Agriculture, Food Security and Inclusive Growth - SID Netherlands ...

equire 35 million hectares to be produced, the equivalent to the entire territory
of Germany. This provides an illustration of the importance of the pressure
exercised by export-led agriculture on those who seek to feed themselves,
their families, and their communities. In addition, export-led agriculture is
overwhelmingly characterized by mono-cropping and the resulting loss of agrobiodiversity,
and by an unsustainable reliance on external inputs.
In contrast, rebuilding local food systems would benefit local smallscale
farmers, for whom the local markets are much more accessible than the
global value chains where they face major obstacles. Access to local markets
means higher incomes for local farmers. The reduction in rural poverty in turn
can benefit other sectors of the local economy. Increased incomes for the mass
of rural poor means larger markets for local service providers and producers
of manufactured goods. It also means that local food processing industries can
develop for all crops that require some processing to be edible. This not only
creates employment in sectors outside of agriculture, it also can benefit the poor
urban consumers, whose access to locally produced, fresh and nutritious foods
shall improve.
The role of local food systems goes beyond improving opportunities
and incomes for small-scale local farmers. They are also required in order to
overcome the separation between local food producers and the urban consumers.
This separation is less and less sustainable, as the trend towards urbanization
continues. By 2050, urban dwellers will account for 86 percent of the population
in developed countries, and 66 percent in developing regions: worldwide, 69
percent of the population will be urban in 2050. As a result, competition for
land will increase between industrial and urban uses and agricultural uses, as
the urban perimeters expand. Cities will require more and more food supplies,
leading to greater traffic congestion and pollution, and testing the capacities of
food distribution systems. The demand for convenience and processed foods
will increase, sold in supermarkets or fast food stores. For poor families in
particular, the increased distance from sources of food production can represent
a serious problem, raising transport costs and leading to the dietary shifts
already mentioned. For all these reasons, we cannot simply claim the need to
link local small-scale farmers to the urban consumers; we must also rethink
the rural-urban continuum in its entirely, by promoting urban and peri-urban
agriculture.
A number of strategies can be deployed in order to promote local food
systems. They include transport infrastructure to connect local farmers to urban
markets; land planning to allow for the emergence of urban and peri-urban
agriculture; the use of public procurement schemes for schools and other public
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