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Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- Access to land is thus closely related to the right to adequate food, as recognized under article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The right to food requires that each individual, alone or in community with others, have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. States may be under an obligation to provide food where "an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their disposal". Primarily, however, the right to food requires that States refrain from taking measures that may deprive individuals of access to productive resources on which they depend when they produce food for themselves (the obligation to respect), that they protect such access from encroachment by other private parties (the obligation to protect) and that they seek to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihoods, including food security (the obligation to fulfil).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- Access to land and security of tenure are essential to ensure the enjoyment of not only the right to food, but also other human rights, including the right to work (for landless peasants) and the right to housing. This fact led the former Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing to conclude that the Human Rights Council should "ensure the recognition in international human rights law of land as a human right". The present report confirms that conclusion, while taking the right to food as its departure point. It describes the increasing pressures on land. It then discusses the right of land users to be protected in terms of their existing access to natural resources, particularly land. It also argues in favour of ensuring more equitable access to land.
- 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
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- Industrial uses of land and urbanization have also increased in recent years, further heightening the competition: 19.5 million hectares of farmland are converted annually into land for industrial and real estate development. Researchers have documented cases in which farmers' lands have been expropriated for mining projects or for the building of industrial plants, in conditions amounting to forced eviction with no or insufficient compensation. In certain regions, the expansion of industrial areas has taken the form of the establishment of special economic zones aimed at creating conditions favourable for the arrival of foreign investors. Large infrastructure projects such as dams and highways have also had an important impact, and a significant proportion of the communications sent to Governments by the Special Rapporteur during the period from 2003 to 2009 relates to evictions for such projects.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- Under the right to property, land users are also protected from evictions in certain circumstances, as stipulated in article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and article 21 of the American Convention on Human Rights. While the conditions under which eviction may take place vary from instrument to instrument, the most common requirements are the following: an eviction must have a valid (or legitimate) public purpose (a condition that should exclude eviction to serve purely private interests); it must not be discriminatory; it must meet the requirements of due process; and it must be accompanied by fair compensation. Although this protection from arbitrary expropriation does not in principle extend to all forms of illegal occupation, it generally extends to forms of land occupation that are not formally recognized through a legal title ("extra-legal") or that are based only on customary tenure.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- Finally, the creation of a market for land rights may itself have a series of undesirable consequences. The primary justification for the establishment of such a market is that it facilitates the reallocation of land towards more efficient users, thus providing an exit route from agriculture for rural residents for whom farming is not sufficiently profitable. Accordingly, the World Bank notes, "secure and unambiguous property rights … allow markets to transfer land to more productive uses and users". However, the impact of titling on farm productivity has often been unclear when it has not been complemented by schemes providing producers with appropriate levels of support. Land sales tend to favour not those who can make the most efficient use of land, but those who have access to capital and whose ability to purchase land is greatest. In fact, the creation of a land rights market can cause land to be taken out of production in order to be held as an investment by speculators, resulting both in decreased productivity and in increased landlessness among the rural poor. The poorest farmers could easily be induced to sell land and then be "priced out", particularly if they have fallen into debt as a result of a bad harvest or other circumstances. Thus, considered in isolation from other policies, individual titling may have counterproductive effects, increasing the vulnerability of the poor. Indeed, the idea that individual titling contributes to poverty reduction as land is transformed into capital presupposes that property is transformed into collateral, collateral into credit and credit into income. However, the poor, for whom land is an essential social safety net where no others are available, may in fact be reluctant to mortgage their land in order to gain access to credit. Nor does titling necessarily result in significantly greater access to the credit offered by private financial institutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- In the presence of the sometimes highly unequal distribution of land in rural areas, strengthening security of tenure may not be sufficient; land redistribution may be required. Article 11, paragraph 2 (a), of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the connection between the right to food and the use of natural resources, committing States to "developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources". This should be understood as encouraging agrarian reform that leads to more equitable distribution of land for the benefit of smallholders, both because of the inverse relationship between farm size and productivity and because small-scale farming (and linking farmers more closely to the land) may lead to more responsible use of the soil. The Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security, adopted in 2004 by the States members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), also encourage agrarian reform (guideline 8.1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The poverty-reducing potential of more equitable land distribution is further illustrated by statistical analyses showing that "a decrease of one third in the land distribution inequality index results in a reduction in the poverty level of one half in about 12-14 years. The same level of poverty reduction may be obtained in 60 years by agricultural growth sustained at an annual average of 3 per cent and without changing land distribution inequality". Land reforms in Asia following the Second World War resulted in a 30 per cent increase in the incomes of the bottom 80 per cent of households, while leading to an 80 per cent decline in the incomes of the top 4 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- There are strong arguments, however, in favour of land reform as contributing to the progressive realization of the human right to food, at least in contexts characterized by (a) a high degree of concentration of land ownership (such as a level of inequality higher than a Gini coefficient of 0.65), combined with (b) a significant level of rural poverty attributable to landlessness or the cultivation of excessively small plots of land by smallholders. The implication is that States should monitor existing inequalities in terms of access to land and, where both circumstances are present, should allocate the maximum available resources to agrarian reform schemes and implement those programmes in accordance with the principles of participation, transparency and accountability, to protect them from being appropriated by local elites. Where States fail to establish land redistribution schemes, they should provide justifications for not having done so.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 40a
- Paragraph text
- [In order to respect the right to food, States should:] Ensure security of tenure. States should take measures to confer legal security of tenure upon those persons, households and communities currently lacking such protection, including all those who do not have formal titles to home and land. The adoption of anti-eviction laws imposing strict conditions for interference with the rights of land users should be seen as a priority. This should supplement any strengthening of the regulatory framework concerning expropriation, which itself should provide clear procedural safeguards for landowners while, at the same time, providing for the possibility of agrarian reform where land concentration is excessive;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 40d
- Paragraph text
- [In order to respect the right to food, States should:] Prioritize development models that do not lead to evictions, disruptive shifts in land rights and increased land concentration. States should carefully consider the development models that they follow, as the mainstream agro-export-led model has major detrimental impacts on the access to land of vulnerable groups, disproportionately favouring the largest producers and landowners. Land investments implying an important shift in land rights should represent the last and least desirable option, acceptable only if no other investment model can achieve a similar contribution to local development and improve the livelihoods within the local communities concerned.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 42a
- Paragraph text
- [In order to ensure the enjoyment of the right to food, States should:] Implement the conclusions set out in the Final Declaration of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development and prioritize "improved" State-led land redistribution programmes. States should implement land redistribution programmes where a high degree of land ownership concentration (which could be defined as a level of inequality higher than a Gini coefficient of 0.65) is combined with a significant level of rural poverty attributable to landlessness or to the cultivation of excessively small plots of land by smallholders. Redistributive agrarian reforms should: (a) include comprehensive rural development policies that follow the recommendations resulting from the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, including extension systems, access to credit and agricultural research and support beneficiaries, provided with sufficient budgets; (b) make use of land ceiling laws and be based on legal frameworks that clearly define beneficiaries and exempted land; (c) encourage communal ownership systems, rather than focusing solely on individual beneficiaries; (d) be implemented in accordance with the principles of participation, transparency and accountability, in order to prevent their appropriation by local elites; (e) be grounded in constitutional provisions regarding the social functions of land, where such provisions exist. All States should monitor land inequalities before and after the implementation of such programmes;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 43d
- Paragraph text
- [The Special Rapporteur also makes the following recommendations to the international community:] International human rights bodies should consolidate the right to land and take land issues fully into account when ensuring respect for the right to adequate food. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights could play a leading standard-setting role in clarifying the issue of land as a human right by issuing a general comment in that regard. Acting in their monitoring capacity, human rights bodies should examine the justifications offered by Governments that fail to put in place land redistribution programmes or policies with similar aims, despite the existence of a high degree of concentration of land ownership, combined with a significant level of rural poverty attributable to landlessness or inequitable land distribution.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 16
- Paragraph text
- Contract farming is generally associated with the production of commercial crops for export, mono-cropping and forms of production that rely heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, often with adverse repercussions for human health and for soil. None of these consequences, however, are inevitable in contract farming. As already noted, this kind of contractual arrangement between a buyer and a farmer can be used to produce crops for sale on the domestic market and contribute to the strengthening of local markets, and in particular to improving the links between rural producers and urban consumers. Contract farming could and should include incentives for moving towards more diverse farming systems, using a combination of plants, trees and animals according to the principles of agroecology (see A/HRC/16/49). While contract farming often involves the provision of inputs, including mineral fertilizers, by the buyer, it may also include provisions that oblige the producer to comply with certain environmental conditions, for instance more cautious use of pesticides.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 17
- Paragraph text
- Contract farming often leads the producer to shift from food crops to cash crops. When farmers change all of their crop production to non-food crops covered by contractual arrangements, however, they relinquish the ability to produce food for their families, thus losing a valuable safety net. This renders the farmers vulnerable to food price increases, particularly if firms do not meet their contractual obligations or if farm incomes are lower than expected in comparison to the evolution of food prices. Farmers sometimes also have to manage gaps between contract cycles, during which time they do not earn any money from farming. To mitigate the risks involved in the shift to cash crops and the resulting dependence of farming households on the market to purchase food, a portion of the contracting farmer's land should be left to the farmer or other household members to grow food crops for household consumption. This can be effective especially where the contract farmer benefits from technology and skills transfers, leading to multiplier effects on non-contracted farming activities, including subsistence crop farming. Similarly, farmers can use by-products and residues from contract farming activities in various ways, including by selling the by-products or using them for subsistence activities. In Madagascar, small-scale farmers contracted by Lecofruit for vegetable production use part of the land for the production of rice, the staple crop, and the productivity of rice increases (from 3.6 to 6.0 tons/ha) thanks to the use of compost and manure and the recycling of waste from vegetable production. In Mali, the production of biodiesel from jatropha by small-scale farmers contracted by MaliBiocarburant SA (MBSA) produces residual "press cakes" that can be used as an organic fertilizer, as well as glycerine used to produce soap. The jatropha trees are intercropped with maize, which accounts for 80 per cent of the surface, ensuring that priority is given to staple food crops. This should ensure adequate protection for the contract farmer against the risk of occasional bad harvests or sudden crop price depressions. Such a guarantee of a stable income commensurate with an adequate standard of living is essential, and even a pricing mechanism that, as proposed below, guarantees a minimum price to the producer (unless the price is linked to the cost of production and the cost of living) would not provide an equivalent safeguard.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 18
- Paragraph text
- Beyond the farming household, the switch to cash crops also increases vulnerability to price shocks for the local community. When the contracted crops are edible produce that is available on the local market, it may be helpful to ensure the accessibility (physically and economically) of adequate and culturally acceptable food for the population. One possible solution to facilitate the enjoyment of the right to food of the community is to include a local marketing requirement in the contract whereby a certain percentage of crops is sold on the local market.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Food & Nutrition
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 35
- Paragraph text
- Farmers can be encouraged to form their own cooperatives, farmer associations or collectives. While such farmer-controlled enterprises can enter into contract farming schemes (in conditions more favourable to the members), they also can strengthen farmers' negotiating skills and bargaining positions in their dealings with the suppliers of inputs and commodity buyers; they can facilitate access to markets and to moving towards the processing, packaging and marketing of crops; and they can improve the ability of their members to contribute to the design and implementation of public policies that affect them (see A/HRC/13/33, paras. 30 and 31). For instance, the total income of farmers with group marketing in the Philippines (as supported by the MASIPAG network, which reaches 35,000 farmers practising sustainable agriculture) is about 45 per cent higher than the income of other farmers.
- 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
- 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. 44
- Paragraph text
- Two interesting attempts to link small-scale farmers to local consumers through a redefinition of local food systems are found in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Durban, South Africa. Both examples were studied closely by the Special Rapporteur when he conducted official missions to those countries in 2009 and 2011. In 1993, Belo Horizonte adopted a municipal law, setting out a policy framework based on the concept of food sovereignty and established a secretariat for food policy and supply. Under this framework, it sought to create various channels of affordable access to healthy food. Because conventional markets were often found to be too expensive for low-income groups and because the poorest parts of the city, the favelas, were usually not well served with respect to food distribution, the secretariat established mobile food distribution services. It sought to support family agriculture through government food purchases and incentives prioritizing local producers, seeing such support as a key to reducing migration to the cities and encouraging organic production methods. The local food system of the city was rethought by integrating the logistics and supply chains of the entire food system and by tying local producers directly to consumers to reduce prices. In 2008, 34 producers from eight rural municipalities of Belo Horizonte, selected through a public process, were assigned fixed sale points throughout the city, and the price and quality of their produce were regulated to ensure that the food would be affordable and healthy. In the same year, the city operated 49 conventional and 7 organic markets, benefiting 97 small producers from surrounding areas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 47
- Paragraph text
- Governments should support the organization of farmers into cooperatives and other types of producers' organizations that can improve farmers' bargaining position and help them to move up the value chain into the produce packaging, processing and marketing operations and help them to acquire inputs and sell their produce under better circumstances. This condition is necessary to ensure fairness in the negotiations between investors and farmers' organizations. Governments could also provide legal advice to farmers or their organizations to enhance their negotiating position and to ensure that any contract they choose to enter into is economically sustainable for them.
- 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
- 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. 52
- Paragraph text
- Governments should ensure that regulatory oversight keeps pace with the level of the expansion and the complexity of business models, including small-scale farming. Certain key clauses of contracts should be regulated, including those concerning price fixing, quality grading and the conditions under which inputs are provided, and the reservation of a portion of land for the production of food crops for self-consumption. The contracts, once agreed upon by the parties, could be subjected to vetting by authorities to ensure that any abuse is identified and, where appropriate, remedied; in addition, non-judicial dispute resolution mechanisms should be made available. Particular attention should be paid to the seven critical aspects and good practices for contract farming identified in section III above. [...]
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 53a
- Paragraph text
- [National food security institutions should monitor and assess the contribution of the various business models explored in the present report to the realization of the right to food. These institutions could build on the work of the National Council on Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil or the specific work of the South African Human Rights Commission on food security issues. Governments should also set up forums in which the fairness of food chains could be discussed among producers, processors, retailers and consumers to ensure that farmers are paid fair prices for the food they produce. Such forums could examine:] How the farm gate price relates to the retail price and whether the wedge between the two remains within a reasonable margin;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 53b
- Paragraph text
- [National food security institutions should monitor and assess the contribution of the various business models explored in the present report to the realization of the right to food. These institutions could build on the work of the National Council on Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil or the specific work of the South African Human Rights Commission on food security issues. Governments should also set up forums in which the fairness of food chains could be discussed among producers, processors, retailers and consumers to ensure that farmers are paid fair prices for the food they produce. Such forums could examine:] How more direct links could be established between producers and consumers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- 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. 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. 16
- Paragraph text
- A wide panoply of techniques based on the agroecological perspective have been developed and successfully tested in a range of regions. These approaches involve the maintenance or introduction of agricultural biodiversity (diversity of crops, livestock, agroforestry, fish, pollinators, insects, soil biota and other components that occur in and around production systems) to achieve the desired results in production and sustainability. Integrated nutrient management reconciles the need to fix nitrogen within farm systems with the import of inorganic and organic sources of nutrients and the reduction of nutrient losses through erosion control. Agroforestry incorporates multifunctional trees into agricultural systems. In Tanzania, 350,000 hectares of land have been rehabilitated in the Western provinces of Shinyanga and Tabora using agroforestry; there are similar large-scale projects developed in other countries including Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Water harvesting in dryland areas allows for the cultivation of formerly abandoned and degraded lands, and improves the water productivity of crops. In West Africa, stone barriers built alongside fields slow down runoff water during the rainy season, allowing an improvement of soil moisture, the replenishment of water tables, and reductions in soil erosion. The water retention capacity is multiplied five- to ten-fold, the biomass production multiplies by 10 to 15 times, and livestock can feed on the grass that grows along the stone barriers after the rains. Integration of livestock into farming systems, such as dairy cattle, pigs and poultry, provides a source of protein to the family, as well as a means of fertilizing soils; so does the incorporation of fish, shrimps and other aquatic resources into farm systems, such as irrigated rice fields and fish ponds.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 22
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- Agroforestry or comparable techniques such as the use of leguminous-cover crops to fix nitrogen also have a huge potential. This matters particularly to the poorest farmers, who are least likely to be able to afford to buy inorganic fertilizers, and whom fertilizer distribution systems often do not reach, particularly since the private sector is unlikely to invest into the most remote areas where communication routes are poor and few economies of scale can be achieved. But it is also of great importance to low-income countries, which import to meet their inorganic fertilizer needs. In sub-Saharan Africa, part of the reason why the use of fertilizers is very low (average 13 kilograms (kg) of fertilizer nutrients per hectare) is because of the considerable fiscal costs involved in the import and distribution of fertilizers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 26
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- In the past, Green Revolution approaches have focused primarily on boosting cereal crops. However, rice, wheat and maize are mainly sources of carbohydrates: they contain relatively little protein, and few of the other nutrients essential for adequate diets. The shift from diversified cropping systems to simplified cereal-based systems thus contributed to micronutrient malnutrition in many developing countries. Indeed, of the over 80,000 plant species available to humans, rice, wheat and maize supply the bulk of our protein and energy needs. Nutritionists now increasingly insist on the need for more diverse agro-ecosystems, in order to ensure a more diversified nutrient output of the farming systems.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2011
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 37
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- 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
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