000023, January 2009; Blessings Chinsinga, Reclaiming Policy Space:

Lessons rom Malawis 2005/2006 Fertiliser Subsidy Programme, Future

Agricultures, July 2007, p4; World Bank, Program Document or a Second

Poverty Reduction Support Grant, 24 April 2009, p27.

20 USAID, Malawi ood security update, June 2010, ews.net/malawi

21 International Food Security Network, Success in Reducing Hunger: Lessons

rom India, Malawi and Brazil, 2011, pp21-2.

22 For example, Malawis Permanent Secretary or Agriculture, Andrew

Daudi, has written: As the rural areas are ull o materials that can be turned

into manure (compost), armers are encouraged to make compost and plantagro-orestry trees which retains ertility o the soil over a long period o time,

hence reducing the need or high-cost inorganic ertilisers. Cited in GRAIN,

Unravelling the miracle o Malawis Green Revolution, January 2010, pd can

be downloaded at grain.org

23 Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to ood, Agroecology

and the Right to Food, 2011, p9.

24 FAO, Scaling Up Conservation Agriculture in Arica: Strategy and Approaches,

July 2009, p14, ao.org/ag/ca/doc/conservation.pd

25 MAAIF, Ugandan Ministry o Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries,

Development Strategy and Investment Plan 2010/11-2014/15, March 2010, cited

in ActionAid, Uganda Six Areas or Improvement in Agricultural Financing, May

2010, p39.

26 FAO, International Conerence on Organic Agriculture and Food Security, May

2007, p20.

27 Government o Ghana, Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan,

2011-2015, Volume 3 Commodity Programmes, August 2009, p55.

28 Vegetable armers schooled in organic arming practices, Ghana News

Agency, 5 September 2009, allarica.com/stories/200909030748.html

29 Shashidhara Kolavilli et al, Institutional and public expenditure review o

Ghanas Ministry o Food and Agriculture, IFPRI Discussion Paper, August 2010,

p7.

30 Henry Elwell, The Eects o High-External-Input Agriculture on Crop

Production in Zimbabwes Smallholder Sector, 1999.

31 S Haggblade, G Tembo, Early Evidence on Conservation Farming in Zambia,

Cornell University, 2003; Institute o Economic and Social Research, University

o Zambia, Zambia Agricultural Sector Perormance Analysis, 1997-99, Lusaka:

MAFF, 1999.

32 Robert OM Mwanga and Gorrettie Ssemakula, Orange feshed sweet

potatoes or ood, health and wealth in Uganda, International Journal o

Agricultural Sustainability, pp42-9 (8), Earthscan, 2011.


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17Healthy Harvests Section 2. Lessons o the Asian Green Revolution

SEcTion 2.LESSonS o THE

ASiAn gREEnREVoLuTion

What conclusions can be drawn about the eects o theGreen Revolution in Asia? And what lessons can be drawnor todays policy-makers in Arica and elsewhere? These

questions are the ocus o this section. On the plus side,the Green Revolution in Asia led to a doubling o cerealoutput in the space o two-and-a-hal decades (between1965 and 1990). This meant that countries were able toeed most o their citizens at a time when populations weregrowing. Per capita ood intake rose during this period: rom2,045 calories per person per day in 1970, to 2,537 in 1995.1This was clearly a major achievement. There were alsoincome gains or many arming households, who benettedrom increased yields, subsidised inputs and also stateregulation o agricultural trade and markets. In many regions,the increased productivity o the arming sector had majorbenets or overall levels o development and the widereconomy.

But, as we document below, the limits o this expansionphase in Asian agriculture appear to have been reached.One o the reasons, we argue, is that too little attentionwas paid to the ecological and social consequences o thisprocess o change. Here we set out seven major legacies othe Green Revolution model in Asia.

i) Monocropping, combined with aheavy reliance on chemical inputsand irrigation, has caused widespreadsoil degradation and increased pestproblems. This is now aecting yields

The growth in cereal yields has been slowing down in Asiasince the early 1990s. And in some intensively armedGreen Revolution areas, such as Punjab state in India, yieldshave even started declining.

Rice is the single most important cereal crop in Asia.The table below shows the change in the average annualgrowth rate or rice yields in the 1990 to 2004 periodcompared to 1970 to 1990. The growth rate ell in all threeo the sub-regions.

Table 1: Rice yield growth in three sub-regionso Asia, 1970 to 2004 (average annual yield

shown as a per cent)2

East Asia Southeast Asia South Asia

1970-1990 2.5 2.5 2.2

1990-2004 0.5 1.5 1.3

What explains this slowdown and in some casesstagnation? There are a number o causes, including lowerpublic investment in agriculture in recent years and the act

that yield increases rom a higher starting point (the casein Green Revolution agricultural areas) are oten harderto achieve. But a major cause one largely ignored bygovernments is the cumulative impact o Green Revolutionarming practices. Intensive and continuous monocroppingo rice and wheat relies on irrigation and chemical inputsor adding nutrients to the soil. Over time this system hascaused widespread and severe soil degradation.3 This canhappen in many dierent ways, or example: 4

Repeated planting o the same crop with no allow periodor crop rotation reduces soil ertility and increases thecrops vulnerability to pests and disease.

Using nitrogen ertilisers over a long period reduces soil

organic matter, which in turn impairs the soils naturalcapacity to store and supply its own nitrogen.5

Macro-nutrient imbalances occur when nitrogen isapplied in greater quantities than phosphorus andpotassium (the other two macro-nutrients supplied inertilisers).

The practice o fooding rice elds or long periods aectslong-term soil health and causes iron toxicity and a loss omicro-nutrients.

Sub-standard drainage systems on irrigated land havecaused widespread salination and waterlogging.

How extensive are these problems? According to the UnitedNations Environment Programme, 140 million hectares or 43per cent o armland in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lankaand Bhutan is aected by soil degradation.6 In its latestve-year plan, the Indian Government admitted that two-thirds o our armlands are in some way either degradedor sick. Not all o this degradation is the result o arablearming: other causes include deorestation, overgrazing andthe over-cutting o vegetation. However, intensive, armingpractices are the dominant cause o several types o landdegradation in south Asia, including soil ertility decline,waterlogging and the lowering o the water table; and theyare also a actor in salination.7

The steady erosion o soil health is having a dramaticeconomic impact because it has put some land completelyout o use, reduces yields and pushes up the cost o oodproduction. Farmers are having to constantly increase theamount o ertiliser used in order to maintain yields onincreasingly degraded soils: hence the year-on-year rises inertiliser consumption seen across Asia.


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18

Some examples o how soil degradation is aectingproductivity and input costs are summarised here:

Rice and wheat, India

There was a decline in the ratio o grain produced to ertiliserused rom 60:1 in 1966 to less than 10:1 in 1992. For wheatthe ratio similarly ell across the same period: rom 15:1to 5:1.8

Cereals, China

A 13 million tonne increase in chemical ertilisers broughta production gain o 160 million tonnes o grain cropsbetween 1965 and 1982 (the initial phase o the GreenRevolution); but rom 1991 to 2008 a 24 million tonne risein ertilisers was needed or a lower production gain o 94million tonnes. (NB: the gures or ertilisers relate to allcrops, not just grain crops: no breakdowns were availableor separate crops.) In this last period pesticide use in China

also rose rom 0.76 million tonnes to 1.67 million tonnes. 9

Punjab, India

Punjab is the leading breadbasket and rice bowl o India:in the early 2000s it was contributing one-third o rice andover hal o the wheat procured by the Food Corporation oIndia. But in recent years, wheat yields have been alling:rom 4.7 tonnes per hectare in 1999 to 2000 to 4.2 tonnesper hectare in 2005 to 2006. And rice yields have grownonly very slowly.10 A recent report on the problem statedthat this trend can be directly linked to the ecologicalconsequences o intensive monoculture systems.11 Thestate government has now responded with a programme tosupport greater crop diversication.

South Asia

In the 1990s a trio o UN agencies assessed the economiccosts o land degradation or eight south Asian countries.The study calculated economic costs by combining yieldloss with the extra input costs that armers aced whenthey sought to maintain yields on degraded soils. This studyshowed that the annual cost to south Asias armers o threetypes o degradation directly linked to Green Revolutionpractices (waterlogging, soil ertility decline and salination)was nearly US$3bn.12

Intensive, agro-chemical-based monocropping alsoincreases the risk o crops being damaged by pests and

disease: natural enemies o pests are reduced in theeld owing to indiscriminate pesticide spraying. Cropsgrowing on degraded soils are more vulnerable to pestsand diseases, and monocropping places a higher share othe armers overall output at risk o attack. (The improvedresilience o sustainable, diversied arming systems isdiscussed urther in Section 4.)

ii) Farmers dependence on purchased,external inputs is a risky strategy in anera o market liberalisation

The Green Revolution pushed up production costs or small-scale armers by increasing their reliance on purchasedinputs (ertiliser, seeds, pesticides and irrigation). While thisapproach gave a good economic return and as long as inputswere subsidised, these costs were not such a problem. Butin the past two decades smallholders prot margins havebeen increasingly squeezed. Public investment in agriculturebegan to all rom the early 1990s, which meant, amongother things, a slowing down in the development o newirrigation projects. Market liberalisation has led to a reducedrole or marketing boards, a decline in levels o stateprocurement o crops, the deregulation o agricultural trade(both internal and external) and reduced coverage by ormal

credit institutions.13 There has also been a long-term declinein the armgate price o cereals a trend only partiallyreversed by the recent ood crisis. But, most relevant or ourdebate on Green Revolution technologies, input costs havealso risen. This is due to:

the loss o soil ertility, which means that more ertilisersare required than beore to achieve adequate yields

rising world ertiliser prices though this has been osetto some extent by ongoing state subsidies or ertilisers

declining levels o access to ormal credit.

So what is clear is that the economic viability o the input-

dependent model has to a large extent been underminedby changes occurring in the external market environmentsince the 1990s. The changes have driven armersincreasingly into debt, since they resort to borrowing rommoney-lenders or oering up a share o the harvest inorder to purchase inputs, without the guarantee o a goodincome rom their crops. The scale o armer debt in Asia isillustrated by the recent announcements by the Indian andThai Governments o arm debt cancellation packages worth8.39bn and 860m respectively.14 Forty-nine per cent oIndian armers are indebted according to a report by thecountrys Ministry o Agriculture.15

As debt levels spiral, many armers are being orced to sell

their land. Others have taken the tragic step o committingsuicide: In India, the number o suicides by armers hasrisen in recent years: 183,000 suicides were recordedbetween 1997 and 2007 (equivalent to 17,500 per year).16An estimated two-thirds o the suicides are concentrated injust ve states.17

Healthy Harvests Section 2. Lessons o the Asian Green Revolution


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A 2004 study o armer suicides conducted in AndhraPradesh concluded that there was a strong link betweenarmers adopting the monocropping o cash crops, such as

groundnut and cotton crops that are usually grown withagro-chemicals and the higher rate o suicides. Thesearmers had become more exposed to major income lossand debt in times o drought.18

iii) The Green Revolution increasedarmers dependence on externaltechnologies and led to a decline intraditional arming knowledge

The changes reduced the scope or armers to innovate ata local level and use or adopt arming practices that are mostsuited to their own circumstances both environmentaland socio-economic. It was a one-size-ts-all and top-downapproach to arming and ood production using broadly thesame package o inputs or all cases. Extension servicesand public sector research eorts became exclusivelyocused on promoting this single model.19 For example, upuntil 1981 the Philippine Government only gave loans toarmers who agreed to plant government-backed modernvarieties. This had the eect o sidelining traditional armingpractices, such as armers saving and re-using seeds.

iv) Hunger stills persists on a largescale in Asia

Despite the productivity gains o the Green Revolution,

there are still 578 million hungry people in Asia. Thesenumbers have actually been rising again since the mid-1990s. And in south Asia, where the hunger problem isworst, more than one in ve people are malnourished.20A recent report by the World Food Programme ound thathunger levels in rural India had remained static between1993 to 1994 and 2004 to 2005, despite the strongeconomic growth in the country during this time.21In rural areas, halo all children below the age o three areunderweight.22 One explanation o this is that the GreenRevolution was mainly concerned with technologicalchange and did not directly address questions o inequitableland ownership and the limited purchasing power o thepoor. These important drivers o hunger need to be dealtwith via broader strategies than simply new agriculturaltechnologies.

Monocropping has also played a role in reducing householdood security: or example, the money small armers getrom selling one or two crops o rice, wheat or cotton israrely enough to pay or ood or the amily throughout the

year. And by ocusing on one crop, armers are limiting thevariety o ood available or direct consumption.

Micro-nutrient deciencies in peoples diets are also a

growing problem in Asia, particularly in levels o vitamin A,iron, iodine and zinc. Monocropping may have exacerbatedthis problem because it has concentrated productionon wheat and rice, which do not supply the ull range onutritional needs (see Section 4 or a discussion o howsustainable agriculture has the potential to address this).

v) It oten increased levels o incomeinequality both between producersand regions

The spread o the new technology occurred initially inagricultural zones o high-production potential areas close

to large urban centres, with existing irrigation systems andavourable soils and climates or growing cereals. Publicinvestment was concentrated in these areas. This targetedgrowth strategy was o course successul in many respects,as shown by the yield boom in these regions. But smallarmers operating on marginal, predominantly rain-ed landwere largely cut o rom the productivity leap. This problemwas only partially alleviated by a strategy in later decadeso expanding Green Revolution technologies to theseless avourable agricultural regions. Moreover, researcheorts tended to ocus on rice and wheat: there was lessinvestigation o how to improve the yield o other crops thatcan perorm better in these marginal environments orexample, millet in semi-arid and arid regions.

There is also a considerable body o evidence to suggestthat the changes increased levels o inequalities within ruralcommunities.23 The IAASTD sub-regional report or eastand south Asia and the Pacic, citing evidence rom India,states that: In many areas, the Green Revolution ailed toraise incomes o the rural poor appreciably or contributesubstantially to their eective purchasing power. Also,larger-scale armers had greater access to subsidies orirrigation and credit rom the government. 24

Lipton and Longhurst, in their seminal analysis o thesocial impacts o the Green Revolution, ound thatinitial employment gains linked to the adoption o the

new technologies ell o in later years as better-oarmers adopted labour-saving methods o weeding andthreshing.25 This lends weight to the view that the incomeand employment gains rom the Green Revolution or thepoorest segments o rural society or example or landlessagricultural workers were in act airly modest.


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20 Healthy Harvests Section 2. Lessons o the Asian Green Revolution

vi) Impacts o pesticides on peopleshealth, especially that o armworkers

Pesticides are a common eature o the Green Revolutionapproach but their use carries a high social andenvironmental cost. One aspect o this debate relates tothe traces o pesticides that are commonly ound in Asiasood and drinking water supply and the long-term healthimpacts o this.26 However, arguably the most direct eecto pesticides concerns the impact on armworkers. Indeveloping countries, armworker poisoning rom pesticidesis worse or a number o reasons. First, many o thepesticides used are already banned in developed countriesbecause o their high toxicity. Second, armworkersoten do not wear protective clothing when spraying; arecent study by Christian Aid partner PANAP conductedin 12 communities and spanning eight Asian countries

showed an inadequate or complete lack o personalprotective equipment among an alarmingly high numbero respondents.27 Third, armworkers commonly lack thenecessary training on the sae use, storage and disposal opesticides: this causes an untold number o accidents onarms. In addition, when armworkers are illiterate they willbe unable to read saety labels. And, nally, armworkerswho experience pesticide poisoning may not know that it isvital to seek immediate medical help, or they may live a longway rom a hospital.

The overall result is large numbers o poisonings oarmworkers every year: the eects range rom relativelymild and short-term symptoms, such as dizziness, itchy

eyes, coughing and rashes, to more serious problems,such as eye damage or blindness, and respiratory and skindiseases. In cases involving a major exposure, death canalso result. In the most reliable study on the issue, by theWorld Health Organisation, it was estimated that globally20,000 people die rom unintentional pesticide poisoningeach year and a minimum o 1 million people are poisonedeach year as a result o single, short-term exposures.28 Theexact number o poisonings occurring in Asia is not knownbut it is likely to be a high proportion o these global gures.

vii) Broader environmental impacts

Besides soil degradation, the Green Revolution in Asia

brought about a range o other environmental problemsor negative externalities whose impacts have been eltbeyond the arm. Some o the most important ones aredescribed briefy below.

Depletion o water resources

The extraction o groundwater and river water or irrigationis occurring in Asia at rates that are unsustainable. Over-

extraction is a major problem in south Asia, where irrigationaccounts or 80 per cent o total water consumption. Forexample, in some parts o northern India, where intensiverice and wheat monocropping is practised, the water tablehas allen by 20 metres or more in recent years. As a result,the cost o drilling down to reach the water is becomingprohibitively expensive, especially or poorer armers.29

Pollution caused by run-o o nitratesrom arms

Nitrogen ertilisers and intensive livestock arming area major source o nitrate pollution in water bodies. Oneexample is that o Laguna de Bay, a large lake near thePhilippine capital Manila. Intensive arming practices relyingon chemical ertilisers were introduced in the surroundingareas in the 1970s. A decade later excessive run o onitrates had caused severe eutrophication and algal bloomsin the lake. The marine lie o the lake was being steadilysuocated. The Philippine Government has taken steps inrecent years to tackle the pollution, which is also causedby efuent rom actories and the release o untreatedsewage rom adjacent residential areas, but the problemstill persists. The situation is a major concern or the lakesaquaculture industry, which supplies the nearby capital withsh. A recent survey conducted in China looked at the levelo nitrates in groundwater at 600 sites in 20 counties wherethe level o ertiliser use in agriculture was high. It ound that

at nearly hal o the sites nitrate levels were above 50mg/l,which is the maximum sae level in developed countries.High levels o nitrates and nitrites in drinking water cancause blue-baby syndrome.30

Pollution in a river that fows into Laguna de Bay, near Manila.


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Biodiversity loss 31

The trend towards more uniorm cropping systems that wascharacteristic o the Green Revolution has had major eects

on biodiversity. For example, monocropping has displacedmany traditional varieties, resulting in genetic erosion.According to the IAASTD report, 1,500 rice varieties werelost in Indonesia between 1975 and 1990. There has alsobeen a large decline in the number o traditional breedso cattle, pigs and poultry. These changes could have amajor eect on uture plant and animal breeding eorts, asbreeders rely on the existence o a high degree o geneticdiversity.

Climate change

Green Revolution arming practices in Asia have contributedin recent decades to rising greenhouse gas emissions romthis sector, although per capita emissions in developingcountries o Asia still remain well below those ound inthe North. In south and east Asia the largest sources oemissions are methane rom intensive rice productionand livestock-rearing, and nitrous oxide rom soils andertilisers.32 There are two types o emission resulting romnitrogen ertiliser: nitrous oxide (N

2O) emissions that occur

when ertilisers are applied to the soil and CO2

emissionsthat occur in the manuacturing process (because naturalgas or coal is burnt). According to a recent Greenpeacestudy, in China, 100 million tonnes o coal is being burntevery year to produce nitrogen ertilisers; and theseertilisers are responsible or 8 per cent o the countrysgreenhouse gas emissions.33

Lessons o the Asian Green Revolutionor policy-makers today

Dierent conditions exist today than in Asia during its GreenRevolution, meaning that it is doubtul whether the benetso the latter can be replicated (in Arica) or repeated (in Asia)using the same approaches.

First, in Asia various supportive government policies andinvestments enabled smallholders to adopt modern seedvarieties and ertilisers and to intensiy their arming. Asiancountries were spending an average o over 15 per cent otheir national budgets on agriculture by 1972, and the real

value o that expenditure doubled by 1985.34 Governmentsdeveloped inrastructure by making major investments inroads, power and irrigation, with the latter particularly criticalin yield increases. They also provided subsidised credit andinputs, along with considerable extension services, and

intervened in markets to stabilise prices or armers. Now,governments in Arica are spending an average o only 5 to 6per cent o their national budgets on agriculture; only seven

are spending more than 10 per cent.

35

Moreover, in the post-structural adjustment era, ew Arican or Asian governmentshave the policy space or the political commitment to supportagricultural production to the same extent (although severalcountries have now returned to promoting input subsidyschemes, or example). Thus most smallholders cannotdepend upon access to extension services, credit, marketsand stable prices in their arming since these are presentlywoeully unsupported and underunded by governments.

Another dierence with the Asian Green Revolutionis in the extent o corporate control over seeds andagrochemicals, including the greater enorcement ointellectual property rights over hybrid and GM seeds. The

original modern varieties were developed by government-unded international research institutes and were open-pollinated varieties. This gave armers the option to multiplyand urther develop these varieties themselves, as theyhad always done with traditional varieties. Commercialcompanies, however, have introduced hybrid varieties,which need to be bought each year to maintain the higheryields and are increasingly protected by plant breedersrights (PBR). Three decades ago there were thousands oseed companies and public breeding institutions, while now10 companies control over two-thirds o global proprietaryseed sales, which account or 82 per cent o the commercialseed market worldwide.36

A third major dierence is the heightened global awarenesso the impacts o chemical-based arming on the naturalresource base and its implications or climate change.The negative environmental eects o the Asian GreenRevolution, which we highlight above, cannot aord tobe repeated in Arica. Modern seed varieties (MVs) thatarmers are now being encouraged to use developed toresist droughts or pests oten require increased use ochemical ertiliser and pesticides to obtain maximum yields.Yet i the only choice on oer or armers is to buy MVseeds requiring more chemical inputs, this shits modeso arming even urther away rom promoting sustainablealternatives.

The ollowing section presents an alternative to the GreenRevolution model: sustainable agriculture that relies on low-cost and readily available technologies and practices.


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22

Endnotes1 Cereal production rose rom 313 million tonnes in 1965 to 615 million tonnes in

1990. The calorie intake gure relates only to developing countries o Asia. Source:

G Conway, The Doubly Green Revolution: Food or All in the Twenty-First Century,Cornstock Publishing, 1997.

2 Dynamic o Rice Economy in India: Emerging Scenario and Policy Options,

Occasional Paper 47, Department o Economic Analysis and Research, National Bank

or Agriculture and Rural Development, 2005.

3 PL Pingali et al, Asian Rice Bowls: The Returning Crisis, 1997, CAB International and

IRRI, pp79-87.

4 Most o these examples are drawn rom PL Pingali et al, Asian Rice Bowls: The

Returning Crisis, CAB International & IRRI, 1997.

5 RL Mulvaney, SA Khan, TR Ellsworth, Synthetic nitrogen ertilizers deplete soil

nitrogen: a global dilemma or sustainable cereal production, Journal o Environmental

Quality, 2009, 38(6), pp2295-314.

6 IAASTD, Sub-global report, Volume II: East and South Asia and the Pacifc, 2.4.3.1,

2008.

7 FAO, UNDP, UNEP, Land Degradation in South Asia: Its Severity, Causes and Eects

upon the People, 1994, ao.org/docrep/V4360E/V4360E00.HTM

8 M Santikarn Kaosa-ard and B Rerkasem, The Growth and Sustainability o Agriculture

in Asia, Asian Development Bank, 2000, p72.

9 National Bureau o Statistics: Rural Social and Economy Research Division, China

Statistics Press. China Compendium o Statistics, New China 60 Years Statistics

Compilation, Chemical ertiliser used (total or all crops, in million tonnes: 1965: 2;

1982: 15; 1991: 28; 2008: 52. Grain produced (all cereals, million tonnes): 1965: 195;

1982: 355; 1991: 435; 2008: 529. Data supplied by Third World Network.

10 These statistics are drawn rom VP Sharma, Indias Agrarian Crisis and Smallholder

Producers Participation in New Farm Supply Chain Initiatives: A Case Study o Contract

Farming, Indian Institute o Management, Ahmedabad, 2007.

11 Ibid, p20 and p22. The eects mentioned were the build-up o soil salinity,

waterlogging, declining soil ertility, increased soil toxicity and increased pest

populations. The over-use o canal irrigation water and poor drainage systems were

causing water-logging and salination. This had resulted in valuable agricultural land

going out o use. The report also cited the level o ertiliser use the highest in India

at 222kg per hectare in 2005 to 2006 and imbalances between nitrogen, phosphorus

and potassium applications as a urther cause o productivity decline.

12 See note 7. The value o yield losses were calculated on the basis o US$150 per

tonne or cereals and additional input costs on the basis o US$300 per tonne o

ertilisers (1992 prices). The respective annual costs or each (GR-related) degradation

type were: salination: US$1.5bn; lowering o the water table: not assessed; soil

ertility decline: US$0.6-1.2bn; waterlogging: US$0.5bn. This gives a total o

US$2.6bn to US$3.1bn. Source: Table 21 o UN report.

13 ao.org/docrep/005/y4671e/y4671e0j.htm#bm19

14 Source or Indian gure (600bn rupees): Union Budget 2008/09, Budget Highlights,

p6, Government o India, accessed at: indiabudget.nic.in/ub2008-09/high.htm Source

or Thai gure: Thailand to cancel $1.3bn o armers debt, Financial Times, 31 March

2010.

15 Ministry o Agriculture, Government o India, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance

2010, This gure is based on a survey conducted o arm households in 2003. A

study in Andhra Pradesh, Ecologically Sound, Economically Viable, ound that aterinput costs had been subtracted, armers with one to two hectares o land were

earning only US$154 rom arming during a whole year, siteresources.worldbank.org/

EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/Resources/244362-1278965574032/CMSA-Final.pd

16 P Sainath, The largest wave o suicides in history,

www.counterpunch.org/sainath02122009.html The average number o armer

suicides in the 1997-2001 period was 15,747 per annum. Data on the proession

o suicide victims has only been gathered in India since the 1990s, which makes

comparisons over a longer timescale dicult. Suicide gures are recorded by the

Indian Governments National Crime Records Bureau.

17 Ibid. The ve states were Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya

Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

18 RM Vidyasagar, K Suman Chandra, Farmers Suicides in Andhra Pradesh and

Karnataka, Centre or Social Development, National Institute o Rural Development,

2004.

19 H Paul et al, Hungry Corporations, Zed Books, 2003, p5.

20 FAO, The State o Food Insecurity in the World 2010: Addressing Food Insecurity in

Protracted Crises, 2010, p10 and p50.

21 World Food Programme and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Report on the

State o Food Insecurity in Rural India, 2008, p32.

22 Ibid, p 50. Forty-nine per cent o children living in rural areas and between the ages

o six months and three years are underweight (2005-2006 ).

23 DK Freebairn Did the Green Revolution concentrate incomes? A quantitative

study o research reports, World Development, 23(2) 1995, pp 265 -279, Freebairn

reviewed all o the academic literature which had assessed the impacts o the Green

Revolution in Asian countries, published between 1970 and 1989. He ound that o the

studies that contained conclusions on the eects o Green Revolution technologies

on the distribution o income benets at an inter-arm and inter-regional level, over80 per cent concluded that greater inequality had resulted. M Lipton and R Longhurst

in New Seeds and Poor People(1989) point out that the inequalities caused by the

introduction o Green Revolution technologies were usually more pronounced in

villages where pre-existing power structures had been unequal.

24 See note 6.

25 M Lipton R Longhurst, New Seeds and Poor People, 1989, Unwin Hyman, p401.

26 Long-term exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which exist in many

pesticides, is believed to be a cause o certain types o cancers, as well as respiratory,

reproductive, neurological and immune system diseases and disorders. Concerns in

India about a possible link between a recent rise in birth deects aecting children in

rural areas and the use o endosulan have led to a number o states issuing bans on

this pesticide.

27 Pesticides Action Network Asia and Pacic, Executive summary, Communities in

Peril: Asian Regional Report on Community Monitoring o Highly Hazardous Pesticide

Use, 2010, p1.

28 Public Health Impacts o Pesticides Used in Agriculture, World Health Organisation,

1990.

29 Sometimes these problems have been exacerbated by government policy. For

example, in India, the policy o supplying electricity to armers virtually or ree created

no incentives or armers to economise on how much water they were extracting

(using electrically powered pumpsets) in order to irrigate their elds.

30 Forty-ve per cent o sites reported dangerously high nitrate levels. Study quoted

in The Real Cost o Nitrogen Fertiliser in China, Greenpeace China, 2010, greenpeace.

org/canada/Global/canada/report/2010/8/Summary-En.pd

31 Inormation in this section is rom IAASTD Sub-global Report, Volume II: East and

South Asia and the Pacifc, 2.4.3.4

32 IPCC, Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group III, Mitigation o Climate Change,

Figure 8.2, ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/gure-8 -2.html

33 Manuacture and application emissions combined. See endnote 30.

34 IFAD, Rural Poverty Report, 2011, pp149-50.

35 ActionAid, Five Out o Ten?: Assessing Progress Towards the Arican Unions 10

per cent Target or Agriculture, 2009, actionaid.org/sites/les/actionaid/assessing_

progress_towards_the_aus_10percent_budget_target_or_agriculture_june_2010.pd

36 UK Food Group, Securing Future Food: Towards Ecological Food Provision, 2007,

p9, ukg.org.uk/pds/Securing_uture_ood.pd

Healthy Harvests Section 2. Lessons o the Asian Green Revolution


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23Healthy Harvests Section 3. What is sustainable agriculture?

The Brundtland report dened sustainable development asa type o development that meets the needs o the presentwithout compromising the ability o uture generations

to meet their own needs. It is an approach that seeksa balance between economic growth, social equity andenvironmental protection goals.1 Extending this denitionto arming, we can say that a sustainable model here isone that produces enough ood to meet peoples needsbut does this in a way that conserves natural resourcesandenables progress towards social equity and poverty-reduction goals. A urther component o sustainability in aarming context is resilience: how well is the system able tocope with shocks such as natural disasters, climate changeand price fuctuations? Poor armers need to be supportedin ways that ensure that production and income losses romthese shocks are minimised and that output is able to growover the long term.2

Christian Aid believes that the current industrial, high-external-input model o agriculture, seen widely in theglobal North and in many parts o the global South, isunsustainable because it has not established a properbalance among the three goals. As the previous sectionshowed, narrowly conceived production goals have tendedto triumph over ecological and social equity goals. There isan urgent need to rebalance the way ood gets produced, totake into account these issues.

But what are the exact characteristics o this alternativeapproach? What can be done at the arm level to put theseideas into practice? UK academics Jules Pretty and Rachel

Hine provide the ollowing explanation: A more sustainableagriculture seeks to make best use o natures goods andservices as unctional inputs. It does this by integratingnatural and regenerative processes, such as nutrient cycling,nitrogen xation, soil regeneration and natural enemies opests into ood-production processes. It minimises the useo non-renewable inputs (pesticides and ertilisers) thatdamage the environment or harm the health o armers andconsumers. It makes better use o the knowledge and skillso armers, so improving their sel-reliance. And it seeks tomake productive use o social capital peoples capacitiesto work together to solve common management problems,such as pest, watershed, irrigation, orest and creditmanagement. 3

The most important elements o sustainable agriculture 4 are:

diversication: cultivating a wider range o crop

full report 2642

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