2.1.1. Growth of population in the region
The second half of the twentieth century is of great demographic significance for Asia and the Pacific region. By mid-century the rate of population growth in most countries of the region had risen to unprecedented levels as mortality declined and life expectancy increased. Population growth peaked at 2.2 percent per year during the period 1960-1970, the most rapid rate in history. Population growth has now slowed to 2.0 percent because several countries have begun a transition to lower fertility. For example, China has a strong population control programme and there has been significant progress in certain other countries such as Thailand and Indonesia. Because of its initially high base figure, Asia’s population has more than doubled over the past four decades and the region has contributed an increasing percentage of the world’s population. This situation is expected to continue until the year 2000, when Asia’s population may reach 59.3 percent of the world’s population. This proportion should then decline as population growth rates fall, but the continent’s population is expected to rise from 3.1 billion in 1990 to an estimated 4.9 billion by the year 2025 (ESCAP 1994).
2.1.2. Trends in environmental degradation
Since 1961, the area under agriculture has increased by about 170 Mha. The area for arable crops has increased by 30 Mha and for permanent crops by about 15 Mha. About two-thirds of the expansion of agricultural land, or 115 Mha, has come from the cultivation of previously unused or barren land. The remaining 55 Mha has come from conversion of forests and other wooded lands. The need to make a living has led many farmers to use unsuitable areas, such as steeply sloping hillsides subject to rapid erosion, semi-arid areas or tropical forests with very fragile soils. The area of arable land per head of agricultural population in the region has reduced from a mere 0.34 ha in 1961 to 0.26 ha in 1989, compared to the average 1.6 ha in the rest of the world (Dent 1992). This is expected to fall further to 0.09 ha by 2025 given the trends in population growth stated above (World Resources Institute 1992). FAO considers that the Asia-Pacific region as a whole has "reached or passed the safe limits for the horizontal expansion of agricultural production" (Dent 1992). The consequence of this expansion has been massive deforestation.
During the period 1950-1976 an estimated 4 Mha per year was deforested for expansion of cropland in the region. During 1980-1990 the rate of deforestation increased to 4.4 Mha/year and is the highest among the three major tropical regions. South-east Asia exhibited the highest rate of forest decrease (1.6 percent) and South Asia the lowest (0.6 percent).
Most tropical moist forests have been lost to agricultural settlement, but in peninsular and insular South-east Asia exploitation by logging companies may have been a major factor.
Tropical forests perform a variety of social and ecological functions. Their most important functions are to protect and enrich soils, provide natural regulation of the hydrologic cycle, affect local and regional climate through evapo-transpiration and influence watershed flows of surface and groundwater.
A major consequence of deforestation is land degradation. According to the Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD) sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme, in Asia some 747 Mha, or 19.8 percent of the total vegetated area, was degraded by 1990. For Asia, 40 percent of land degradation was stated to have been caused by deforestation, 27 percent by agricultural activities and 26 percent by overgrazing. The GLASOD study reference to deforestation includes conversion of forest land to agriculture, urban use and large-scale logging. Degradation from agricultural activities includes inappropriate soil management practices such as shortened fallow periods in shifting cultivation, exposure during fallow, use of heavy machinery leading to soil compaction and acidification through overuse of fertilizers.
According to Dent (1990) only 14.2 percent of all remaining arable and permanently cropped land is free from soil-related constraints to agricultural development.
While accurate data are not available on soil erosion and degradation in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, a study indicates that as early as the 1950s in China the area eroded by water was computed to be 150 Mha, and the area eroded by wind was 130 Mha. Together these represented 30 percent of the total land area of the country. Despite extensive rehabilitation it is estimated that the total area has actually increased up to the present time.
In India, the total area subject to water and wind erosion was estimated to be 144.1 Mha in 1984/85, or 48.5 percent of the total land area. Over the country as a whole, average erosion rates have been estimated at 16.4 t/ha/year which is significantly higher than the permissible value (Randhawa and Abrol 1990). A national inventory of watershed conditions in Nepal revealed that 63 percent of the Siwalik zone, 86 percent of the middle hills and 48 percent of the transitional zone suffered from degradation. As a result of sedimentation, the bed levels of the Terai rivers are rising 15-30 cm annually; at the present rate of siltation, Phewa Lake near Pokhara will be filled in the next 50-60 years. In India, of the total sediment load mentioned above, 10 percent is deposited in reservoirs, thereby reducing their capacity (ESCAP 1994).
In Thailand, 17.2 Mha, or 33.7 percent of the total land area, has been degraded, mainly through water erosion. The total amount of suspended sediment from all watersheds is estimated at 27 billion tonnes annually. Figures from Vietnam suggest that wind erosion during the typhoon season on the coastal fringe carries away 30-70 tonnes of soil per hectare. (Dent et al. 1992).
With regard to the specific problems of waterlogging, salinization and sodicity, the most serious situation occurs in Pakistan. In the country as a whole, around 12 Mha is now estimated to suffer from salinity and waterlogging; this equals 16 percent of the total land area. In China, 8 percent of the land area is affected by salinity where seasonal accumulation of salts in coastal areas has been exacerbated by "irrational irrigation" (Dent et al. 1992).
According to the World Bank, crude estimates available from a small sample of countries in Asia indicate that losses in productive potential attributable to soil depletion may amount to 0.5-1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually.
Poor water management is another factor which has contributed to land degradation and to the spread of water-borne diseases, because poor drainage and irrigation practices lead to waterlogging and salinization. The irrigation systems in the Indus basin (India and Pakistan) are examples. In some situations the water appears satisfactory to start with, but because of the high evapotranspiration and low rainfall, salts accumulate in the root zone to an extent that affects crop production.
Agricultural development in the region has been through four distinct stages:
1. swidden cultivation;
2. rainfed cultivation;
3. irrigated cultivation;
4. sustainable cultivation.
In the first stage, agriculture was practised within a natural recovery cycle, but because of growing populations and land availability becoming scarce, swidden cultivation gave way to in situ cultivation. It was at the third stage that agricultural development approached the ultimate limit in national economies. Dictated by the social demands, development activities in agriculture aimed to increase agricultural production and to expand economic activities. During this period, government efforts focussed on reservoir construction, groundwater exploration, development of irrigation and drainage systems, agricultural land reclamation, etc. The fourth stage, sustainable development, is now being pursued in every country, to ensure sustained productivity while maintaining ecological integrity.
Countries in Asia and the Pacific region have had many objectives in promoting agricultural development, including the achievement of food security, growth of their total economies, improved health and nutrition of their populations, and protection of the environment and natural resources. However, the first priority has been to stimulate growth in rural income by rapid generation of an agricultural surplus, and to ensure that macro-policies create a stable economic environment.
In the 1960s most Asian economies were largely rural with agriculture accounting for about two-thirds of the labour force and one-third of GDP. During this period, there existed a potentially high degree of complementarity between the growth of the agricultural and industrial sectors. To exploit this potential the countries had to invest in agricultural infrastructure and technology, while taxing a portion of the generated agricultural surplus to invest in industrial development.
There was a surprisingly high degree of uniformity in the agricultural investment strategies across Asia. Countries pursued measures that would increase the production of rice, perhaps foremost as a way of maintaining political stability. The development and release of modern fertilizer-responsive varieties offered the potential for achieving rapid yield increases in many areas. The World Bank, national and international research institutions, private fertilizer companies and the like all had pursued a common objective, and efforts to increase rice production absorbed much of the foreign and domestic agricultural investment. The energy crisis and shortages of grain supplies in the mid-1970s reinforced the commitment to investments in the rice sector.
However, the steady decline in rice prices up to the mid-1980s led to a growing emphasis on diversification of agricultural production. The comparative advantage in production of alternative agricultural commodities, and hence the strategy for diversification, varied widely from one country to another. Governments were well advised to allow the market to determine the direction of diversification and to invest in infrastructure (e.g. roads, communications, etc.), institutions, (e.g. research, agrarian reform, etc.) and in human capital to improve the efficiency of agriculture and stimulate private investment. The sequel to the strategies adopted has been economic development supported by the surpluses generated in the agricultural sector.
The rate of growth of agricultural productivity was facilitated by adequate supplies of fertilizer, and by investments in water control and management; and in research and extension to improve the efficiency of production. Investments were made in marketing facilities, transportation, and communication to improve the efficiency of marketing. Structural adjustments were made, to cope with the economic disparities that existed between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors as well as to minimize the unabated degradation of ecological resources.
However, during the 1990s, there has been a shift in focus from agriculture to industrially- orientated economic growth in most of the countries, particularly the economies belonging to the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), until the economic ‘meltdown’ in 1997 compelled them to reconsider this approach.
2.3.1. Land and water
Land and water are the two basic resources in the agricultural production system of any region. Either arable land has to be expanded or land productivity has to be harnessed through increasing yield and cropping intensity; available water resources also have to be harnessed to maximize their contribution to yield increase and to minimize the impact of periodic drought.
According to FAO, the total land under agricultural production represents 36 percent of the world’s potential arable land. Fifty-four percent of harvested land is under cereal production. Of the total land in use, 14 percent is under irrigation (fully and partially irrigated). In the Asia-Pacific region, 82 percent of the potential land is in use, but only 27 percent is under irrigation. Based on available arable land there is hardly any potential for horizontal expansion of agriculture, though there is much room for expanding irrigation in Asia to reduce food insecurity.
It is pertinent to mention that both large- and small-scale irrigation, if not properly monitored and controlled, can cause problems of conservation. Because of inappropriate water management and inadequate drainage, half of the world’s irrigated lands are suffering from waterlogging and salinization, with some 1-1.5 Mha, mostly prime agricultural land, being affected each year. More land is being lost to salinization every year than is being brought under new irrigation. This problem is likely to get worse in irrigated areas of Asia. In India, for example, waterlogging has made about 10 Mha unproductive, and salinization threatens some 25 Mha. This means a substantial loss of output for poor farmers. Environmental concerns loom large on the horizon, and represent a continuing threat to household food security. Ironically, longer-term environmental degradation and loss of land productivity are often caused by the short-term food security needs of those households. (Alamgir and Arora 1991).
Increasing population pressure on agriculture, resulting from inadequate growth in off-farm employment opportunities and a lack of access to yield-improving technologies, is forcing many farmers to cultivate marginal lands and overuse other natural resources for their immediate survival. In many countries that are striving for equitable and sustainable development, poverty alleviation is a core element of the national development plan. In this context, access to land has been considered to be vital both for food security and for access to other resources and to social and political power.
Table 1. Landless and land-poor households in selected countries*
|
Country |
Pure landless (as a percentage |
Landless and land-poor |
|
Bangladesh |
29 |
78.0 (1.0 ha) |
|
India |
30 |
55.0 (1.0 ha) |
|
Indonesia |
36 (Java only) |
71.0 (1.0 ha) |
|
Korea, Republic of |
- |
38.0 (1.0 ha) |
|
Pakistan |
- |
34.0 (2.0 ha) |
|
Philippines |
37 |
|
|
Sri Lanka |
19 |
43.0 (1.0 ha) |
|
Thailand |
10 |
16.0 (1.0 ha) |
*table adapted after Alamgir and Arora, 1991
In Asia as a whole, one-third to one-half of smallholders have to subsist on very small holdings of below 1 ha. Many of these holdings are in marginal areas and these have to support relatively large households. In terms of landless and near landless people, Asia has the largest number (129 million). About 78 percent and 71 percent of rural households in Bangladesh and Indonesia, respectively, fall into the category of landless and land-poor (see Table 1). A number of other countries in Asia have one-third or more of the rural population in this category. These population groups are among the most vulnerable in terms of food security.
Land reform pertains to the remodelling of tenure rights and the redistribution of land, in directions consistent with the political imperatives underlying the reform. A major objective of land reform in Asia has been to break up feudal estates. Reforms in East Asia have been comprehensive, creating a class of independent property-owning peasants and alleviating poverty and landlessness. However, the contexts have been highly specific, thereby limiting replicability. In East Asia, land reform has usually entailed the transfer of rights to tenants, without breaking up operational holdings. With the exception of the Philippines, almost no attempt has been made in East Asia to subdivide plantations for distribution to labourers. Plantations remain largely unchanged, either as private enterprises, often foreign-owned, or as state enterprises when confiscated from foreign firms (e.g. Indonesia, Sri Lanka). However the impact leaves much to be desired. The only successes worth mentioning are those of the Republic of Korea, Japan and Taiwan. There, strong political commitment combined with administrative and mass mobilization has achieved what was otherwise inconceivable. Improved land distribution backed by institutional support, input supply and credit has helped achieve significant agricultural growth and improved food security in these countries.
In the 1990s, decollectivization and privatization in the former socialist economies such as China, Viet Nam, Laos, etc., provided a new dimension to land reform. Beginning in 1979, under the new agricultural policy adopted by the People’s Republic of China, family units of landholding were encouraged with provision for direct sale of surplus food in the market. In Viet Nam a massive land allocation programme is still being pursued.
In South Asia and in the Philippines, the reforms generally proceeded in four steps:
1) abolition of intermediaries;
2) protection of tenants’ rights and regulation of rent, culminating in legislation ensuring "land to the tiller";
3) ceiling on land holdings and distribution of the surplus land among small farmers and landless labourers;
4) experimentation with cooperative farming.
Of these reforms, measures to remove the intermediaries have been quite successful.
The results of the tenancy reforms present a mixed picture. While some tenants, particularly the medium and large tenants, have benefited from these reforms, the small and landless tenants have suffered. In their case, the overt tenancy has been replaced by concealed tenancy; long-term leases have become short-term; annual leases have become seasonal; written agreements have been replaced by oral agreements; and formal arrangements have become informal.
Ceiling legislation has been effective in very few countries. The land declared surplus has been much less than the estimated surplus, land sequestered has been less than the land declared surplus; land distributed has been less than land sequestered; and land cultivated by the beneficiaries has been less than land distributed to them. Cooperative farming has been an unqualified failure (Vyas 1994).
The present millenium has come to an end, but many countries continue to grapple with the complex task of providing access to land, controlling land degradation, achieving poverty alleviation and environmental protection goals within a somewhat conflicting framework that contains socio-political commitments to achieving equity as well as growth. The cost of reversing environmental degradation is proving to be very high. For most countries in the region, investment in such activities would entail drawing resources away from other important development activities. Therefore there is an increasing emphasis on the incorporation of environmental considerations in policy formulation as well as in development project selection and the evolution of appropriate production systems.
2.3.2. Research and extension
Over the past three decades, productivity growth has been responsible for a large part of the agricultural development in the region. Among other factors, research and extension are recognized as having contributed vitally to this increase in productivity and to efforts to ensure sustainable growth.
An international system of research institutions has emerged over the past three decades with the building of the International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs). Institutions such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), among others, now work closely with National Agricultural Research Centres. Most research in Asia responds to the IARCs’ "research spill-in" and can be described as adaptive research. The concept of research spill-in refers to research results or technology developed at IARCs.
Recognition of the importance of research on resource-poor areas has also been growing throughout the region over the last two decades. In the context of rainfed farming, for example, India in 1970 established a major programme of research in dryland agriculture. Some 22 research centres in various agro-ecological zones have been involved. In China, some 30 research institutes concerned with dryland farming have been established throughout the country, including the Agricultural Research Center for Dryland Farming in Arid and Semi-arid Areas at the North-western Agricultural University. In 1984, China also decided to emphasize ‘ecological agriculture’ as a major thrust in its policies for environmental protection.
Elsewhere, rather than national programmes, the thrust has been mainly in the direction of individual projects. From these programmes and projects, many possibilities for tackling the problems of rainfed dryland agriculture have been identified. The directions of research have been broadly classified as:
The first two of these may be classified as engineering-based approaches; the latter two are biological approaches. In the first category, the basic principle relates to the monsoonal rainfall regime which is characteristic of most of the region’s rainfed areas. Thus the aim is to conserve excess moisture in the wet season for use in the dry season. This can be achieved through improved on-farm water management and harvesting of downslope run-off. This ‘water harvesting’ approach involves mainly small-scale engineering works such as farm ponds, tanks, wells, and gully plugs. The latter serve to control the flow down intermittent water courses, while various forms of ponds and tanks serve to store water at the foot of the slopes and to assist percolation. Such ponds are constructed close to and connected with gully plugs to help control and store water. Experience in India has shown that various types of structure are more or less suitable for various levels of rainfall, soil and slope or topographic conditions.
In less arid areas the approach simply emphasizes the construction of small-scale water resources. However small in scale, these water resources offer the opportunity for intensive cropping of vegetables and other high-value crops, which can take pressure off more fragile lands. In the Magsaysay Award-winning Royal Project in the hill areas of northern Thailand, a major principle has been to concentrate cultivation of vegetables, fruit and flowers in the small areas of irrigated land available. These small-scale systems can offer incomes of several thousand dollars annually.
A second engineering-based approach is through soil conservation and development measures, which are largely centred on one or other form of terracing or bunding. Again the actual design depends on the same combination of physical factors mentioned in relation to water conservation.
Often, suitable crops and crop varieties have had to be selected carefully for rainfed areas, not only because of the variation in conditions but also because of the inconsistency of moisture stress periods in such climatic regimes. A main thrust has been to develop crop varieties that can be grown within those periods when rainfall is most assured. This usually means short-duration varieties, which have the added advantage of facilitating cultivation of a second crop on residual moisture. Such systems have been promoted in areas of medium rainfall (the semi-humid zones in rice cultivation systems), with the main thrust being a legume crop following the rice harvest. However, the success of these systems depends very much on local soil conditions and the level of the water table.
Several directions have been followed in research into crop husbandry practices. These have included zero or minimum tillage; off-season tillage to maximize the value of early season rains; direct seeding, sometimes involving simple seed drills; careful timing of fertilizer applications; and fertilizer placement rather than broadcasting. The main thrust with regard to alternative cropping systems has been towards intercropping, with examination of the optimum spacing of the various crops in the system in terms of yields.
In all this work, stress has been on risk-avoidance. To this end, many of the techniques have been designed to reach a compromise between the traditional practices of the farmer in fragile areas and the modern inputs necessary to help make these more responsive to the present situation.
This is certainly the thrust of China’s ecological agriculture approach. Review of recent Western literature stressing organic farming indicates that many of the methods proposed therein are not strange to Chinese farmers. The concept of ecological agriculture marks a return to those earlier traditions, but it is now expanded to incorporate a broader range of enterprises, and moves away from the traditional subsistence focus. This approach does not totally reject inorganic energy inputs, as has been recommended in the West. Typical examples of ecological agricultural techniques include biogas digesters, high efficiency stoves, earthworm raising, rice field fishery, multilayer fish culture, raising natural enemies of pests, biological methods of erosion control, agroforestry techniques, intercropping, and solar heaters.
These principles and foci of agronomic research in rainfed farming have been widely accepted. Perhaps it is the adoption of the principles of a farming systems approach and the methods of analysis of such systems that are the outstanding features of the present research thrust. Increasingly, researchers are accepting that it is necessary to start their work at farmers’ needs and problems, and to involve farmers in trial and adaptation of any ideas which emerge from the analysis. The advantage of working closely with farmers is that ‘farmer-to-farmer’ extension methods may also be able to replace the conventional framework (ESCAP 1994).
In the North-east Rainfed Agricultural Development Project (NERAD) in Thailand and in the Lumle Agricultural Centre in Nepal, stress has been placed on a problem-orientated farming systems approach for the development of technologies to solve specific problems appropriate to local conditions. In North-east Thailand, these have included direct-seeded rice, a pre-rice green manure crop, development of fish-rice culture and simple farm implements (Craig and Utai 1988).
At the Lumle Agricultural Centre, similar low-cost interventions have been identified. A particular feature has been their mutually supporting impact. The improvement of cattle and buffalo breeds in the area has been accompanied by stall feeding, cultivation of fodder trees, and provision of tree saplings through village level nurseries. These nurseries have also provided vegetable seeds in areas where access to market makes cultivation a feasible proposition (Pound et al. 1992).
Disappointments have been experienced in the application of the technical measures outlined. The general conclusion is that "research has added very little to traditional farmers’ understanding of the potential use of structural measures".
2.3.3. Extension
Every country in Asia and the Pacific region, being predominantly agricultural, has at least one agricultural extension system. These systems aim to assist farm people to improve their standards of living and lift their social and educational levels through education, and to improve farming methods and techniques for increased production efficiency and income. Even though the purpose of agricultural extension remains the same, the ways of meeting it differ. Some countries have continued to use the strategy of technology transfer, while others have adopted the integrated rural development approach, the specialized commodity approach, the project impact on group approach, etc. In some countries, the extension systems are centrally directed and controlled; in others, they are locally and provincially directed and controlled.
However, over the years, extension systems have been undergoing modifications to meet local needs and priorities. Such modifications can be seen in terms of extension approaches, organizational set-up, extension agent-to-farmer ratio, the ratio of field staff to subject-matter specialists, the thrust to concentrate assistance to women farmers, strengthening the research-extension linkages and the demand for highly qualified extension agents to perform good quality extension work.
In the light of their different needs and conditions, countries in this region view agricultural extension organizations differently. In most countries, the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the development of the country’s agricultural extension system, its role being played either by a fully-fledged extension department or by a division within the Ministry. An extension division or section is also found in departments or ministries of livestock, fisheries, forestry, irrigation, rural development, etc., where these sectors are not part of agriculture, and thus are treated separately. There are also countries that have one clear-cut national agricultural extension organization or agency, such as the Department of Agricultural Extension in Thailand and Bangladesh, the Bureau of Agricultural Extension in Indonesia, or the Guidance Bureau of the Rural Development Office of the Republic of Korea.
In many countries, the extension activities are carried out by the Department of Agriculture; in others, agricultural extension is claimed to be the function of several departments and institutions, with separate extension organizations.
Beyond the line-agencies of the government, agricultural extension activities are also being carried out by banking and credit institutions, farm input suppliers, private voluntary organizations, religious groups, and private or public firms that purchase farmers’ output.
2.3.4. Extension approaches
The predominant approach to extension being pursued in many countries in the Region is general extension for improving the efficiency and the productivity of the entire farm business (crop, animal, farm management, home improvement, etc.). However, over the last 20 years many countries have adopted the World Bank-sponsored Training and Visit (T & V) system of extension. Other approaches, including those undertaken in the integrated rural/agriculture development project, the specialized commodity approach, the project impact on group approach, etc., are also being adopted and modified to suit local conditions. There are very few ‘pure’ extension systems in operation today. Many of the current T & V systems, and similarly many of the other extension approaches, have undergone modification and integration to produce a unique system or approach that meets the needs of the country and the farming community.
Generally, the goals pursued, the resources allocated, and the approaches employed by the extension system vary greatly. Similarly, the coverage of the extension activities, their clientele, and the achievements made are dependent on the above factors (Jalil 1994).
2.3.5. Technology
Technological change in agriculture is fundamental to economic growth, food security, and family welfare in developing countries. International and national institutional effort in the agricultural sector in the last three decades has mainly been directed to improving production technology and the adoption of new techniques, especially for food crops and ruminant livestock.
Taking into account the need to feed rapidly increasing populations in the future, the thrust in the past has been on intensification of agriculture. Consequently there has been extraordinary technical change in the agricultural sector in the last several decades, which has led to increases in food production in Asia considerably in excess of population growth. The new varieties spread more widely and more quickly than any other technological innovation in the history of agriculture in developing countries. However, it is becoming apparent that these technical changes have largely been confined to the rather limited areas associated with the first and second level agricultures. A closer look at crop production in the region during the past decade reveals that production increases have mainly come from intensification in production on existing cultivated areas, leading to higher yields. This has been particularly true of rice, wheat, coarse grains, cotton and fibre crops. In other instances, there have been increases both in yields and in harvested area, such as with sugar cane, tea, cocoa, chillies and peppers. Only in the case of coffee has the increased production come primarily from increases in harvested area. At the same time, the harvested area, yields and production of roots, tubers and pulses has stagnated or actually declined.
Most technologies in the past few decades, notably the Green Revolution technology, raised intensity, by substituting mono-crop systems for traditional mixed cropping systems. They are characterized by full use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, continuous cropping or rotations, full tillage and extensive use of machines. However this technology is now blamed for (i) reducing the amount of organic matter in the soil because of deep ploughing, (ii) soil compaction, which restricts root growth and water retention and air exchange, because shallow rooted crops and heavy machinery have been used, and (iii) soil erosion because of row crop monocultures. Off-farm, there have been significant negative impacts on water quality and the environment at large, due to run-off of fertilizers and pesticides.
In fact, low external input mixed farming systems are now being advocated. This new technology, also commonly known as alternative agriculture, is based on practices such as crop rotation, reduced or zero tillage, mechanical or biological weed control, integration of livestock with crops, reduced or non-use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, integrated pest management, and the provision of nutrients from various organic sources. This is close to traditional farming practices such as crop rotation, returning animal manure to the soil, fully tilling the soil, and using ox-driven cultivation, still practised in some countries. In fact, alternative agriculture may have a lot to learn from traditional agriculture, and new technologies will have to be locale- and soil-specific. It is argued that initially the yield may be lower but that it will pick up later. Even when the yield is lower, the profitability will still be high when the degradation and erosion of soil are halted and the off-farm impacts in the form of negative externalities are considerably reduced.
Experiments in alternative agriculture technologies are taking place at two levels: first at a small-scale level developing locally, using traditional knowledge. A study in the Philippines demonstrates the interactive mode in which technological development and assimilation took place in the ipil-ipil biostrip experiment. Farmers’ needs were looked into in great detail; the promoters realized that farmers’ systems change continually and that they do different things at different points of time. The promoters’ dynamic response made the experiment successful. Furthermore, "scaling up" was not done automatically, but instead the extension system first examined the farmers’ needs and then provided the requisite services.
The second kind of experiment pursued in alternative agriculture is in very sophisticated laboratories, and its outcome will be the basis for biotechnology. It is feared that advances in biotechnology and their extensions, unless carefully crafted, will by-pass a large section of peasantry.
In overpopulated countries, however, macro-planners will have to weigh the policies of alternative agriculture and achieve a trade-off between present food requirements at low cost and the negative externalities generated by past technologies.
Appropriate technology is the main vehicle for smallholders’ development. Technology is either mechanical and labour-saving, or biological and chemical, which is land-saving. Land is the major constraint to small farmers, so biological technology is more relevant. In fact, gains from biological technology have in some cases created demand for mechanical technology. Biological technology is urgently required by small farmers, though small-scale mechanical technology, besides reducing the drudgery of farm work, particularly women’s work, can increase output.
The two main components of biological technology are the breeding of new varieties and the improvement of cultural practices. The most recent successes in Asia have been in wheat and rice grown under relatively good physical environments, but improved varieties of these two crops are scarce for less favourable conditions, e.g. drought-prone areas. Small farmers are concentrated in drought-prone areas and mainly grow coarse grains such as sorghum or millet, pulses, roots and tubers. Improved technologies for these areas and crops have been slow in coming. Thus in India, the lack of improved varieties was a major cause of the slow growth in production of coarse grains, pulses and oilseeds, which lost against the rapid growth in production of wheat and rice. This led to a rise in the import bill for vegetable oils, which skyrocketed from US$9 million in 1961 to US$800 million in 1987. The dearth of these sorts of improved technologies is the major barrier to the development of indigenous crops. The small-scale livestock enterprises run by small farmers suffer from the same weakness.
Therefore, in contrast to the prevailing situation, if food security at the household level is to be enhanced then technological changes must aim to increase resource productivity as well as labour productivity. The new technology must be cost effective with minimum need for external inputs.
2.4.1. Credit
It has long been recognized that the increased availability of credit leads to faster economic growth. This prescription for the process of growth arose to a large extent from the work of John Maynard Keynes (1935) which focussed on keeping interest rates low to stimulate investment, which in turn should produce greater output. The Keynesian approach also emphasized the need to dampen preferences for cash, to maximize the holdings of productive assets.
The Keynesian prescription of low interest rates fits well with the supply-led strategy of financial development (Patrick 1966) in which finance is provided in advance of effective demand. Thus, Asia and the Pacific region has witnessed the birth of specialized lending institutions and programmes, servicing priority commodities and sectors.
Various types of institutions in the region have been used to provide credit to rural households (IFAD 1988):
The generally observed feature is that the smallholders and poor households who need credit have very limited access to institutional credit. Living in remote areas and often illiterate, they have trouble in understanding complicated lending formalities. Eligibility requirements, such as collateral or guarantees, have further excluded them from traditional banking institutions. Thus, the rural poor have been forced to resort to exploitative, informal sources of credit. The cost of such credit is very high, and it is usually used for emergency or consumption needs, marriages, etc., rather than for productive investment. Resort to such loans entrenches the rural poor in their food insecurity. The underlying reason for this is that small-value loans to poor farmers have high costs for the traditional credit institutions. Moreover, repayment rates have often been poor, which has further eroded their interest in undertaking such loans. The situation is further exacerbated because institutions extending credit to rural households do not always receive the necessary support from governments and central banks, such as seed capital and periodic enlargement of their capital base. Appropriate credit lines, to channel funds from internal and external sources, are lacking. Besides, even though there has been an enlargement of the capacity of commercial and specialized agricultural banks to reach the rural poor, experience clearly shows that branches alone cannot solve the problem, in the absence of trained staff. Efforts to establish a viable rural credit/savings system, that responds to the needs of smallholder producers, have not received the impetus they deserve. A few countries in the region have initiated the process with the existing informal credit/savings groups and associations. This has facilitated new sources of financing and growth to the former, while offering the latter a means for engaging in rural credit, at the same time keeping down administrative costs. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, supported by WAD, is a notable example whose bank workers help landless men and women to form small groups of five persons, teach them bank rules, and see them through the process of project selection, loan application, credit delivery, credit utilization, periodic savings mobilization, and loan repayment. This experiment has been so successful that it has been nationally expanded in Bangladesh.
Innovations have also been introduced in terms of credit supply. Noteworthy are the credit suppliers who reach potential clients by motorcycle (the Mobile Credit Officers in Pakistan), bicycle (Group Organizers in Nepal), and even on foot (Field Bank Workers in Bangladesh), with administrative formalities kept to a minimum (Alamgir and Arora 1991).
It needs no emphasis that timely availability of credit is crucial for sustainable agriculture production. Therefore there is a need to ensure that access to institutional credit for smallholders and the rural poor is improved through relaxation of eligibility criteria, particularly the stringent collateral requirements of land or property. The attitudes of credit institutions, through training of bank staff, must become more sensitive to the important needs of smallholders. There is also a need to establish a favourable macro-policy framework conducive to healthy rural credit and savings institutions. For this, it will be necessary to periodically review interest rates and credit policies, pricing, exchange rates, tax and marketing policies, and to strengthen institutions both at the lending and at the borrowing levels.
2.4.2. Pricing
In most countries of the region, the governments have considered either one or both price relatives - prices for farmers relative to consumer prices, and prices for farmers relative to prices of farm inputs - when determining an appropriate price level for agriculture commodities. In the case of farm price relative to consumer price, governments have attempted to guarantee remunerative farm-gate prices to their producers and low retail prices to their urban consumers. In the context of farm price relative to input price, government policies recognize that incentives for farm prices are unlikely to stimulate agricultural production or farm income if important inputs into production processes are not reliably available or are highly variable in cost. Farmers in the region are quite sensitive to farm input prices, in particular fertilizer, and these in turn affect commodity yields. In many cases, ad hoc decisions have been made in term of establishing input prices in relation to crop prices.
Success has varied among countries in terms of price support and subsidy policies. Some countries have pursued output price support policy, to encourage producers to use inputs flexibly, to reach an optimum production combination. Other countries have pursued the input subsidy policy to encourage the adoption of a given technology suitable for maximizing production. Output price support policy has benefited farmers with a larger surplus more than others. In some countries, input subsidy has not only benefited small farmers proportionately but also has promoted food security through increased production for household consumption. In others, input subsidies have not produced the desired results because small farmers have little capital with which to buy inputs before the returns are realized.
Notwithstanding the above, success of both the policy approaches is contingent upon the availability of adequate transportation, storage and communications infrastructure. While in some countries, such as Thailand and Indonesia, private investment in trucks, bulking facilities and warehouses has been encouraged, in other countries the governments themselves have made most of the investment in the market transformations, resulting in a heavy burden on government logistic capacity and the budget.
The two relative price concepts above are the major ingredients in the rural and urban terms of trade which determine the overall structure of incentives for agriculture within its short-run technological constraints. But the health of the rural economy in the developing countries of the region depends much more on other forces, that dictate the terms of trade.
These forces relate to macro-policy reforms introduced in the context of large-scale structural adjustment programmes. It is evident that, over the years, the short-term effects on rural poverty, equity and employment have not always been positive. Policy distortions were created both directly and indirectly. Direct distortions other than subsidies have included export taxes and import levies. Indirect distortions have been created by, for example, overvaluation of the exchange rate, depressing prices of agricultural exports and leading to imported produce being cheaper than domestic produce; and by policies which protect industry and favour import substitution, to raise the prices of non-agricultural goods and so harm agriculture’s terms of trade.
Several studies undertaken in the region highlight a persistent direct price discrimination against agricultural exports, when only direct policy effects are considered.
In most cases, government pricing policies have had a bias, favouring consumers over producers, non-agriculture over agriculture, urban areas over rural areas, cash crops over food crops, and cereals over non-cereal food crops. All these have in the long run contributed to the deterioration of the food security status of poor families in most countries of the region.
In the 1990s, recognizing the dangerous effects of the conflict between discriminatory and uniform (pan-territorial) prices, governments started to move away from uniform pricing because it causes loss of efficiency in both production and consumption, particularly when discriminatory pricing increases a government’s ability to induce efficient resource utilization and promote equity. Governments are also focussing on pricing policy, which should increase the marketed surplus and also protect poorer families.
2.4.3. Infrastructure
Good access to rural infrastructure promotes growth in agricultural productivity, provides rural households with off-farm employment opportunities, and accelerates their integration into the market economy. Empirical data indicate a positive correlation between access to infrastructure and living conditions in rural areas.
Over the past three decades a significant amount of foreign economic assistance to developing countries in the region has been in the form of loans for infrastructure: for example, road construction, development of port facilities, power generation and distribution, telecommunication, and, in particular, irrigation.
At least three-quarters of the foreign loans for irrigation investment have been provided by the World Bank. Although in the last decade there has been a downward trend in loans to agriculture, 60 percent of them continue to be for irrigation.
The emphasis in irrigation investment in the mid-1970s was on large reservoir systems. There was strong rationale for emphasis on systems of this type, since it permitted a major expansion of dry season irrigated area. The new seed-fertilizer technology was most effective in raising yields under irrigated dry season conditions. However, there has been growing foreign-donor criticism of the operation and management of these systems. In most large-scale Asian irrigation systems, farmers exercise little control over water supplies, and deliveries are unreliable.
For most infrastructure investments, such as transportation, communication, and electricity, money has been provided by the government from general revenue and taxes. While governments have recognized that for a market-orientated rural economy to thrive, it must be based on a good transport infrastructure, it is ironic that in most countries of the region, the profitability of investments in roads has been underestimated and infrastructure development has to compete with other programmes for resources. As already stated earlier, public investment programmes have focussed on major non-rural projects and have given little attention to rural infrastructure, except irrigation.
Apart from increased non-farm incomes due to better marketing of the farm products, a more dispersed road network would tend to prevent concentration of incomes as well as of activities. Development of road infrastructure would not only enable a faster pace of trickle down, but also enhance the mobility of the poor, and with it the potential areas for employment opportunities.
Lack of rural infrastructure has rendered the rural market inaccessible to outside suppliers and vice versa. Consequently the incentive to produce value-added goods in order to improve income in rural areas remains an uphill task.
