Sustainable development goals for agriculture, rural development and food security

Agriculture is a vital sector in the economies of developing countries and a key issue in the sustainable development and post-2015 development agenda discussions. Lim Li Ching sets out the concerns which should be addressed.

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THE United Nations Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a key process for the follow-up of the outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 (Rio+20).Negotiations on the SDGs are ongoing, and the cluster of issues around 'sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition' has emerged as an important focus area.

Rightly so, as agriculture, broadly understood to include crop and livestock production, fisheries and forestry, is a vital sector in developing countries. Agriculture is central to the survival of millions of people and employs a large section of developing countries' populations. In many developing countries, over half the population live in rural areas, with livelihoods dependent on agriculture-related activities. Furthermore, smallholdings account for approximately 85% of the world's farms and women are the key agricultural producers and providers.

Yet, there is still a high concentration of poverty in rural areas. Poverty eradication and ensuring food and livelihood security will therefore not be possible unless agricultural productivity and rural incomes increase, especially enabled by a focus on smallholder producers and women.

Achieving rural development in general should be an important goal, with ramifications for the need to improve the overall income of rural households as well as their housing, water and sanitation, health facilities, communications and transport, and conditions of life and work. There should thus be priority given to raising the living conditions, infrastructure and work opportunities and incomes of rural communities in developing countries, in particular those of smallholders, women and indigenous peoples. In addition, there is a need for their enhanced access to credit, markets, secure land tenure and other services.

Due to the spread of harmful chemical agriculture, there is also a need for a transition to ecologically sound farming in many areas. With the prospect of a global population of nine billion by 2050, increased food production is needed, but such increased production should be achieved with dramatically reduced use of water and chemicals and pesticides. Achieving sustainable agriculture will also require a substantial reduction in losses and wastage in food produced. 

There is ample evidence showing that sustainable agriculture can contribute to food security and climate resilience. Governments should therefore specifically reorient agriculture policies and significantly increase funding to support biodiverse, sustainable agriculture, as recommended by the International Assessment on Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).

Developing countries' food security relies on the growth of the agriculture sector. Thus, there needs to also be a goal that aims to eliminate hunger and ensure access to food and food security for all. This is because access to food is a basic human right. One in eight people in the world today or a total of 868 million people are undernourished and approximately two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies.

While the formulation of sustainable development goals on agriculture at the national level is laudable, they would not be attainable unless the structural factors, including international factors, are addressed. Similarly, developing countries require international cooperation in finance, technology transfer and capacity building (the means of implementation) if they are to achieve the goals in these issues.

There are many problems at the international level such as imbalances in global agricultural trade (including high subsidies in developed countries that have harmed the agriculture sector in developing countries), inability of small farmers to compete with often subsidised imports due to lowered tariffs, lack of market access for developing-country agricultural products, and inadequate international funding for agriculture. At the same time, excessive food price volatility has been traced to speculative activities in the commodities markets.

Moreover, current agriculture policies are geared to promoting conventional agriculture practices that are unsustainable. Perverse incentives, including those perpetuated under the international trade regime governed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and bilateral free trade agreements, entrench this unsustainable system. Agricultural incentives and subsidies therefore need to be redirected away from destructive monocultures and harmful inputs, towards sustainable agriculture practices of the small-farm sector. These need to be phased out in a fair and equitable manner, taking into account the impact on small farmers in developing countries.

What should goals and targets encompass?

A sustainable development goal that promotes rural development, sustainable agriculture and small farmers' livelihoods/incomes should have targets that focus on the following:

Promoting rural development by adopting or enhancing comprehensive plans and activities, including raising the living conditions, infrastructure and work opportunities and incomes of rural communities in developing countries. 

Boosting agriculture production in developing countries through sustainable agricultural practices. This would entail investing and building infrastructure conducive to sustainable agriculture, such as water supplies and rural roads that facilitate access to markets, and assisting smallholder producers, public financing and transfer of appropriate technologies by developed countries, ensuring proper functioning of markets, storage, rural infrastructure, research, post-harvest practices, etc., and devoting a significant part of the national agricultural budget to sustainable agriculture practices.

Ensuring access by small farmers to land and security of land tenure, particularly women, indigenous peoples and people living in vulnerable situations. The implementation of the Committee on World Food Security Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security would be helpful in this regard.

Ensuring access by small farmers to credit, markets and marketing facilities. In addition, governments need to build and reinforce basic infrastructure, such as water supplies and rural roads that can facilitate access to markets and provide special attention and specific support to women smallholder farmers.

Improving social safety nets to enable farmers and the rural poor to cope with external shocks, such as climate-related disasters. This includes implementing a range of policies that support the economic viability of smallholder agriculture and reduce their vulnerability.

Developing and transitioning to ecological farming through national agriculture policy frameworks that, in particular, increase emphasis on the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity, building healthy soils, and developing and sharing water harvesting and other water management techniques. Sustainable agriculture can be promoted via mechanisms (both traditional extension and more far-reaching farmer-to-farmer networking methods) to train farmers in the best options for sustainable agriculture techniques and to support, document, and share lessons and best practices; direct funding of adoption of agroecological practices that reduce vulnerability and increase resilience, such as soil-fertility-enriching and climate-resilient practices (e.g., use of compost to enhance soil health, water storage and soil quality); and supporting conservation and use of local knowledge and seeds, as well as peasant seed systems and community seed banks.

Implementing a research and knowledge-sharing agenda towards sustainable agriculture. Agricultural research agendas have been dominated by conventional agriculture approaches and the promise of new technologies. Sustainable agriculture has been sidelined, yet it has thrived and has proven successful despite the lack of public support. Research and development efforts must be refocused towards sustainable agriculture, while at the same time strengthening existing farmer knowledge and innovation. Research priorities need to be identified in a participatory manner, enabling farmers to play a central role.

Finally, a specific goal that aims to eliminate hunger and ensure access to food and food security for all is needed. To contribute to this goal, targets could include:

    Increasing the number of countries with policies of enhancing food security and access to adequate, safe and nutritious food for present and future generations, including for children under the age of 2, and through national and global strategies.       

    Adoption of national right to food framework laws and/or inclusion of the right to food in national constitutions, and effective implementation through national right to food strategies.

    Ensuring the availability of nutritious food and safe drinking water in hospitals, health care facilities and schools especially pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, elementary and high school through support of local food production.

Means of implementation and global partnership for development

In order to achieve the goals and targets, the means of implementation and a genuine global partnership for development are prerequisites. This would include the provision of finance, transfer of appropriate technology and capacity building for the adoption of sustainable agriculture and to put in place the required infrastructure, communications and other enabling conditions, and to implement national-level SDGs on rural development and agriculture. As a complement, the scale of the work to promote sustainable agriculture practices by the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, WFP, IFAD) needs to be increased, and this should include technical support to enable countries to transition to and prioritise sustainable agriculture, and appropriate policy advice that supports its implementation.

In addition, there needs to be trade policy in developing countries that promotes small farmers' livelihoods, food security and rural development (three principles accepted in the WTO Doha negotiations). This would establish concrete measures and rules to put into effect the principle that developing countries be enabled to promote food security, farmers' livelihoods and rural development in the multilateral trade rules, as well as in other trade agreements. The prime importance of food security in developing countries should be reaffirmed, and trade rules and negotiations have to recognise and respect this priority, as well as to promote the livelihoods and incomes of small farmers in developing countries.

Specific targets to reduce agricultural subsidies in developed countries can be easily established, given that there has been agreement at the WTO level already to work towards the elimination of all export subsidies in developed countries, and to substantially and effectively reduce trade-distorting subsidies in developed countries. 

The regulation of commodity markets to curb speculation and address food price volatility is imperative to address the root causes of excessive food price volatility, including its structural causes. Managing the risks linked to high and excessively volatile prices and their consequences for global food security and nutrition, as well as for smallholder farmers and poor urban dwellers would also help lessen the impact on the vulnerable.

An increase in international funding including aid to agriculture, particularly sustainable agriculture, in developing countries is needed. In addition, developing countries should be provided adequate policy space, including in conditions for loans and aid, to support their agriculture sector and their farmers through various measures such as credit, marketing, storage, processing, provision of agricultural inputs, land reform and land improvement measures, and measures to make agriculture more sustainable. Furthermore, there is a need for the provision of international financial resources to assist countries to implement national policies for access to food for all.

Finally, the global community should avoid rules that create barriers to small farmers' access and use of seeds and other agricultural inputs, for example the patenting of seeds or genetic resources that originate in developing countries, or plant variety protection consistent with the strict standards of the UPOV 1991 treaty, which may impinge on farmers' rights and affect smallholder agriculture.

Lim Li Ching is a researcher with the Third World Network and coordinates its sustainable agriculture work.

References

South Centre (2013). SDGs: Food security and sustainable agriculture. Sustainable Development Goals: Views from the South. South Bulletin 73, 18 June 2013. South Centre, Geneva. http://www.southcentre.int/south-bulletin-73-18-june-2013/#more-2575

Stabinsky, D. and Lim L.C. (2012). Ecological agriculture, climate resilience and a roadmap to get there. TWN Environment and Development Series 14. Third World Network, Penang.

*Third World Resurgence No. 283/284, Mar/Apr 2014, pp 49-51