Erle Argonza

Good day to everyone!

Among the latest trends for development indexing and incentives is the idea of ‘payments for ecosystem services.’ It may prove fruitful to provide “economic services to change human behavior I ways that increase or maintain environmental services,” as the summary report states.

Below is the encapsulating summary and the subsidiary reports about the matter, as applied to agriculture and development.

[07 October 2008, Quezon City, MetroManila. Thanks to Eldis agricultural database reports.]

Eldis key issues page: Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

Produced by: Eldis Environment Resource Guide (2008)

The concept of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) - also called Payments for Environmental Services - has received substantial interest in recent years as a way of creating positive economic incentives to change human behaviour in ways that increase or maintain environmental services, such as watershed protection, the sequestration of carbon and the provision of habitat for endangered species. This key issues page provides an overview of PES schemes, their potential and possible pitfalls, and links to further reading from a range of sources.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=39814&em=260908&sub=agric

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New Agriculturalist focus on Potato

Produced by: New Agriculturalist (2008)

This edition of New Agriculturist focuses on the potato, examining the challenges and opportunities facing producers worldwide. Among the articles includes in the edition are a report from Bolivia looking at efforts to improve access for rural potato growers to high-value urban markets, and the work to conserve the vast genetic diversity of potato in the highlands of Peru. Also covered are attempts to revamp potato production in famine-stricken North Korea, the emerging market for processed potato chips in East Africa, the challenge of climate change for potato-growing areas, and the ever-present danger of the devastating late blight fungus.

A full list of articles is as follows:

• Ever-present danger - late blight: Late blight is still a formidable enemy of potato growers worldwide, able to wipe out entire crops in just a few weeks. Over 150 years since it triggered the Irish Potato Famine, scientists and farmers are still fighting the ever-mutating fungus.
• Climate change - can potato stand the heat? Rising temperatures, changes in rainfall distribution and concentrations of greenhouse gases will affect where potato is grown in the future. But scientists are hopeful it will weather the storm.
• Rooting for tubers: In the face of rising food prices, the potato is being promoted in Bangladesh and Peru as a nutritious alternative to more expensive staple foods such as rice and wheat.
• Going native: the sweet success of Bolivia's bitter potato: An initiative to improve sales of a processed potato product in Bolivia has been a runaway success, transforming a traditional "folk" food into a sophisticated, high-value product.
• Popular revolution in potato production in North Korea: North Korea has the potential to make substantial gains by restructuring its potato industry. An FAO-led project has been helping farmers access improved varieties, clean seed and better storage facilities.
• Protecting potato diversity in Peru: A pioneering project to document indigenous potato varieties in the highlands of Peru has made some promising discoveries, as well as protecting against biodiversity loss and bio-piracy.
• Cashing in on chips: The demand for potato chips (French fries) is booming in East Africa. Policy and financial support for in-country, commercial processing of potatoes into chips, combined with improved supply of suitable potato varieties, could bring about a strong regional chip trade.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=39761&em=260908&sub=agric

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Strategies for out-scaling participatory research approaches for sustaining agricultural research impacts

Authors: Aw-Hassan,Aden A.
Produced by: Development in Practice (2008)

The popularity of participatory research approaches is largely driven by the expected benefits from bridging the gap between formal agricultural science institutions and local farm communities, making agricultural research more relevant and effective. There is, however, no certainty that this approach, which has been mainly project-based, will succeed in transforming agricultural research in developing countries towards more client-responsive, impact-oriented institutions.

The paper argues that research managers must consider appropriate strategies for such an institutional transformation, including:

• careful planning of social processes and interactions among different players, and documenting how that might have brought about success or failure
• clear objectives, which influence the participation methods used
• clear impact pathway and impact hypotheses at the outset, specifying expected outputs, outcomes, impacts, and beneficiaries
• willingness to adopt institutional learning, where existing culture and practices can be changed
• long-term funding commitment to sustain the learning and change process

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=39715&em=260908&sub=agric

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More aid for african agriculture: policy implications for small-scale farmers

Authors: Dechenne,R.
Produced by: UK Food Group (2008)

After years of 'neglect' in favour of health and education assistance in Africa, the food crisis has concentrated the donor community's minds on the need for overseas development aid for African agriculture. This is welcome, but what sort of policies are being proposed and what impact will they have for the African farmer?

This report reviews policy documents of some of the major donors providing aid for African agricultural development - between 2004 and 2008 - as well as United Nations, international finance, agricultural research and African institutions. The research seeks to determine what underlies the expressed policy of each actor; how they influence each other's priorities; and what mainstream agenda has emerged.

It also raises a number of pertinent questions over how the new aid to African farmers will be realised. These include:

• Aid effectiveness - will there be a shift in agricultural aid towards the production of food by local food producers, involving local communities and farmers' organisations?
• Market and private sector-led agricultural growth - will the 'growth agenda' be dominated by export-led and high-value crop production, supported by proprietary technologies including GM crops and increased use of agrochemicals?
• Exiting agriculture - will the new agriculture agenda defend small-scale farmers, especially women, and protect local food production and food provision?
• Improved governance and political processes - will governance systems be able to deal with the pressures from the corporate-sector , seeking to benefit through dominance of the food system and the resources used, that limit options for local and national control?
• African ownership - will African peoples, from local communities to nation states, be allowed to determine their own development of their own food systems?

The research concludes by asserting that agriculture and rural development in Africa will have to concentrate on more people-centred, food-focused and environmentally sustainable approaches if the development of African agriculture is to serve the long-term interests of the majority of Africans.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=39599&em=260908&sub=agric

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When disaster strikes: a guide to assessing seed system security

Authors: Sperling,L.
Produced by: Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (2008)

Intervening in seed systems is serious business. Seed systems are at the heart of agricultural production and determines what farmers grow and whether they will have a harvest. Badly designed and poorly implemented seed aid during a crisis harms farmers, making them even more vulnerable to uncertainties. 'Do-gooder' aid though well intentioned, can also create long term dependency and may also weaken systems. Avoiding these pitfalls is a major concern for those intent on delivering better seed aid and seed system support. Emergency seed aid interventions must be carefully matched to the local ecology and to people's ecosystems.

This guide presents a seven-step method for assessing the security of farmers seed systems in situations of acute or chronic stress. It aims to serve as a practical field manual for donor agencies, governmental ministries, non-governmental organisations, and individual charged with agricultural relief and recovery, including those with little or no expertise in seed systems.

The guide provides some brief background information on seed systems and the concept of seed security before continuing to lay out the steps in conducting a seed system security assessment:

• identify zones for assessment and possible intervention
• describe the normal status of crop and seed systems
• describe the broad effects of the disaster on farming systems
• set goals for agricultural relief and recovery operations based on farmers needs
• assess the post crisis functioning of see channels to determine whether short-term assistance is needed
• identify chronic stresses requiring longer-term solutions and identify emerging development opportunities
• determine the most appropriate responses, based on analysis of priority constraints, opportunities, and farmers needs.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=39160&em=260908&sub=agric

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Promising approaches to address the needs of poor female farmers

Authors: Quisumbing,A.; Pandolfelli,L.
Produced by: International Food Policy Research Institute (2008)

Gender norms influence how a society distributes its resources between men and women, including agricultural resources. When agricultural resources are distributed unequally, production tends to be inefficient which constrains small farmers' opportunities to generate income and ensure their families' food security. In the past, agricultural interventions have not always paid attention to gender issues thereby reinforcing resource inequalities. A new briefing note brought out by the International Food Policy Research Institute compiles examples of gender-sensitive interventions from Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia that have increased women's access to and control of agricultural resources and shares the lessons learnt.

Gender analysis is particularly important when assessing women's access and control of those agricultural resources that are key for poor farmers. These include the availability of land, water, and other natural resources, complementary inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, new varieties and technologies, agricultural extension, labour, credit, markets and social capital. In each case, the note lists out the types of issues that need to be taken into account:

• women tend to have weak property and contractual rights to land, water and other natural resources and also lack legal knowledge
• traditional agricultural research and development and extension systems tend not to take into account women's needs, preferences and resources
• new agricultural technologies do not always take into account gendered divisions of labour which means they are unlikely to reduce women's time and energy burdens
• economic and cultural factors tend to restrict women's access to markets, credit and financial services and social capital

Drawing on experiences from seventeen countries, the note lists specific steps that can be taken to help improve women's access to each of these resources. Amongst others, projects and programs can:

• strengthen and increase women's knowledge of their property and contractual rights
• take into account both women's and men's preferences when developing and introducing new varieties
• train male extension agents to meet the specific needs of female farmers
• target credit or design loan packages based on women's specific needs
• organise women into single- or mixed-sex groups to increase their control of project benefits and improve their well-being

Enhancing women's access to agricultural resources not only increases their productivity it also enhances their social status. At the same time, gender norms are complex and take time to change. In this context, individual interventions are advised to adopt a medium-term approach that alternately challenge and respect gender relations. Specific strategies are best designed keeping in mind other project objectives, such as increasing women's food security or income. Since gender issues are context-specific, interventions should also be adapted to local socio-cultural settings to improve the likelihood of success.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=39150&em=260908&sub=agric

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The right to food and the impact of liquid biofuels (agrofuels)

Authors: Eide,A.
Produced by: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2008)

This paper examines the impact of biofuel production on the human right to freedom from hunger. It is argued that liquid biofuel production has already served to weaken access to food resources for the poor and vulnerable and in the future, will continue to threaten such food access in at least three ways:

• by significantly increasing food prices
• by causing land concentration for plantation-type production which are likely to continue to cause eviction or marginalisation of vulnerable groups and individuals
• by causing a number of environmental problems, reducing biodiversity and increasing competition for water

In light of such threats to food security, the author argues that the crucial question is whether there are sufficient ethical justifications for biofuel production to override the negative consequences. It is argued that:

• the most widely used justification, that replacing fossil fuel with biofuel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby reduce global warming, is mostly not tenable
• biofuel production cannot in any significant degree improve the energy security of developed countries - to do so would require so vast an allocation of land that it would be impossible for a multitude of reasons. While the use of biofuel does reduce urban pollution to some extent, there are other ways to reduce pollution which have less negative consequences

It is argued that for liquid biofuel production to be compatible with the right to be free from hunger, it would require that the decisions and implementations of policies and projects for biofuel production conform to the internationally adopted standards and guidelines for the realisation of the right to food. The process requirements and substansive obligations of states at the national and international level are examined to this end.

The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for the adoption of guidelines on biofuel production based on the right to adequate food for all. These include:

• priority should be given to projects based on small-scale farming, possibly through cooperative arrangements and to projects which ensure good and stable working conditions
• feedstock which has the potential, in its production, transport, distribution and use, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be chosen
• the establishment of legally binding certification schemes and reliable monitoring.

Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/?doc=37580&em=260908&sub=agric