Acroecology and the right to food 2011, para. 42

Párrafo
Paragraph text
In previous reports, the Special Rapporteur has insisted on the need to facilitate the ability of small-scale farmers to join supply chains. Farmers should also be encouraged to move up the value chain by adding value to raw products through assuming increased roles in packaging, processing, and marketing their produce. Cooperatives can help them achieve economies of scale to facilitate adding value. This can also be supported by novel types of partnerships with the private sector. However, improved access to markets is essential if this is to happen. Better access to markets requires the development of communication routes, particularly rural feeder roads. The marginal returns to public spending on feeder roads for agriculture output and poverty reduction has been estimated to be "three to four times larger than the return to public spending on murram and tarmac roads." In addition, support for agroecological practices will fail to achieve the desired results if markets are not organized to protect farmers from volatile prices and the dumping of subsidized products on their local markets, which can seriously disrupt local production. Similarly, public procurement systems, fiscal incentives and credit, and land tenure policies - all areas on which the Special Rapporteur has made contributions in the past - must be aligned with the need to make the transition towards low-carbon and low-external-input modes of production in which farmers co-design the policies that affect them. The school-feeding programme in Brazil for instance, has been used as a leverage to support family farming through its public procurement scheme; future public procurements schemes should promote agroecological practices.
Condicón jurídica
Non-negotiated soft law
Organismo
Special Rapporteur on the right to food
Tipo de documento
Special Procedures' report
Medio de adopción
N.A.
Temas
  • Environment
  • Food & Nutrition
Personas afectadas
  • All
Año
2011
Tipo de párrafo
Other
Reference
SR Food, Report to the HRC (2011), A/HRC/16/49, para. 42.
Paragraph number
42