From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERenvironments. But equally important was state investment in roads,irrigation, and other infrastructure and institutions to ensure stableprices for farmers. Together, these initiatives spurred significant successin reducing rural poverty, although many farmers went heavily intodebt as they had to 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 Green Revolution in Africa(AGRA), hoping to repeat the Asian experience. 45 They will face adrastically different terrain to their predecessors half a century ago.The first Green Revolution relied on strong civil-service institutions,functioning credit markets, a predominance of rice and wheatproduction, dense rural populations that made it cost-effective toprovide 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 theGreen 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 to roost. Modern agriculturehas bequeathed a world of exhausted and eroded topsoil, scarce water,irrigation-induced salinisation, water systems polluted by pesticideand fertiliser run-off, and reduced biodiversity. Not to mention globalwarming: agriculture and forestry produce an estimated one-third ofall greenhouse gases. 47In these conditions, incorporating small farmers into currentcommercial agriculture practices hardly appears to be a sustainableoption. All agriculture will have to adapt to growing environmentalconstraints. Technological innovation will undoubtedly play a largerole in such adaptation, and small farmers will have to organise andcultivate state support if they are to overcome their relative technologicalexclusion. If they do not, they risk being driven out of farmingaltogether.128