PRESENTATION BY ALEJANDRO NADAL, CENTER FOR ECONOMIC
STUDIES, EL COLEGIO DE MEXICO.
4Group-III: Identifying challenges in promoting development and transfer of green
technologies for sustainable agriculture and food security, and strengthening
international cooperation
Speaker: Prof. Alejandro Nadal, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies of El
Colegio de Mexico; Mr Steven Stone, Chief, Economics and Trade Branch, UNEP
Chair: Ms. Annika Markovic, Environment Ambassador, Ministry of Environment,
Sweden
I will concentrate on the challenges for the promotion and development of Green
technologies for sustainable development.
By way of introduction, let me summarize the three challenges that we are facing:
a) we need to attain and enhance food security now and
b) to guarantee that there will be enough food to feed a global population of 9
billion in the year 2050, and
c) we need to do this as we engage in good environmental stewardship.
What’s he situation today?
a) food security has not been improving in the past twenty years;
b) the world economic and financial crisis will worsen conditions;
c) climate change will also have a negative impact.
Much of what follows is of special relevance for small‐scale agricultural production
that is labor‐intensive and operates in poor quality soils affected by risks from
drought, frost, pests and severe winds. Many, if not most, of these producers are
subsistence farmers. This, the way, does not mean they are not affected by price
dynamics, for these producers do not live in autarky.
I will concentrate on two critical points.They will help underline the need to look at
the relation between sector level policies and macroeconomics. I will also focus on
experiences from Latin America. And I will also center on small‐scale agricultural
production where there are important gains to be obtained in terms of employment,
poverty eradication and environmental sustainability.
FIRST, there is a clear need to invest in improving and promoting traditional
technologies that are based on greater agro‐biodiversity and germplasm management.
Individual components of these technologies include minimum tillage, crop rotation,
risk management through greater agro‐biodiversity, environmentally friendly pest
management practices, etc.
You have to take into account the fact that in many cases, these technologies are labor
intensive and rely on community relations for cooperative work. They are critical for
employment generation in rural areas.
In many instances the producers relying on these technologies have been under great
pressure and stress. Little or no support from the government has combined with
price structures that affect them negatively. In many cases, the prices of their output
are pressed downwards in the context of increased prices for their inputs and other
goods. (Here it is worth noting that when we talk about the crisis in food prices, these
high prices are not, repeat, not benefitting small‐scale producers).
So these producers are in urgent need to find income generating activities. They will
transform their production strategies and resource management practices.
In many cases, migration is the answer. But once migration sets in, many of these
technologies are no longer viable. What you have is a deficit of labor in many rural
areas. Monoculture and small‐scale commercial livestock production set in. We need
to revert this trend.
We need to pay attention to the macroeconomic conditions that affect farmers in their
capacity to use the technologies that have been effective for centuries and that are
efficient for environmental stewardship. Many of these technologies are labor‐
intensive and frequently rely on collaborative schemes
SECOND, investment in agricultural production and R&D has either stagnated or even
declined in the developing countries. There is a clear need to increase the level of
investment in agricultural infrastructure: irrigation, water management
infrastructure, soil management, roads, post‐harvest facilities and, of course, R&D for
agricultural and livestock production.
Why are these investments dropping? What are the overwhelming fiscal priorities
that prevent increasing resources and investment in agricultural production and in
R&D?
All of these considerations touch upon the priorities of macroeconomic (monetary and
fiscal policy).
As long as monetary policy remains centered on price stability, credit for small scale
agriculture will not be forthcoming.
As long as fiscal policy remains obsessed by the need to generate a (primary) surplus,
the cuts in resources for agricultural production will continue to predominate (in fact,
cuts for environmental stewardship will also be pervasive, as reduced or stagnant
investment in social expenditures).