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

DISCUSSION
Jan Douwe van der Ploeg - Professor, Wageningen University and Research Centre
Introduction
IFAD’s Rural Poverty Report 2011 is, compared to the many other policy
documents, a step ahead, as:
1. It systematically introduces and discusses the issues of risks, risk environment
and the strategies of the poor to cope with risks.
2. It does not take the market for granted. It goes beyond the market as defined
by neo-classical economists and talks far more about empirical markets: niche
markets, world markets, large commodity markets, all with their own specific
forms of governance.
3. It entails a solid discussion on poverty which goes beyond the normative
dimension only. Thinking about this little devil on the shoulder of the IFAD Team
Leader, one might observe that the report follows the World Development
Report (2007), but simultaneously it goes beyond it, especially where it integrates
strategic elements of the international assessment of agricultural knowledge
systems, and science and technology development.
Critique
There are some points that allow for critical discussion, and these relate to the
three roughly indicated recommendations in the report, formulated to further
the fight against rural poverty.
1. Throughout the report there is an underlying thesis that the different forms of
agriculture – peasant agriculture, smallholder agriculture, corporate farming,
and entrepreneurial farming - might all exist alongside each other. They are partly
tied to the same market and it is assumed that these forms co-exist. The report
goes even a step further when it argues that strengthening the link between
smallholder farmers on the one hand and the big markets and the value chains
on the other would significantly improve the situation of these smallholders,
it would help them to escape poverty. There is indeed historical evidence that
different forms of farming could exist alongside each other. Nevertheless, it is an
open question whether today such a co-existence is still as possible as it used to
be in the past. Recent studies in the north of Peru have documented the rise of
new corporate farm enterprises. These are located alongside peasant agriculture
in the communities. Here peasant agriculture is facing serious water deficits,
since the corporate farms have been able to accumulate most of the water. This
privately appropriated water is heavily defended and exclusively used for high
value export crops going to the United States and Europe. Co-existence here
AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH | 59