Towards a green economy

the total in 1980. As of the late 1990s, they also owned the majority of livestock and dominated the dairy sector (Narayanan and Gulati 2002).

Despite their higher output per hectare and the significant contribution they make to food production, however, small farmers are often very poor. In a survey of smallholder households, 55 per cent in Kenya and 75 per cent in Ethiopia, respectively, fell below the poverty line (Jayne et al. 2003). Low prices, unfair business practices and lack of transportation, storage and processing infrastructure contribute to this situation. Half of all undernourished people, three-quarters of malnourished African children and the majority of people living in absolute poverty are found on small farms (Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger 2004; IFAD 2001). In the majority of countries, poor rural people are both sellers of food commodities and buyers of foodstuffs, at different times of the year. Typically, they sell immediately after harvest, usually at very low prices, to meet their immediate cash requirements, and buy food in the months prior to the following harvest, usually at higher prices, to meet their food needs (IFAD 2010b).

It is expected that expanding smallholder production through green agricultural practices and greater commercialisation and integrating them into supply chains will create more better rewarding jobs in rural areas. As farmers get wealthier, they are likely to withdraw from occasional labour (Wiggins 2009). Wealthier farmers are also likely to spend more on locally-produced goods and services leading to multiplier effects. Rural linkage models in Africa have estimated multiplier effects ranging from 1.31 to 4.62 for Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Zambia (Delgado et al. 1994).

1.4 The greening of agriculture

The greening of agriculture refers to the increasing use of farming practices and technologies that simultaneously:

■ maintain and increase farm productivity and profitability while ensuring the provision of food and ecosystem services on a sustainable basis;

■ reduce negative externalities and gradually lead to positive ones; and

■ rebuild ecological resources (i.e. soil, water, air and biodiversity natural capital assets) by reducing pollution and using resources more efficiently.

A diverse, locally adaptable set of agricultural techniques, practices and market branding certifications such as Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Organic/Biodynamic Agriculture, Fair

Trade, Ecological Agriculture,

Conservation Agriculture and related techniques and food supply protocols exemplify the varying shades of green agriculture.

Farming practices and technologies that are instrumental in greening agriculture include:

■ restoring and enhancing soil fertility through the increased use of naturally and sustainably produced nutrient inputs; diversified crop rotations; and livestock and crop integration;

■ reducing soil erosion and improving the efficiency of water use by applying minimum tillage and cover crop cultivation techniques;

■ reducing chemical pesticide and herbicide use by implementing integrated and other environmental friendly biological pest and weed management practices; and

■ reducing food spoilage and loss by expanding the use of post-harvest storage and processing facilities.

The greening of agriculture does not imply ruling out technologies or practices on ideological grounds. If a technology works to improve productivity for farmers, and does not cause undue harm to society and the environment, then it is very much part of the efforts for greening of agriculture. Although natural methods of pest and weed management and organic sources of fertiliser and seed are at one end of a green agriculture spectrum, the highly efficient and precise use of inorganic fertilisers, pest controls and technological solutions may also be included in the broad spectrum of sustainable farming practices. The Foresight Report (2011) presents resembling ideas given the need for the global food system to deliver much more than just food, and food security in the future. So greening of high input dependent agriculture, which has a high ecological footprint, could start by making the use of inputs most precise and efficient, gradually moving toward farming practices that have low or no ecological footprint.

To be able to measure success in moving towards the objectives of greening agriculture, two categories of indicators are proposed in Table 1.

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