Food Security and Agricultural Development

1. Food Security and Agricultural Development David Leonard Professorial Fellow in Governance Institute of Development Studies (UK)

2. Technical Advances (1) • “The Future of Food and Farming” is right that technical change in agricultural production will be necessary • Probably includes GMOs • But should include reduction in use of herbicides and insecticides (which is good for the environment and for costs) • Hard to avoid chemical fertilisers, given African problems with declining soil fertility.

3. Technical Advances (2) • Big question is not whether technical change but what kind. • Need ones that respect the quite different relative prices of the factors of production of the poor.

4. Relative Prices of Factors of Production • OECD Labour> Land> Capital • LICsLabour< Land< Capital

5. Small Farms Are Good for • Productivity per unit of land (Lipton) • Income distribution (Johnston, Tomitch) as • Subsistence reduces trading costs • Increases return to labour • Gives return to front-line small farm manager • Industrialisation (Mellor, Kilby) as • Creates mass market

6. Increasing Number and Viability of Small Farms • Large scale land reform generally is out of political fashion at the moment • However, small farms can be encouraged by • Appropriate, labour-intensive technologies • Dense infrastructure in support of small farm access to markets • Transport; Marketing; Finance (e.g. Contract farming) • Heavier taxes on large farms

7. Dangers • Extensive international purchases of land or land rights • Pretends state own unoccupied land • When in fact it is trustee for peasants who have use rights • Very little land is completely unused • Mindless transfer of technologies from land abundant/ labour scarce societies to LMICs • EU CAP and USA agricultural subsidies