By John Russell
Presentation for FES/Global Policy Forum on
The Right to Food:
How Can the UN Respond to the Global Food Crisis?
April 23, 2008
I would like to limit my remarks to what I believe the UN system can and should do to support the smallholder agricultural sector in the developing world as part of its response to the current food crisis. Specifically, I would like to comment on how the UN system can better help bring smallholder farmers fully into the response, both as major actors and as significant beneficiaries, in the areas of food production, of agro-ecosystem maintenance and restoration, and of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
It would be pointless to speak about what the UN should do, in addition to the many things it is already doing, without addressing the issue of funding. Clearly, what the UN system can accomplish in responding to the crisis will be contingent upon the levels of resources provided by member states and other donors. After at least a decade and a half of dwindling resources devoted to investment in agriculture, especially the smallholder sector, resource levels will need to be increased well above where they are now, and not only for short-term food aid responses, as necessary as these are.
The World Bank, with a much more broadly based portfolio than the UN's specialized food and agriculture agencies, recently announced it would almost double its spending on agriculture. This is all for the good, as is growing evidence that other organizations-and governments-are "rediscovering" agriculture. One can only wonder, however, at how easily so many organizations and governments "lost" agriculture in the first place. And one must be concerned that if the emergency response to this food price crisis is successful in stemming price rises in the short term, many might be tempted to let agriculture stay lost for another decade and a half. I fear that if they do, the next "wake-up call" will be even more severe and more damaging to the world's poor than the current one is.
Let us assume for the sake of discussion, however, that necessary resources will be made available, and on a sustained, long-term basis.
First, I believe the UN should use its unique global stature to advocate for moderation with regard to some of the more sweeping proposals being advanced over the past several weeks. These proposals include the purported need to give up all cautiousness toward rapid promotion and adoption of GMOs, as well as the purported need for governments to push as strongly as possible those policies that favor rapid adoption of high-external-input industrial agriculture in the developing world. Increased production must be part of the response, yes, but I think it would be a serious error to decide that the current food crisis, as grave as it is, necessitates an abandonment of environmental, social and cultural concerns related to agriculture in order to raise yields, increase market access, and reduce prices as quickly as possible, whatever the cost.
On the contrary, I believe that the UN should hold steadfast to the conclusions of the recently issued report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, which recognized that,
"Modern agriculture has brought significant increases in food production. But the benefits have been spread unevenly and have come at an increasingly intolerable price, paid by small-scale farmers, workers, rural communities and the environment."
Those who contributed to the International Assessment knew that a crisis in agriculture existed well before the current rash of mainstream media coverage of social unrest caused by high food prices. The assessment recognized that rather than increasing the already intolerable price paid for the yields we are already achieving, a sustainable and just approach to addressing the current crisis in agriculture (which is not just a food price crisis) must involve putting in place
".. institutional, economic and legal frameworks that combine productivity with the protection and conservation of natural resources like soils, water, forests, and biodiversity while meeting production needs."The UN, through advocacy, through consensus-building among its member states, through the work of its specialized agencies, and through collaboration with governments, the CGIAR centers, civil society and the private sector, should devote itself whole-heartedly to helping put those frameworks in place. Priority should be given, for example, both immediately and through long-term support, to new and innovative frameworks for revitalized public-sector research and extension services aimed at providing solutions to the constraints smallholders face. These services will be essential if smallholder farmers are to raise their yields and incomes, increase the ecological and economic resilience of their farming systems, and protect and conserve the productive natural resource base that sustains their livelihoods.
Finally, it is widely thought that climate change is playing some significant role in the current crisis (though the exact proportion of its contribution is unknown). I would like to end by suggesting that the UN reconfirm and strengthen its partnerships with NGOs like World Vision, and other civil society actors, to together find ways of helping the poor to participate in and profit from solutions to the problems posed by climate change. These include solutions aimed at helping the poor adapt to the effects of climate change, at helping them participate in mitigation efforts, and at developing responses that increase the overall resilience of their livelihoods strategies. World Vision, for example, is looking forward proactively to the next stage beyond the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism. I would like to see the UN and other partners do so as well, with the view in mind of helping the rural poor to benefit materially from bio-sequestration through agriculture, forestry and other land use, including thorny and controversial approaches such as avoided deforestation.
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