Agricultural systems are intrinsically multifunctional. Ever since the first crops and animals were domesticated some 10,000 years ago, agricultural systems have fulfilled more than just their primary aim of producing food, fibre and fuel. Agriculture also produces a wide range of non-food goods and services, shapes the natural environment, affects social and cultural systems, and contributes to economic growth. These impacts are often positive, but sometimes negative.
Although well-defined markets exist for food and fibre, agriculture's other non-food functions tend to involve services for which valuation is imperfect, does not exist or has yet to be developed. The issue of the multifunctional character of agriculture and land is not a new one, but the growing attention given to the non-food functions has increased its policy relevance. Multiple outputs are generated by the same activity, so rather than distinguishing between food and non-food `side-effects,' the multifunctional character of agriculture and land implies the joint and integrated production of all outputs. This concept may be applied at many levels: from farm systems to the agricultural sector as a whole within the global economy.
FAO and other institutions focused attention in the 1970s and 1980s on emerging developments in agriculture that could address concerns about future food security, productivity and sustainability. Thinking was crystallised as an approach to "Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD)," with the principal characteristics being that "such sustainable development (in the agricultural, fisheries and forestry sectors) conserves land, water, plant and animal genetic resources, is environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable." Significant accomplishments have included support to improvements in farm-level information, technology and organization as well as a better understanding of the linkages between rural areas and external institutional and commercial forces.
Evolving from SARD, the concept of the Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land (MFCAL ) is defined as the entire range of associated environmental, economic and social functions of agriculture. The concept encompasses all the multiple goods and services generated by agriculture and related land-use. Analysis of the multifunctional character contributes to understanding the combination of potential synergies and trade-offs necessary to achieve sustainability in agriculture and rural development.
This paper reviews discusses the contributions that the multifunctional character of agriculture has made during the 1990s to improving the sustainability of agriculture and related land use while maintaining its primary role of providing food security. The concept of multiple functions is employed to better appreciate the important contribution that agriculture can make to sustainability goals. The domain of agriculture here includes forestry and fish farming. This review, the accompanying Issues Paper and six Background Papers constitute the principal inputs to the FAO/Netherlands Conference on the Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land at Maastricht in the Netherlands from 12-17 September 1999. The value and implications of the evidence in this paper cannot be appreciated without reference to the Issues Paper.
The overall objective of the Conference is to identify the new practices and the necessary enabling environments that will lead to increased agricultural sustainability. Its particular emphasis is on raising international, national and local awareness of the range, diversity and positive potential of the multiple contributions that agriculture and related land-use can make to improving sustainability in the broad sense.
The principal tasks of the Conference are to:
The first chapter of this paper describes the main sources of information that have been used to examine the MFCAL concept at different levels and scales and the way the information was collected, analysed and assessed. The second chapter presents the results of these information-gathering activities, illustrated by a series of case studies and summaries of progress in groups of countries at different stages of development. The final chapter sets out some conclusions and provides a link to the accompanying Issues Paper, which describes the MFCAL concept, the key issues and the policy implications, sets out an analytical framework and discusses the way forward.
The examples presented in the paper are drawn from a collection of 130 case studies, results of the literature reviews and other sources identified by the principal contributors. The examples do not constitute a representative sample, nor do they attempt to present the full range of possible ways in which the multifunctional character of agriculture and land can contribute to sustainability. The examples are organised to illustrate the three major functional groupings presented in the Issues Paper: the environmental, economic and social functions. The selection covers different geographical, institutional and environmental contexts. Issues of scale and combinations of activities and impacts are addressed, with a balance between the developed and developing world, and between various regions. Each case encapsulates in a few sentences the complexity, the temporal dimensions and the types of transformations characteristic of agriculture at the end of the 20th Century. The examples are useful guides to trends in global agriculture, and did not emerge from formal selection in consultation with each country. The cases, and the key areas identified relative to agriculture and land, do not constitute an analysis of prevailing national conditions.
Together, these papers and six Background Papers provide a broad, integrated and thematically coherent examination of MFCAL issues for the benefit of policy-makers, technicians, practitioners and other interested parties. The analysis seeks to inform and guide but not prescribe national and international policies and actions.
The titles of the Background Papers are as follows:
Sustaining the Multiple Functions of Agricultural Biodiversity. Background Paper 1: Agricultural Biodiversity:
The Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land: the energy function. Background Paper 2: Bioenergy.
Drylands and the MFCAL Approach. Background Paper 3: Drylands.
Environment, Trade and SARD: Concepts, Issues and Tools. Background Paper 4: Environment and Trade.
Research and Technology and the Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land. Background Paper 5: Research and Technology.
The Contribution of Blue Water and Green Water to the Multifunctional Character of Agriculture and Land. Background Paper 6: Water.