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Sustainable Agriculture and Poverty Alleviation
The agricultural modernization drive in many
industrialized countries in the 1940s and the “green revolution” in
the developing countries in the 1960s had enormously augmented the global
food supply situation, although it had also created negative effects such
as soil erosion, environmental and food pollution, indebtedness and
poverty, trade discrimination, and imbalanced regional development. To
deal with such problems, the need for a new resource-saving and
environmentally sound farming system that would improve food quality and
human health became critical. Influenced by the idea of sustainable
development, China in 1989 proposed the development of “green food”,
which referred to uncontaminated, safe and healthy food of good quality
which was produced by specific methods, certified by a designated
organization and sold under the green food label. Green food development
had three goals: (a) to protect the agro-ecological environment, (b) to
satisfy the growing demand of urban and rural people for better food, and
(c) to narrow the gap between producers, the food industry and
consumers.
To promote the idea of “Green Food”, ESCAP in
conjunction with the China Green Food Development Center (CGFDC) organized
the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Sustainable Food Production, Income
Generation and Consumer Protection in Beijing from 23 to 26 June 1998, to
examine the poverty alleviation potential of organic agricultural
production and the scope of regional cooperation. Some of the relevant
papers are provided here.
As a follow-up of the
recommendations of the Symposium, ESCAP has initiated a new project to
facilitate the creation of an information network on green food and
sustainable agriculture with financial support of the Government of China.
The Asian-Pacific Symposium to Establish a
Network on Green Food and
Sustainable Agriculture was held in Kunming (China) from 8
to 11 November 2000 to explore the feasibility of establishing the
information network.
In 2001, ESCAP, with financial support of the Government of The
Netherlands, is examining the potential of organic agriculture for rural poverty
alleviation. ESCAP has commissioned seven country studies and one regional study on the
subject, which will be finalized by the fall of 2001. A regional workshop will
discuss the findings of the reports in November. This ongoing project aims to enhance
government support for organic farming and strengthen cooperation
between governmental and non-governmental organizations by
documenting, disseminating and exchanging existing experiences with
organic farming in and among selected countries in Asia.
Report of the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Sustainable Food Production, Income
Generation and Consumer Protection
Excerpts
Part One
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Sustainable agricultural development
and poverty
alleviation
(pdf file: 86 Kb)
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Development of sustainable food
production: review and outlook
(pdf file: 36Kb)
Part Two: Country papers
Sustainable food production, income generation and
consumer protection in India (pdf file:50Kb)
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Contribution and challenges of the International
Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements in Asia (IFOAM) (pdf
file: 14 Kb)
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Access to global markets for organic food produced in
developing countries: the benefits of IFOAM accreditation (pdf
file:14 Kb)
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Sustainable food production, income generation and
consumer protection in the Republic of Korea (pdf
file: 45 Kb)
- Sustainable food production, income generation and consumer protection
in Malaysia (pdf file 48 Kb)
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