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Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107i
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Create buffer zones around plantations and farms until pesticides are phased out, to reduce pesticide exposure risk;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Effects of pesticides on the right to food 2017, para. 107l
- Paragraph text
- [States should:] Regulate corporations to respect human rights and avoid environmental damage during the entire life cycle of pesticides;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- The most recent pledges to pursue land reform were made at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development of FAO, convened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in March 2006. The Final Declaration adopted at the Conference encourages the holding of a national and inclusive dialogue to ensure significant progress on agrarian reform and rural development and the establishment of appropriate agrarian reform "mainly in areas with strong social disparities, poverty and food insecurity, as a means to broaden sustainable access to and control over land and related resources". The Governments represented at the Conference also recommended that the FAO Committee on World Food Security adopt of a set of reporting guidelines in order to monitor the implementation of the Declaration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- The preparation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources, led by FAO, is the single most important attempt to follow up on the commitments made at the Conference, and the Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, held in 2009, underlines that link. It is too early to assess the Guidelines in the light of what they promise to achieve. At the regional level, however, the African Union's Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa are an important step in that direction, and the Latin American project to follow up on the Conference, launched in August 2009, involves a large number of countries in the operationalization of the commitments set out in the Declaration. But the overall picture remains uneven across regions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 41a
- Paragraph text
- [In order to protect the right to food, States should:] Conduct decentralized mapping of various users' land rights and strengthen customary systems of tenure. Mapping should be performed at the level of the local community and in a participatory manner. While customary systems of tenure may receive legal recognition, public authorities should ensure that appropriate safeguards are established in order to ensure that control by the community will not be exercised arbitrarily or in ways that lead to discrimination or inequitable outcomes, in keeping with international norms and standards. States should establish appropriate mechanisms for the resolution of land conflicts between landlords and tenants, between land users and the State or between private-sector entities involved in development projects;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 42b (i)
- Paragraph text
- [In order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, States should:] Ensure that market-led land reforms are compatible with human rights. If, despite the reservations expressed in the present report, States choose to seek to improve security of tenure through titling programmes and the creation of land rights markets, they should: Regulate such markets by taking appropriate measures to prevent increased land speculation, increased land concentration, abuse of customary forms of tenure by new landowners, and distress sales by indebted farmers;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 42b (iv)
- Paragraph text
- [In order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, States should:] Ensure that market-led land reforms are compatible with human rights. If, despite the reservations expressed in the present report, States choose to seek to improve security of tenure through titling programmes and the creation of land rights markets, they should: Prioritize the titling of land for those who are dependent on land for their livelihoods and are more vulnerable to land-grabbing, rather than for those who claim to be the formal landowners;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 43c
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur also makes the following recommendations to the international community:] Governments investing in farmland abroad should ensure that they do so in accordance with their human rights obligations. They should regulate the conduct of private actors on which they can exercise an influence, thus helping to protect the human rights of the communities concerned. Similar obligations exist for development banks funding projects that have an impact on land rights (see A/HRC/13/33/Add.2, para. 5);
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- Firms transfer responsibilities for labour management to farmers through contract farming, and labour costs may be lower because contract farmers often use unpaid family workers. Furthermore, firms using contract farming arrangements can maintain more fluid operations because they are not constrained by fixed assets. These are some of the reasons why, for instance, contract farming with smallholders has been seen as an attractive option in India for companies in the horticultural, poultry and dairy sectors. Although transaction costs are relatively high, this model spreads risk over a large number of suppliers (the buyer, therefore, is not at risk if any one major supply source defaults) and provides for flexible supply that adapts easily to volume or quality variations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 24
- Paragraph text
- Under such clauses, firms may reject delivered products by stating falsely that they do not conform to quality regulations, thus transferring financial losses to farmers when market prices are low. Firms can manipulate prices when the price mechanism specified by the contract is not transparent, using complex price formulas, quantity measurements or price measurements. They also can manipulate delivery schedules to benefit from market price changes or from changes in a product's qualities upon which prices are based (for example, delaying the purchase of sugar cane when prices are based on sucrose levels because sucrose levels decline rapidly after harvest).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- The arrangement must be viable for all the parties concerned. If it appears unviable to the buyer, the contract may be terminated or the buyer may renege on obligations when under financial stress, with detrimental consequences for the livelihoods of farmers. If the arrangement is unviable for the farmer, for instance because of an unsustainable debt, the buyer may face supply problems in the short term and incur high reputational costs with other farmers, which may make it more difficult for the buyer to enter into arrangements with other producers in the longer term. Agreements should be structured so that both farmers and firms benefit and so that both sides desire to respect the contract and do not have strong incentives to renege on it.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Contract farming rarely encourages farmers to climb up the value chain and move into the packaging, processing or marketing of their produce. The purpose of contract farming is to organize a division of labour between the seller and the buyer in which the seller is confined to the production of raw commodities. In addition, all the strategic decisions - about what to grow and how to grow and about which markets to target - are with the buyer. The producer is merely the executor. Finally, in contract farming, the interests of the two parties differ: while both have an obvious interest in the success of the arrangement, the terms of the contract will be more or less favourable to each, at the expense of the other. Other business models, therefore, should be explored.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- Farmers (generally through their organizations) and private investors may establish joint ventures, with each party contributing in cash or in kind. Such business models ensure, in theory, that both sides are equal partners and are co owners of the project. Both sides hold equity shares in the joint venture, while retaining their individual legal status and sharing in profits or losses made by the joint venture. Enabling farmers to be shareholders allows them to influence company governance and negotiate price policy, to share in the benefits (whether profit is reinvested or distributed as dividends) and to improve access to credits and other farm-related services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- MBSA is another promising joint venture model, focusing on the production of biodiesel from jatropha in collaboration with smallholders in Burkina Faso and Mali, with support from Dutch private institutional investors and the Government of the Netherlands. In Mali, 2,611 farmers were involved in 2009, having planted 1.6 million jatropha trees on 3,250 ha of land. The farmers are organized in 12 cooperatives, joined in a farmers' union. The union negotiates the price of the jatropha with MBSA and provides support to the farmers. The farmers' union is represented on the board of the company and owns a 20 per cent share of the company. The farmers, therefore, benefit directly from the sale of their produce and from dividend payments as shareholders.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- In the City of Durban/eThekwini Municipality, with a population approaching 4 million people, a new Agricultural Management Section within the municipality seeks not only to support community food gardens, but also community mini-farms and emerging commercial farms. The municipality identified 26 farmers' associations and 800 community gardens and aims to improve market linkages with the urban residents. It is estimated that, provided that there is adequate support, such gardens could generate 60,000 jobs. One key objective for the municipality is to become increasingly self-sufficient in fresh and affordable food through surplus sales to the urban centre. The Agricultural Management Section established six hubs to pursue this strategy - in effect, centres to support local farmers and improve their ability to market their produce, including sites demonstrating agroecology techniques, a research and development centre on agroecology, training sites, a packing and marketing hub and, in the future, a seed bank.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Governments should ensure that the degree of competition among traders is sufficient to prevent farmers from being locked into unequal relationships with a particular trader in the absence of alternative buyers for a given crop. In particular, Governments should ensure that the expansion of contract farming does not result in the dismantling of public support schemes and the privatization of agricultural extension services, which would narrow the range of options available to small-scale farmers and increase the asymmetry of power between unorganized small-scale farmers and private actors operating on a national, regional or global scale.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Human rights criteria for making contract farming and other business models inclusive of small-scale farmers 2011, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Development partners and international organizations can ensure that contract farming schemes work for the benefit of the poor small-scale food producers and respect the principles of the right to adequate food, including by increasing the capacity of community-based organizations to negotiate equitable agreements with the private sector, by contributing to financing equity participation by local communities in joint ventures or by supporting farmer-controlled enterprises to acquire the assets and managerial skills necessary to climb up the value chain, as initial support is frequently needed to start businesses that will become self-sustaining.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology is both a science and a set of practices. It was created by the convergence of two scientific disciplines: agronomy and ecology. As a science, agroecology is the "application of ecological science to the study, design and management of sustainable agroecosystems." As a set of agricultural practices, agroecology seeks ways to enhance agricultural systems by mimicking natural processes, thus creating beneficial biological interactions and synergies among the components of the agroecosystem. It provides the most favourable soil conditions for plant growth, particularly by managing organic matter and by raising soil biotic activity. The core principles of agroecology include recycling nutrients and energy on the farm, rather than introducing external inputs; integrating crops and livestock; diversifying species and genetic resources in agroecosystems over time and space; and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agricultural system, rather than focusing on individual species. Agroecology is highly knowledge-intensive, based on techniques that are not delivered top-down but developed on the basis of farmers' knowledge and experimentation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology is a coherent concept for designing future farming systems as it is strongly rooted both in science and in practice, and because it shows strong connections with the principles of the right to adequate food (Section III). It can be seen as encompassing - or closely related to - approaches such as "ecoagriculture" and "evergreen agriculture," while the concepts of "ecological intensification" and "conservation agriculture" often follow certain agroecological principles. Agroecology is also linked to the "ecosystem approach to sustainable crop production intensification" recently supported by the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG). Discussion of the detailed differences among these concepts is beyond the scope of this report.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Crop breeding and agroecology are complementary. For instance, breeding provides new varieties with shorter growing cycles, which enable farmers to continue farming in regions where the crop season has already shrunk. Breeding can also improve the level of drought resistance in plant varieties, an asset for countries where lack of water is a limiting factor. Reinvesting in agricultural research must consequently mean continued efforts in breeding. However, agroecology is more overarching as it supports building drought-resistant agricultural systems (including soils, plants, agrobiodiversity, etc.), not just drought-resistant plants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- By enhancing on-farm fertility production, agroecology reduces farmers' reliance on external inputs and state subsidies. This, in turn, makes vulnerable smallholders less dependent on local retailers and moneylenders. One key reason why agroecology helps to support incomes in rural areas is because it promotes on-farm fertility generation. Indeed, supplying nutrients to the soil does not necessarily require adding mineral fertilizers. It can be done by applying livestock manure or by growing green manures. Farmers can also establish a "fertilizer factory in the fields" by planting trees that take nitrogen out of the air and "fix" it in their leaves, which are subsequently incorporated into the soil. That, in essence, is the result of planting Faidherbia albida, a nitrogen-fixing acacia species indigenous to Africa and widespread throughout the continent. Since this tree goes dormant and sheds its foliage during the early rainy season at the time when field crops are being established, it does not compete significantly with them for light, nutrients or water during the growing season; yet it allows a significant increase in yields of the maize with which it is combined, particularly in conditions of low soil fertility. In Zambia, unfertilized maize yields in the vicinity of Faidherbia trees averaged 4.1 t/ha, compared to 1.3 t/ha nearby, but beyond the tree canopy. Similar results were observed in Malawi, where this tree was also widely used. The use of such nitrogen-fixing trees avoids dependence on synthetic fertilizers, the price of which has been increasingly high and volatile over the past few years, exceeding food commodity prices, even when the latter reached a peak in July 2008. In this way, whatever financial assets the household has can be used on other essentials, such as education or medicine.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Although they can create jobs, agroecological approaches are fully compatible with a gradual mechanization of farming. The need to produce equipment for conservation agricultural techniques such as no-till and direct seeding actually results in more jobs being created in the manufacturing sector. This is true in particular in Africa which still imports most of its equipment, but which increasingly manufactures simple equipment Employment could also result from the expansion of agroforestry. In Southern Africa, farmers produce trees as a business, supported by a financing facility established by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). During its first year, the Malawi Agroforestry Food Security Programme distributed tree seeds, setting up 17 nurseries that raised 2,180,000 seedlings and establishing 345 farmer groups.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- In addition, the diversity of species and of farm activities that agroecological approaches allow are ways to mitigate risks from extreme weather events, as well as from the invasion of new pests, weeds and diseases, that will result from global warming. The agroecological practice of cultivar mixtures bets on genetic diversity in the fields in order to improve crop resistance to diseases. In the Yunnan Province in China, after disease-susceptible rice varieties were planted in mixtures with resistant varieties, yields improved by 89 per cent and rice blast disease was 94 per cent less severe than when the varieties were grown in monoculture, leading farmers to abandon the use of fungicidal sprays.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Agroecology also puts agriculture on the path of sustainability by delinking food production from the reliance on fossil energy (oil and gas). It contributes to mitigating climate change, both by increasing carbon sinks in soil organic matter and above-ground biomass, and by avoiding carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions from farms by reducing direct and indirect energy use. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated the global technical mitigation potential for agriculture at 5.5 to 6 Gt of CO2-equivalent per year by 2030. Most of this total (89 per cent) can come from carbon sequestration in soils, storing carbon as soil organic matter (humus), something which can be done through agroecology.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- The participation of farmers is vital for the success of agroecological practices. So far, agroecology has been developed by grassroots organizations and NGOs, and it has spread through farmer field schools and farmers' movements, such as the Campesino a Campesino movement in Central America. Experience with agroecological techniques is growing everyday within peasant networks such as La Via Campesina and the AgriCultures Network (former LEISA) globally; Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ROPPA), Eastern & Southern Africa Farmers' Forum (ESAFF), and PELUM (Participatory Ecological Land Use Management) network in Africa, MASIPAG network in the Philippines (Magsasaka at Siyentista Tungo sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura), or Assessoria e Serviços a Projetos em Agricultura Alternativa (AS-PTA) and Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- State support can build on those efforts. In Brazil, for example, the 2010 Act on extension and technical assistance for family farming and agrarian reform (Lei 12.188/2010) prioritizes support to rural extension activities in ecological agriculture. This Act will accentuate the qualitative shift in the Brazilian extension services which is parallel to quantitative changes in the last decade. Indeed, extension activities organized under the Brazilian National Rural Extension Policy (2003) have increased from an average of 2,000 activities/year in 2004-2005 to an average of close to 30,000/year in 2007-2009. Such efforts enable a rapid dissemination of best practices, including agroecological practices, especially when farmers participate in the system and are not mere receivers of trainings.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Scaling up agroecology in order to maximize its positive impacts on farmers' incomes, productivity and the environment means both (horizontally) increasing the areas cultivated by agroecological techniques and (vertically) creating an enabling framework for the farmers. Innovative ways of ensuring horizontal expansion include the "pilot scaling up" strategy such as the one successfully implemented in the Chinyanja Triangle (Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia) and West and Central Africa by the World Agroforestry Centre for tree domestication. The strategy relies on the identification of Pilot Scaling Up Areas (PSUAs) and the establishment of "scaling up platforms," the formation of "change teams" and the identification of partners: from grassroots organization to private companies. The targeting of the zones where the adoption of agroecology has the greatest potential, based on biophysical criteria, may be facilitated by Geographic Information Systems (GIS), such as those that have been used both in Europe and in Southern Africa in order to identify the suitability areas for the scaling up of agroforestry systems. As mentioned earlier, the dissemination of the push-pull strategy in East Africa by the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) was based both on demonstration fields managed by model farmers, which attracts visits by other farmers during field days, and on partnerships with national research systems in neighbouring countries that facilitated take-up of this approach. Localized innovations can spread rapidly through such approaches (see Figure 2 below).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Agroecological practices require the supply of public goods such as extension services, storage facilities, rural infrastructure (roads, electricity, information and communication technologies) and therefore access to regional and local markets, access to credit and insurance against weather-related risks, agricultural research and development, education, and support to farmer's organizations and cooperatives. While this requires funding, the investment can be significantly more sustainable than the provision of private goods, such as fertilizers or pesticides that farmers can only afford so long as they are subsidized. While many efforts have been made since 2008 to reinvest in agriculture, too little attention has been paid to the differences between the various types of investment required and to understanding their impacts on the reduction of rural poverty. This has led World Bank economists to note that "underinvestment in agriculture is […] compounded by extensive misinvestment" with a bias towards the provision of private goods, sometimes motivated by political considerations. Research based on the study of 15 Latin American countries over the period 1985-2001 in which government subsidies for private goods was distinguished from expenditures in public goods indicated that, within a fixed national agriculture budget, a reallocation of 10 per cent of spending to supplying public goods increases agricultural per capita income by 5 per cent, while a 10 per cent increase in public spending on agriculture, keeping the spending composition constant, increases per capita agricultural income by only 2 per cent. In other words, "even without changing overall expenditures, governments can improve the economic performance of their agricultural sectors by devoting a greater share of those expenditures to social services and public goods instead of non-social subsidies." Thus, while the provision or subsidization of private goods may be necessary up to a point, the opportunity costs should be carefully considered.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The best of what scientists can offer and the valuable experience of smallholder farmers should be brought together in order to develop participatory modes of learning. The development of participation can go beyond the field technology itself. In West Africa, for instance, citizens' juries on the governance of food and agricultural research were set up by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Coordination Nationale des Organisations Paysannes (CNOP) and other partners, resulting in farmers formulating 100 recommendations after having heard experts on the models of agriculture, land tenure and property rights, macroeconomic issues and the governance of agricultural research. Not only research and extension services should develop into learning organisations, so too should ministries, and educational and financial institutions. Farmers' organizations and networks have accumulated experience on the dissemination of agroecological practices in the last decade, with proven results. These movements are already functioning as learning organizations; they must now be supported in this role.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- [As part of their obligation to devote the maximum of their available resources to the progressive realization of the right to food, States should implement public policies supporting the adoption of agroecological practices by:] making reference to agroecology and sustainable agriculture in national strategies for the realisation of the right to food and by including measures adopted in the agricultural sector in national adaptation plans of action (NAPAs) and in the list of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) adopted by countries in their efforts to mitigate climate change;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
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