Deep Roots

[

] 25

all arable land in 11 countries is rain-fed. In Sudan and Yemen up

to 80 per cent of cereal production is rain-fed. The United Nations

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights that the

region will become drier and hotter with the possibility of rainfall

decreasing by 10 per cent by 2050.

Increased water scarcity will

result from reduction in groundwater resources that, together with

climate warming, under existing patterns of distribution and use

will lead to crop losses, especially for small farmers.

Agricultural strategy rather than absolute scarcity has accel-

erated an environmental and water crisis made more acute by

climate change. The oil-fuel-water-agriculture nexus: cheap

regional energy (most of which is used to drive air condi-

tioning units

) quickened the use of new drilling techniques

and capital intensification of farming for increased export-led

growth rather than the production of local staples. Drilling

deeper and deeper wells and accessing groundwater and aqui-

fers while not giving these sources time to recharge has mined

the region’s scarcest resource and limited its social distribu-

tion. The impact of global warming and rising sea levels is

debated alongside constraints on water availability.

It is

clear that resource availability is shaped by the distribution

of resources and the political forces that shape that. It is there-

fore somewhat surprising to read from a recent report that

“radical departures are not warranted nor feasible.”

Farmer voices, recommendations and a research agenda?

FAO has stressed the need to integrate and support farmers

by increasing investment and financing “that directly favour

family farmers.”

FAO has called for increasing the share of

value-added that accrues directly for family farmers, improv-

ing access to land, supporting women and youth and helping

family farmers manage climate change. To do this, FAO

stresses improving producer organizations and civil society

representative organs to expand efficiency and for govern-

ments to establish legal frameworks to help family farming.

This important action list needs to be located in the region’s

patterns of existing governance. Family farmers have to be

consulted about agricultural policy, and policies formulated

to raise rural incomes in support of family farming have been

pursued in the context of conflict, economic liberalization and

climate change. There have been only rare examples of viewing

the difficulties faced by family farming holistically; a view that

is needed to address structural concerns over resource access

and how inequality is reproduced. Non-governmental organ-

izations, for example, may address issues of climate, water

access and gender inequality but are seldom able to persuade

governments to tackle policy failures that link sectoral issues

with broader-based concerns of social differentiation. Policy

reform has taken place in the context of enhanced internation-

alization of the food regime where family farming continues

to be adversely impacted by agribusiness and international

trade arrangements in grain and other agricultural products.

Family farming needs to be recognized as important and

integral to development. That means valorizing local farming

knowledge and techniques and penalizing the actions of inves-

tors and speculators who may take land and other resources out

of production in terms of food and use values. Future research

agendas will need to explain relationships of power that have

impacted adversely on family farming, where the production

and distribution shortfalls occur, why and with what kinds of

social consequences. In other words, research and policy inter-

vention will need to be

dynamic

and

differentiated.

Family farming constraints and possibilities

Source: FAO

Impediments to Family Farming

Counter Strategies

Family Farming

Collective Farming/Coping Strategies

Intensification of Labour Process

Village Organization; Cooperatives/Social Mobilization

Pluriactivity ON/OFF Farm Income

Improved and Cheaper Credit

Alternative Cropping Patterns

Intensification of Women’s (and Child) Domestic Labour

War and Conflict

Global Pressures of Dumping,

Trade Liberalization, Non-Tariff Reforms

Local Markets

Input Prices, Merchant/Trader Prices

Local Transport Infrastructure Links and Costs

egional

erspectives