Decline in Agriculture Must Be Stopped [opinion]

The food crisis, the problem of commodities, and how developing countries should preserve their space to choose between options in economic policies - these were some of the key issues that emerged at the recent United Nations' premier trade and development conference.

The most topical issue was the rising prices and shortage of food, which has sparked recent unrest in many developing countries.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon warned that the food crisis can trigger multiple other crises.

Immediate humanitarian action is needed, but in the long run production must be increased. While UN and government officials made general comments on the food crisis, it was left to the non-governmental groups to provide critical analysis and proposals.

Citizen groups say that one reason for the crisis was the shift from producing food to biofuels. But a larger reason is the decline in agriculture in developing countries, which had been wrongly pressured by the World Bank and IMF to cut government subsidies to small farmers, and to cut their food import duties.

At the same time the high agricultural subsidies continue in rich countries. The surge of cheap and subsidised imports have overwhelmed local farmers and reduced food production in many developing countries.

The groups say that developing countries must be allowed to defend their food security and small farmers, so as to quickly expand food production through sustainable agriculture. Developed countries must quickly phase out their distorting subsidies. Land for biofuels should be turned back to farming for food. There must be changes to policies at the World Bank, IMF, WTO and the free trade agreements.

The NGOs, in their statement, were far stronger. They said that since the last Unctad conference, policy space for government intervention and regulation has declined further.

This deterioration is mainly due to free trade agreements that "lock in developing countries, including the poorest, into inappropriate liberalisation of imported goods and services and inappropriate international property rights policies.

Perhaps the most concrete item in the Accra Accord was that Unctad would expand its work on commodities. This used to be the main area of Unctad's work, as it hosted negotiations on several commodity agreements. The issue fell by the wayside after the agreements either were disbanded or became less active, and Unctad's work on commodities became only a shadow.

Khor is the executive director, Third World Network.