applied in international markets are likely to become more sophisticated over the next few decades. Currently, most domestic food supply chains in developing countries have relatively low levels of food safety and handling practices. Improving capacity to develop and implement sanitary and food safety standards that can ensure compliance with international requirements can increase prospects for small farmer communities to supply international markets (Kurien 2004). Furthermore, it is particularly important to support international efforts to harmonise the variety of sustainable and organic certification protocols and standards. Today’s fragmented certification procedures impose high transaction and reporting costs on farmers and limit their access to international markets.
Another important issue is that the cost of certification and reporting is to be borne only by sustainable producers while polluters can market their products freely. The burden of proof must be shifted to the polluter through introduction of certification protocols and labeling schemes which, at a minimum, show the quantities of different agrochemical inputs used in the production and processing of a product, and whether the product contains GMOs or not.
Intellectual property The application of Intellectual Property (IP) regimes has, in some cases, restricted the results of agricultural research and development being made available as public goods. Private-sector and often public-sector IP rights restrict the access of many in developing countries to research, technologies and genetic materials. Supporting the implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organisations (WIPO) Development Agenda and providing improved access to and reasonable use of IP that involves traditional knowledge, ecological agriculture techniques and
genetic resources in international IP regimes would help advance development and sustainability goals.
4.2 National policies
At the domestic public policy level, the key challenge is creating the conditions that would encourage more farmers to adopt environmentally sound agriculture practiscs instead of continuing to practice unsustainable conventional farming methods.
Support for improved land tenure rights of smallholder farmers In order for farmers to invest capital and more labour into the transition from brown to green agriculture, major land reforms will have to be implemented, particularly in developing countries. In the absence of more secure rights to specific plots of land for many years into the future, many poor farmers are unlikely to take on additional risks and efforts to gradually build up the natural capital of their farms beyond a one or two- year horizon.
Targeting programmes for women smallholder farmers Small-farm diversification often requires a division of labour at the household level that may result in gender-based distribution of management roles and responsibilities for both on and off-farm tasks. This has resulted in the majority of smallholder farms, especially in Africa, being run by women. Securing collective and individual legal rights to land and productive resources (e.g. water, capital), especially for women, indigenous people and minorities is important. Improving women’s access to working capital through microfinance is an option that would allow much greater numbers of small-scale producers to procure green inputs and related mechanisation technologies (World Bank, IFAD and FAO 2009).
Switzerland Norway Japan European Union* OECD** USA New Zealand
* EU-12 for 1990-94, including ex-GDR; EU-15 for 1995-2003; EU-25 for 2004-06; then EU-27. ** Austria, Finland and Sweden are included in the OECD total for all years and in the EU from 1995. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic are included in the OECD total for all years and in the EU from 2004. The OECD total does not include the six non-OECD EU member States.
Figur e 13: Estimated producer support by country (as a percentage of total farmer income) Source: Bellmann (2010), adapted from OECD (2007). Available at: http://poldev.revues.org/143