12.07.2015 Views

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

FROM POVERTY TO POWERenvironments. But equally important was state investment in roads,irrigation, and other infrastructure and institutions <strong>to</strong> ensure stableprices for farmers. Together, these initiatives spurred significant successin reducing rural poverty, although many farmers went heavily in<strong>to</strong>debt as they had <strong>to</strong> invest in fertilisers and pesticides, and there wereserious knock-on effects on the environment.Recently, a number of major donors, led by the Gates and RockefellerFoundations, have set up the Alliance for a <strong>Green</strong> Revolution in Africa(AGRA), hoping <strong>to</strong> repeat the Asian experience. 45 They will face adrastically different terrain <strong>to</strong> their predecessors half a century ago.The first <strong>Green</strong> Revolution relied on strong civil-service institutions,functioning credit markets, a predominance of rice and wheatproduction, dense rural populations that made it cost-effective <strong>to</strong>provide technical assistance and other services, and abundant waterfor irrigation. Africa, in contrast, has weak or non-existent agriculturalsupport institutions, insufficient water, and a profusion of staple foodcrops. 46 Moreover, the network of state-funded research that made the<strong>Green</strong> Revolution possible has largely been supplanted by privatecorporate R&D.It is unlikely that any technological magic bullet will address allthese issues. Even more challenging is the fact that Asia’s achievementwas driven by drastically increasing the use of fossil fuels, irrigation,chemical fertilisers, and pesticides, all of which exacted an environmentalcost which is now coming home <strong>to</strong> roost. Modern agriculturehas bequeathed a world of exhausted and eroded <strong>to</strong>psoil, scarce water,irrigation-induced salinisation, water systems polluted by pesticideand fertiliser run-off, and reduced biodiversity. Not <strong>to</strong> mention globalwarming: agriculture and forestry produce an estimated one-third ofall greenhouse gases. 47In these conditions, incorporating small farmers in<strong>to</strong> currentcommercial agriculture practices hardly appears <strong>to</strong> be a sustainableoption. All agriculture will have <strong>to</strong> adapt <strong>to</strong> growing environmentalconstraints. Technological innovation will undoubtedly play a largerole in such adaptation, and small farmers will have <strong>to</strong> organise andcultivate state support if they are <strong>to</strong> overcome their relative technologicalexclusion. If they do not, they risk being driven out of farmingal<strong>to</strong>gether.128

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!