Towards a green economy

Public procurement of sustainably produced food Government-sponsored food programmes for schools and public institutions and public procurement policies should be encouraged to source foods that are sustainably produced. The Strategic Paper on Public Procurement, prepared by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in January 2008, provides a good example of how organic and sustainable products can be supported through public procurement policies.21

4.3 Economic instruments

Agriculture’s environmentally damaging externalities could be reduced by imposing taxes on fossil fuel inputs and pesticide and herbicide use; and establishing specific penalties for air emissions and water pollution caused by harmful farming practices. Alternatively, tax exemptions for investments in bio-control integrated pest management products; and incentives that value the multi-functional uses of agricultural land have proven effective in improving the after tax revenues for farmers that practice sustainable land management. The OECD countries have developed a wide range of policy measures to address environmental issues in agriculture, which include economic instruments (payments, taxes and charges, market creation, e.g., tradable permits), community based measures, regulatory measures, and advisory and institutional measures (research and development, technical assistance and environmental labelling).

In OECD countries, the partial shift away from production-linked support has enabled the agricultural sector to be more responsive to markets, thus improving growth. Importantly, some support measures have been linked to specific environmental objectives, research and development, information, and technical assistance, food inspection services, biodiversity, flood and drought control, and sinks for greenhouse gases and carbon storage. There is a need to strengthen these recent trends in developed countries and replicate them in those developing countries that offer farm subsidies in order to target these funds to specific objectives for greater and sustainable economic and environmental performance (OECD 2010).

Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) can further incentivise efforts to green the agriculture sector. This is an approach that verifies values and rewards the benefits of ecosystem services provided by green agricultural practices (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Brockhaus 2009). A key objective of PES schemes is to generate stable revenue flows that help compensate farmers for their efforts and opportunity costs incurred in

21. The paper is available at http://www.sustainweb.org/pdf2/org-238.pdf. 66

reducing environmental pollution and other externality costs that adversely impact the shared commons of the local, national and global environment. Such PES arrangements should be structured so that small-scale farmers and communities, not just large landowners, are able to benefit. Innovative PES measures could include reforestation payments made by cities to upstream communities in rural areas of shared watersheds for improved quantities and quality of fresh water for municipal users. Ecoservice payments by farmers to upstream forest stewards for properly managing the flow of soil nutrients, and methods to monetise the carbon sequestration and emission reduction credit benefits of green agriculture practices in order to compensate farmers for their efforts to restore and build SOM and employ other practices described in this chapter are important elements of PES programmes that have been implemented to date (Pagiola 2008; Ravnborg et al. 2007).

4.4 Capacity building and awareness-raising

The availability and qualitative capabilities of rural labour are critical resources needed for implementing green agriculture practices. Green agricultural practices emphasise crop and livestock diversification; local production of natural fertiliser and other more labour- intensive farm operations. The seasonal variability of crop-specific farming tasks affects temporal labour surpluses and shortages, which must be managed throughout the year. Whether rural labour provides an advantage or a constraint for the adoption of green agriculture practices is highly contextual with specific regional and national conditions. The relative age and gender distribution of rural populations, their health, literacy and family stability, gender equity with respect to access to training and financial services, and other factors will determine the degree to which rural farming communities respond to public and private encouragement of their adoption of green agriculture (Foresight 2011).

Supply chains, extension services and NGOs Green farming practices in developing countries must be promoted and supported by information outreach and training programmes that are delivered to farmers and their supply-chain partners. These enhanced and expanded training programmes should build upon established agriculture extension service programmes in those countries where they are now functioning. However, in order to effectively use existing agriculture extension services, it should be recognised that some extension services over the past 50 years have failed due to a pervasive attitude that small farmers need to be “taught”. The green agriculture paradigm requires participatory learning in which farmers and