Robert Paarlberg, an expert on agricultural policy, argues that the western world’s current focus on “organic, local, and slow” farming shouldn’t be extended to the developing world. “Poverty — caused by the low income productivity of farmers’ labor — is the primary source of hunger in Africa, and the problem is only getting worse,” he writes. Paarlberg explains the drawbacks of organic farming and calls for increased spending on agricultural technologies like modern seeds and better fertilizer. In his view, it’s a sound investment: “The?World Bank has documented average rates of return on investments in agricultural research in Africa of 35 percent a year, accompanied by significant reductions in poverty.”[%comments]
In Africa, Organic Farming Is Not the Answer
TAGS: environment, food
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This is a headline grabber, designed to attack the trendy “slow food” movement.
Food spoilage is a much larger problem, the rate of food spoilage in Africa is over 50%, one Nobel prize winning economist has already pointed this out.
What does return on investment have to do with hunger? sounds like the world bank makes an economic case for agricultural technology, but at the same time, traditional means of sustainance are gradually being lost as a result of a move to intensive farming. Why such a heavy focus on genetically modified seed? If more energy was focused on irrigation and transportation infrastructure, the benefits would far outstrip any individual farmer’s economic gains. What good is one farm’s increased production when the food can’t get to market and irrigation practices turn savannahs into desert?
I’m usually the first to make this point in conversations with eco-maniacs, but the other side bears repeating. There are different input complementarities. It is easy to say that in aggregate organic farming is less efficient; I’m sure it is. But the main quantitative argument the organic movement musters is the long term efficiency due to differences in mineral depletion and water retention over time. Considering that much of African agriculture is built on marginal or semi-arid lands, these things are worth considering.
More important, though, is the labor versus industrial inputs question. Consider that many African staples, such as sorghum and amaranth, have lower demand in local urban markets than less traditional crops such as wheat. It may be great to double yields by adding inputs that may seem relatively cheap to us, but if they have to be purchased with cash, a huge endowment of a low-cash-value crop just might not pay for itself. If the only way to make this profitable proves to be land consolidation and labor reduction, urban swell and increased income inequality are likely side effects.
Maybe these don’t tip the scales in favor of organic farming enough, but if the political capital behind the organic movement can generate more financial interest and generosity, it really might pass a cost benefit analysis.
The big issue with agribusiness is the prohibition on seed saving. If you plant Monsanto corn, you will be buying Monsanto corn seeds EVERY year. You cannot save part of last year’s crop and replant. In marginal economic situations, such as the ones in Africa, this appears to be a very bad way to go. One bad economic year, and you’re stuck with nothing to plant. I don’t think using some pesticides is bad, but using big agribusiness is financially risky.
You would be better of focusing on plants developed for the type of soil and watering situations available. Many of those plants are heirloom plants (old fashioned ones that developed drought tolerance, and produce less but produce even when the rain doesn’t come.)
…and our kitchen waste should be sent to landfills in plastic bags because composting creates dangerous greenhouse gasses…and oil rigs create essential fish habitats… If you are only looking at overall output then yes, this is the best option, but it in no way encapsulates all of the cost involved.
Perhaps this isn’t an either/or situation. Not all conventional crops are GMOs from Monsanto or other big corporations; not all organic is clean and from a cute little family farm.
There could be a solution between the two extremes. The solution may even be something that wouldn’t seem efficient or profitable to us Yanks. Our history books contain a blueprint for a food system that developed from very little infrastructure. Could the developing world use a system based on what the US farmers were doing 100 years ago? 75 years ago? 50 years ago?
Most of us agree that we went too far with GMOs and big agribusiness, the developing world can copy what we did but also learn from our mistakes.
@assumo-
Return on investment has everything to do with farming. It is a high risk business; even if your remote village doesn’t use money but relies on a barter system. Even if you’re just fulfilling your role in a community and there is no trade at all, farming is hard work with high risk and narrow margins.
Look into the work of Norman Borlaug, only recently deceased. His Green Revolution is credited with avoiding starvation for billions of people. Fertilizer is among the methods he employed. Somebody gave him a Nobel Peace Prize for his work, which he continued throughout his life.
Being that organic farming requires organic fertilizers, which come from manure and composted plants (the manure coming indirectly from plants also) if you follow the nitrogen cycle, it’s clear that with some generation loss and harvesting of plants and animals, that there’s never going to be enough organic fertilizer to fertilize all of the world’s crops (especially in areas where vast grasslands just aren’t part of the ecosystem). I’ve seen the statistic that there’s enough to feed four billion people organically, but no more. I don’t have a reference, though.
Confused about where the Paarlberg quotes are from.
The two links in the first line don’t contain the quotes and he’s not listed in the Acknowledgements of the World Bank report as part of the “team” that prepared the document.
” “Poverty – caused by the low income productivity of farmers’ labor – is the primary source of hunger in Africa, and the problem is only getting worse,” he writes.”
But where does he write it?