The Real Green Revolution - Greenpeace UK

Table 2.3 – IFOAM Members by Country
No. of IFOAM members Latin America A f r i c a A s i a
3 9 I n d i a
1 8 A rgentina
1 6 K e n y a C h i n a
1 0 S e n e g a l
9 Venezuela P h i l i p p i n e s
8 Chile, Mexico
7 B r a z i l Burkina Faso, Egypt Tu r k e y
5 B o l i v i a South Africa Sri Lanka
4 E c u a d o r, Peru Malaysia, Pakistan
3 Costa Rica, Guatemala, Benin, Cameroon, Indonesia, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Paraguay Congo, Ghana, Malawi, T h a i l a n d
Togo, Uganda,
Z i m b a b w e
2 Columbia, Uru g u a y Bangladesh, Israel,
Vietnam
1 Cuba, Trinidad and Algeria, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Korea,
To b a g o I v o ry Coast, Lebanon, Palestine,
M a d a g a s c a , rMali, Ta i w a n
Nigeria, Somalia,
Ta n z a n i a
Adapted from IFOAM (2000)
IFOAM members, yet there is no data
available for organically managed land
within these countries. Many of the
organisations affiliated to IFOAM are quite
evidently community and/or peasant farming
organisations who would be unlikely to have
to have much engagement with export
markets. Thus the IFOAM Directory
arguably provides a more realistic assessment
of levels of the existence of non-export
oriented OAA within individual countries.
Differences between data contained in tables
2.1 and 2, and table 2.3 offer clues as to
countries where de facto organic agriculture
may be practised on a significant scale. 13
Such deductive reasoning is useful since there
are few other ways of identifying the extent
and existence of de facto organic farming.
Our literature review and survey both
strongly suggest that OAA is practised more
extensively than official certification figures
suggest. Opinions vary significantly (see
chapter 3) as to the extent to which de facto
organic farming is practised, although the
balance of views suggests that the amount
of de facto organically managed land almost
certainly outstrips ‘certified’ organic land,
probably by a considerable amount. Informal
use of OAA appears to be concentrated in
specific countries and particularly in certain
types of area (discussed in section 2.3
below). It is often a ‘hidden’ form of
agriculture, rarely the subject of interest from
government extension agencies and only
sometimes the focus of development and aid
projects. It is likely to be oriented primarily
towards local and regional markets, which
further obscures information gathering as to
the extent to which it is practised. In view
of these factors, the development of any
definitive global estimates of the extent of de
facto and uncertified OAA is an unlikely
prospect in the foreseeable future.
One recent report partially fills this gap by
providing estimates of the amount of land
managed according to precepts of
20