IICA HONORS OUTSTANDING
CONTRIBUTORS TO ACRICULTURE
http://www.iica.int/Eng/regiones/norte/usa/IICA%20Office%20Documents/iica_scr...



Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)
1775 K Street N.W. Suite 320
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202) 458-3767
http://www.iicawash.org

Felipe P. Manteiga, Representative in the U.S.



Norman E. Borlaug
Norman Borlaug’s work to feed the hungry ignited what is known today as the “Green Revolution.” In 1970, he became the only agricultural scientist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Having seen the devastation of crop failures during the Dust Bowl, he dedicated his life’s work to promoting the benefits of high-yield farming. More than anyone, Borlaug’s work helped ensure that, except in sub-Saharan Africa, global food production has expanded faster than human population, averting mass starvation and helping feed over a billion people. He began his work in Mexico at what evolved into the International Maize and Wheat Center. There he helped develop dwarf spring wheat especially suited to high-yield farming and cereals insensitive to the hours of light in a day. His work later took him to Latin America, Asia, Africa, India and Pakistan. Borlaug continues to lead the advocacy of scientific solutions to address food security and hunger.


http://www.iica.int/Eng/regiones/norte/usa/IICA%20Office%20Documents/iica_scr...




http://www.pnas.org/content/107/13/5774



Green Revolution May Have Done More Harm Than Good…
By Raj on 02/15/2010 in Uncategorized
Here’s a press release – as soon as I can get my hands on the study, I’ll post a little more.

Update Many folk have asked for the original, and Laurence Becker was kind enough to send a link to the study, which I’ll write about when I’ve had a chance to digest it.



FROM

The importation of relatively cheap Asian rice from the 1980s met the needs of urban consumers for more than two decades because it supplied the unmet demand for rice and also exerted downward pressure on local rice prices. It was asserted that freer markets would benefit rural
households when producer prices were no longer controlled (4). However, this policy undermined local rice producers and, by extension, rural livelihoods. This was particularly serious in The Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire where the costs of importing rice were lower and investment in local rice production declined more rapidly than in Mali. In all three countries, rice
producers had to contend with rising input costs. The result was emaciated rice sectors in the first two countries. While short term

https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/jspui/bitstream/1957/14370/1/Becker.Neolib...




How free trade has devastated Africa's farmers and poor
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
February 15, 2010


A push in the mid-1980s for Africa to embrace free trade to aid it economies backfired in many of the continent's poorest countries, argues a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Africa was pushed to rollback government involvement in development and instead to rely on the private sector: government services shrunk, cash crops were pushed over staples, while tariffs and subsides were abolished. The insistence on free trade was meant to spur economic growth, but instead undercut traditional agricultural systems that had worked for centuries, eventually leading to a food crisis, which left millions hungry, led to multiple food riots, and destabilized governments.

"Many of these reforms were designed to make countries more efficient, and seen as a solution to failing schools, hospitals and other infrastructure," explains co-author Laurence Becker, an associate professor of geosciences at Oregon State University. "But they sometimes eliminated critical support systems for poor farmers who had no car, no land security, made $1 a day and had their life savings of $600 hidden under a mattress.



http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0215-hance_freetrade.html

THE STUDY

Neoliberal policy, rural livelihoods, and urban food security in West Africa: A comparative study of The Gambia, Côte d'Ivoire, and Mali
William G. Moseleya,1, Judith Carneyb, and Laurence Beckerc
+ Author Affiliations

aDepartment of Geography, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN 55105;
bDepartment of Geography, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095; and
cDepartment of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-5506
Edited by Susan Hanson, Clark University, Worcester, MA, and approved January 11, 2010 (received for review May 28, 2009)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of two decades of neoliberal policy reform on food production and household livelihood security in three West African countries. The rice sectors in The Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali are scrutinized as well as cotton and its relationship to sorghum production in Mali. Although market reforms were intended to improve food production, the net result was an increasing reliance on imported rice. The vulnerability of the urban populations in The Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire became especially clear during the 2007–2008 global food crisis when world prices for rice spiked. Urban Mali was spared the worst of this crisis because the country produces more of its own rice and the poorest consumers shifted from rice to sorghum, a grain whose production increased steeply as cotton production collapsed. The findings are based on household and market surveys as well as on an analysis of national level production data.

agricultural policy food crisis Green Revolution livelihood security rice
Footnotes

1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: moseley@macalester.edu.
Author contributions: W.G.M., J.C., and L.B. designed research; W.G.M., J.C., and L.B. performed research; W.G.M., J.C., and L.B. analyzed data; and W.G.M., J.C., and L.B. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
See Commentary article on page 5697.



http://www.pnas.org/content/107/13/5774




This article contains supporting information online at


http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0905717107/DCSupplemental.




http://www.pnas.org/content/107/13/5697


Reducing hunger vulnerability through sustainable development
Thomas J. Bassett1
+ Author Affiliations

Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801
The food-price inflation protests that captured the world’s attention in the spring of 2008 (1) showed that the hunger problem is bigger than we think (2). Between 75 and 133 million additional people fell into hunger that year, raising the number of hungry people in the world to over 1 billion (2, 3). The events showed that hunger is a problem for those who are both hungry and vulnerable to hunger (4). Three papers in this issue of PNAS indicate that improving local food security is a multiscale challenge (1, 5, 6), because the processes that generate hunger and unsustainable development originate in multiple locations. The contributions that these papers make show that sustainable development, defined as the successful reconciliation of economic development, environmental conservation, and social equity, is a political ecologic process and outcome (7).

Emaciated Rice Sectors

The comparative study of domestic rice production in West Africa by Moseley et al. (1) paints a somber picture of “emaciated rice sectors” in the part of the world where African rice (Oryza glaberrima) was domesticated. The dependency of The Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire on imports for 85% and 60%, respectively, of national rice consumption is a recent underdevelopment. When African farmers received subsidies and price supports and governments created credit programs, built roads, and constructed rice mills, they intensified rice production like most farmers in …

[Full Text of this Article]
1E-mail: bassett@illinois.edu.



http://www.iica.int/Eng/regiones/norte/USA/EventsPress/USDA%20Agriculture%20O...

collaboration at the local level, similar to Brazil’s
‘Zero Hunger’ initiative, be considered. “We are suggesting a model in which the Minister takes a more
pro-active role in selecting and approving key organizations to help address agricultural
reconstruction,” he said. “These actions include promoting effective value chains; creating access to
information; providing training, affordable credit and risk management tools; and finding creative and
innovative ways to attract youth to agriculture.”
IICA’s David C. Hatch addresses attendees at USDA’s Agricultural
Outlook Forum in Arlington, VA
Hatch insisted on the need to focus on the small farmer and reiterated that the small farmer,
particularly women are part of the solution and not part of the problem. He reminded the audience
that more than 80% of the world’s farmers are women, and yet they receive less than 5% of all
technical assistance in agriculture and own 2% of the land.
In conclusion, Hatch reflected on the devastating catastrophe in Haiti


 

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