Thematic Areas for Potential SARD

& Land Commitments

Good Practices for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development

Background:

1. Although more food is being produced worldwide than ever before, some 800 million people are chronically malnourished; producers, agricultural workers, and wage-dependent smallholders are struggling to maintain a living while rural poverty and environmental degradation continue. Sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD) aims to enhance food security and contribute to poverty reduction in an environmentally sound way, building on indigenous and farmer knowledge and enhancing people’s capacity to work together. Sustainable agriculture produces food and other products for farm families and consumer markets, promotes household livelihoods and contributes to clean and effective water cycles, nutrient cycles, plant and animal biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration in soils, and landscape quality.

2. Sustainable development requires a major contribution from agriculture. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) articulated the objective of "improving farm productivity in a sustainable manner, as well as to increase diversification, efficiency, food security and rural incomes, while ensuring that risks to the ecosystem are minimized." Such sentiments were voiced in Commitment Three of the World Food Summit Plan of Action (1996). Decision 8/4 of the Commission on Sustainable Development’s eighth session (2000), noted that agriculture has to meet the fundamental challenge of satisfying the demands of a growing population for food and agriculture commodities and governments were urged to promote agricultural practices and policies based on natural resources management. At FAO’s 16th session of the Committee on Agriculture (2001) it was stated "SARD must extend to social, institutional, and economic sustainability and that management practices for SARD must be profitable as well as socially and culturally suitable." However, while good practices and policies for SARD have been supported in UNCED and subsequent venues, they have not become universal.

The Evolution of Good Practices and Policies for SARD Since 1992:

3. There is growing appreciation of the positive impact of agriculture on the natural resource base and rural societies and cultures while enhancing food security and reducing poverty. Practices and policies for SARD have evolved over the last decade and are now increasingly improving the sustainability of agricultural production systems. Over 1.2 billion people are directly engaged in agriculture. Even though millions of farmers have adopted farming practices with demonstrably good practices for SARD there is still much room for improvement and a large potential to scale good farming practices in every region. These efforts will be successful to the degree they are multistakeholder and participatory processes from policy to practice, including all major groups at local and national, as well as international levels.

4. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of wider stakeholder participation in problem solving, there is still much work to be done to guarantee effective and equitable partnerships among stakeholder groups. For example, most decision making for production methods ignores agricultural workers or community issues.

5. Other factors that influence the adoption or non-adoption of good practices and policies for SARD include globally competitive markets and trade liberalization, price incentives and market opportunities, decentralization and devolution of agricultural and natural resource decision making, vertical integration in food systems, the digital knowledge/communications divide, and the recognition of natural resources value and ecosystem services.

6. Although examples of good practices for SARD are increasing, not all countries or stakeholders have benefited equally. There remain tensions around implementation strategies for meeting the goals of SARD. Sustainable agriculture practices must be locally adapted with enhanced willingness and capacity to innovate, balancing locally-based agroecological initiatives with technology-dependent solutions. Which approaches are most appropriate to use under what circumstances continues to be the subject of debate.

7. In many industrialized countries, there is increasing concern from consumers about food quality and safety and methods used to produce it. Along with strong demands for environmental protection and animal welfare there is great concern for ethical issues including social equity in production chains, maintenance of intellectual knowledge and property rights (rights of Indigenous Peoples, Farmers’ rights for seeds), access to natural and financial resources, and the recognition of women’s and waged workers’ critical role in agriculture.

Toward New Commitments for Good Practices and Policies for SARD:

8. To achieve sustainable food production, there must be a commitment to structures and processes that build partnerships, capacity and accountability among stakeholder groups through a number of potential strategic actions including:

  1. Balancing investments in conventional agriculture research with research on alternative agricultural techniques (e.g. ecological or organic agriculture);

  2. Training for scientists, farmers, workers and consumers to identify best practices and create participatory approaches for their implementation;

  3. Establishing multi-stakeholder mechanisms to enable ongoing dialogue on land management and access as well as on criteria and indicators for best practices;

  4. Promoting policies and measures to foster sustainable agricultural practices;

  5. Developing niche markets and environmentally sound supply chains for agricultural products; and

  6. Generating mechanisms to strengthen farmer market power.

9. Commitments can be made at the national (NARS) and international level (Bilateral Organizations, Development Banks, the CGIAR) to work with Major Groups to promote environmentally sound agricultural research, practices and policies addressing local food security through integrated farming systems and natural resource management.

10. Multistakeholder mechanisms to highlight approaches and experience sharing on good practice for SARD could help foster consensus among different stakeholder groups. Guidelines, building upon existing good practices of farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk and other traditional resources users, could provide a framework for good agricultural practices that address soil, water, biodiversity, landscapes, crop and animal health, production and protection; human welfare, health and safety (such as ILO core labor standards); energy and waste management, and harvest and on-farm processing and storage - all based on local circumstances. International and national organizations can work with Major Groups to develop guidelines for locally relevant conditions and farming systems in regions around the world.

11. National and local governments can facilitate good policies and practices through enabling legislation, extension activities and financial incentives.

12. Commitments can be made by governments and Major Groups to address farmers’ multiple contributions to society through stewardship incentives and payments to farmers for environmental services.

13. The UN (FAO) can work in partnership with Major Groups to put agricultural concerns back on the global agenda by raising awareness of SARD among member governments. International donor groups can support activities on SARD and good practices that rely on effective stakeholder partnerships.