Agriculture%20at%20a%20Crossroads_Global%20Report%20(English)

14 | IAASTD Global Report
and bad, and enable the visions they have for their own
families, communities and wider social categories to which
they belong.
AKST-related policies. For the IAASTD model of AKST,
policy referring to AKST must be understood in a broad
sense. Policy can be thought of as a course or principle of
action designed to achieve particular goals or targets. The
idea of policy is usually associated with government bodies,
but other types of organization also formulate policies—for
example a local NGO may establish a policy about who is
eligible for its programs (DFID, 2001). “Policy analysis” is
the process through which the interactions at and between
these various levels are explored and articulated. Policy relating
to the AKST model is thus understood as the attempt
to systematically intervene in the process of shaping and reshaping
the interrelationships between the different actors,
networks and organizations involved in the processes of
coproduction of knowledge for more sustainable and propoor
agriculture and food production.
1.2.2 Development and sustainability goals
Reduction of poverty and hunger. Poverty can be defined in
different ways, each requiring its own measurement. Poverty
can be measured in terms of access to the basic needs
of life, such as nutrition, clean water and sanitation, education,
housing and health care. An income level of US$1
per day is widely accepted as a rough indicator of poverty
although there is general agreement that the multidimensional
nature of poverty cannot be captured with this measure.
Worldwide, about 1,200 million people live on less
than US$1 per day; in percentage terms this is expected to
drop from 19% of the world population in 2002 to 10%
by 2015 (World Bank, 2006b), although in absolute numbers
the difference will be smaller because by then the total
population will be larger by about 800 million people.
Moreover, many countries, particularly in Africa and South
Asia, are not on track regarding achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (Global Monitoring Report,
2006) (Figure 1-8). Furthermore, these numbers should be
interpreted with caution. Any change from the nonmonetary
provision of goods and services to the cash market, such as
a shift from subsistence to commercial crops, will appear as
an increase in income whether or not there has been a concomitant
improvement in standard of living or reduction in
poverty. This indicator focuses our attention exclusively on
income derived from market transactions and ignores other
components of livelihood.
Approximately 852 million people are unable to obtain
enough food to live healthy and productive lives (FAO,
2004a). Hunger is discussed here in the wider sense of encompassing
both food and nutritional insecurity (UN Millennium
Project, 2005). An estimated 800 million persons,
i.e., more than half of the people living in extreme poverty,
are occupied in the agricultural sector (CGIAR Science
Council, 2005). Their livelihoods are usually derived from
small-scale farming. In 1996, around 2.6 billion people,
or 44% of the total world population were living in agriculture-dependent
households, mostly in Asia and Africa
(Wood et al., 2000). Poverty is thus disproportionately rural
(poor farmers and landless people) despite ongoing migra-
tion from rural to urban areas. Among other factors such as
civil wars and diseases, migration has led to an increase in
female-headed households and intensified the already heavy
workload of rural women (García, 2005).
Decapitalization (e.g., through sale of livestock and
equipment), deterioration of infrastructure and natural
capital (e.g., soils), and the general impoverishment of peasant
communities in large areas in developing countries (for
Africa, see Haggblade et al., 2004) remains a serious threat
to livelihoods and food security. The loss or degradation
of production assets is linked to the overexploitation of
scarce resources (land, water, labor), markets that are inequitable
(IFAD, 2003) and difficult to access, competition
from neighboring farms, and in some instances the combined
effects of competition from the industrialized sector
(leading to low prices), and the direct and indirect taxation
of agriculture. It may also be a consequence of the barriers
to capital accumulation and investment associated with the
realities faced by some small-scale farmers (Mazoyer and
Roudard, 1997). On the other hand, agricultural growth
can, despite this difficult context, lead to important benefits
for poverty alleviation (Byerlee et al., 2005). In some cases
the beneficiaries are people remaining in small-scale agriculture
but there may also be important opportunities for
those who work, for example, in agriculture-related product
processing activities.
Improvement of livelihoods, human health and nutrition.
Even though a large number of people depend entirely on
agriculture, off-farm income is important for many households
that depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The
resulting variety of livelihood strategies can be thought of
in terms of adjustments in the quantity and composition of
an individual’s or household’s resource endowment. Different
resource endowments and different goals imply different
incentives, choices, and livelihood strategies.
Health is fundamental to live a productive life, meet basic
needs and contribute to community life. Good health offers
individuals wider choices regarding how to live their lives.
It is an enabling condition for the development of human
potential. The components of health are multiple and their
interactions complex. The health of an individual is strongly
influenced by genetic makeup, nutritional status, access to
health care, socioeconomic status, relationships with family
members, participation in community life, personal habits
and lifestyle choices. The environment—natural, climatic,
physical, social or workplace—can also play a major role in
determining the health of individuals. For example, in most
societies, biomass fuel collection is a woman’s task. Women
often spend hours collecting and carrying fuelwood back
home over long distances. Poor women are among the more
than two billion people who are unable to obtain clean,
safe fuels and have to rely on burning biomass fuels such
as wood, dung or crop residues. The time and labor spent
in this way limits their ability to engage in other productive
activities; and their health suffers from hauling heavy loads
and from cooking over smoky fires (Lambrou and Piana,
2006). On the other hand about 50% of the health burden
of malnutrition is attributable to poor water, sanitation and
hygiene (Prüss-Üstün and Corvalán, 2006). For example,
some long-standing problems such as mycotoxins continue