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farmers. This depends on farmers’ having
representative organizations and
deals where farmers and investors alike
are allowed a say in decisions—for
example, joint investment ventures
involving farmer-owned businesses.
Similarly, effective farmer organizations
and cooperatives can improve
cultivators’ bargaining power vis-à-vis
large-scale agribusinesses and allow
them to aggregate small lots of produce
or purchase inputs such as seeds and
fertilizer in bulk.
Integrated approaches to technology
may make the most sense;
integrated pest and soil fertility management
relies primarily on organic
fertilizer and biological pest control
but judiciously employs synthetic
pesticides and mineral fertilizers on
occasion. Genetic engineering in
agriculture remains a hotly contested
topic, however.
On the farm, it is possible to grow
both cash and food crops, and of
course every food crop is a potential
cash crop, whether for local markets or
export. In Central America, East Africa
and Vietnam, small-scale farmers have
grown fresh fruits and vegetables,
thereby boosting their incomes and
also their production of staple foods
for their own families’ consumption
and for the market. Technical knowhow
acquired for the cash crops can be
used on the staples as well.
Finally, Sub-Saharan Africa needs
agricultural investments in both highpotential
and less-favored areas. The
problem in the region is a general lack
of agricultural investment, not neglect
of particular agroecological zones.
Renewed attention to agriculture
in development circles is encouraging,
despite the ongoing controversies.
With virtually all projections indicating
higher food prices for some time
to come, and with poverty likely to
remain concentrated in rural areas for
the foreseeable future, agriculture will
continue to be indispensable to the
development enterprise. n
Marc J. Cohen is a professorial lecturer
in the International Development
Program and senior researcher on
humanitarian policy at Oxfam America.
24 SAISPHERE
HigH
Food Prices and
By David Fowkes