[All] Fwd: Uma Lele on Agricultural Research

[Robert Milligan]

FYI
R

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "foodforethought.net" <editor at foodforethought.net>
> Date: April 10, 2010 9:54:26 AM GMT-04:00
> To: mill at continuum.org
> Subject: Uma Lele on Agricultural Research
> Reply-To: editor at foodforethought.net
>
> Editor’s Note: The Global Forum on Agricultural Research was  
> recently held in Montpellier, France. In this interview, Uma Lele,  
> lead author of the conference report responds to questions about how  
> the research agenda will help find ways to feed an estimated world  
> population of 9 billion people in 2050. Please click here to access  
> the report Transforming Agricultural Research for Development.
>
>
> Q&A: 'Little revolutions' needed to feed 9 billion people - farming  
> expert
> 25 Mar 2010 00:52:00 GMT
> Written by: Laurie Goering
>
> LONDON (AlertNet) - Finding ways to feed a global population that is  
> expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050 will require "lots of  
> little revolutions rather than one big bang," says Uma Lele, an  
> Indian-born agricultural economist.
>
> Lele, lead author of a report released on Thursday called  
> "Transforming Agricultural Research for Development," says the keys  
> to boosting production lie not in new hybrid seeds or other "silver  
> bullet" technologies but in a myriad of small advances, from mobile  
> phone technology that gives small farmers information about where to  
> find the best price for their produce on any given day to cutting  
> paperwork associated with obtaining grants.
>
> Many new ideas, particularly those about adaptation to climate  
> change - a growing agricultural challenge - will need to be local  
> and spring from grassroots knowledge, rather than international  
> bodies, she said. Coordinating research and working to disseminate  
> the ideas that work will be crucial, she said.
>
> Lele spoke with AlertNet from Washington, in advance of a landmark  
> international meeting on transforming agricultural research that  
> starts in Montpellier, France, on Sunday.
>
> Q: What are the prospects for finding a sustainable way to feed 9  
> billion people - up from 6 billion today - by 2050?
>
> A: We have to produce research that leads to much more  
> environmentally sustainable solutions that help poor people. There  
> are some technologies that have happened completely outside of the  
> agricultural research system, like the huge growth in cell phones in  
> developing countries, that are important. If more of that technology  
> is brought to bear and we don't just give money to scientists to  
> breed crops, then we can have more successes. In a revolution, you  
> need totally unexpected partners playing a role.
>
> Q: What's wrong with how our system of agricultural research works  
> now?
>
> A: There are much larger numbers of actors now on the international  
> scene than there used to be. Once it was just the World Bank, the  
> (U.N.) Food and Agriculture Organisation. And the amount of aid from  
> developed countries for agricultural research has been diminishing,  
> which means we have lots of actors with a limited amount of aid and  
> they're competing with each other for it. People think we're giving  
> massive amounts of aid and poor people in these countries aren't  
> using it effectively. But aid has been diminishing as a share of  
> (donor) GDP.
>
> Today net increases in aid aren't coming from traditional donors.  
> They're coming from the (Bill and Melinda) Gates Foundation, from  
> emerging countries like China and India. All these actors need to be  
> brought together so we have a new architecture for cooperation. That  
> doesn't exist now.
>
> Q: Why is the lack of coordination a problem?
>
> A: Very good information systems existed in the 1980s and early  
> 1990s about who was investing how much and where in public sector  
> research. We learned a lot from it. But now that information has  
> become very fragmented. The emerging countries have become big  
> players but we don't know much about what they're doing. The private  
> sector and big companies are doing research on genetically modified  
> organisms (GMOs). What is essential is to bring all these people  
> under a large tent and try to learn more about what they're doing.
>
> Also, quite a lot of this knowledge being created has become private  
> property rather than being broadly shared. We need more science  
> being conducted in the public sector that is not hamstrung by  
> intellectual property rights.
>
> Q: You mention in the report that another problem is that donor  
> funding cycles and donor focuses have come to drive research, rather  
> than actual problems driving it.
>
> A: In 1972, when CGIAR (the Consultative Group on International  
> Agricultural Research) was formed, the great share of its resources  
> were untied (from specific objectives). Donors didn't know which  
> projects would yield results and which ones not, so they gave money  
> freely.
>
> Over time what has happened, as money comes from more donors, is  
> that funding is tied to the agendas of donor countries, and the  
> amounts for each project are smaller. That is not as effective, and  
> we need to get back to that earlier situation if we can.
>
> Also paradoxically, the desire for more accountability for aid money  
> has led to increased requirements for what you need to do to get  
> money for anything. People are spending more time filling in forms  
> and less time focusing on the problems of the poor in the world.
>
> Q: How do genetically modified crops fit into a future of  
> sustainable boosts in agricultural production? Some people say they  
> are the only answer; others say they reduce resiliency to problems  
> like climate change by making farmers who have to buy expensive  
> inputs more financially vulnerable.
>
> A: We can't exclude any solutions because the challenges are really  
> big. That means genetically modified crops and technologies have a  
> role to play. But there needs to be more information on them and  
> much greater development of institutions in developing countries  
> that are accountable to their own people, so the right information  
> is shared with populations and they can make their own decisions.  
> These decisions need to be made not just by a few people for or  
> against genetically modified crops.
>
> Q: How is climate change feeding into changes in agricultural  
> research?
>
> A: What the literature shows is that the regions with the greatest  
> concentrations of poor people - South Asia and Africa - are likely  
> to be hit the hardest. But the international donor community for  
> agricultural research has given more attention to mitigation  
> (reducing carbon emissions) rather than adaptation (adjusting to the  
> effects of climate change).
>
> I think the reason there's so much attention to mitigation is you  
> can show a win-win. Richer nations benefit from it as well. With  
> adaptation, in the short run, that's not so easy. It looks like:  
> "Give them more foreign aid," and that's not very popular. Many  
> adaptation issues are similar to the ones countries are facing  
> already, only more acute.
>
> Q: Are there worries about rich nations, like many in the Middle  
> East, taking out long-term leases on cropland in Africa to boost  
> their own food security?
>
> A: That has reignited the debate about large farms and small farms.  
> Some well-known economists say that it's hard to solve the problems  
> of small-scale agriculture in Africa, that it can never develop, so  
> let's use large farms. But one has to be careful.
>
> Large farms have higher yields but also use more modern inputs.  
> That's not always that productive in comparison to small farms. And  
> if you don't have small farms, where are you going to absorb those  
> large numbers of people? Not in the manufacturing sector, at least  
> not in the short term. Developing countries have a hard time  
> competing with exporters like China in manufactured goods.
>
> For stability and equity, people need to stay on their land.
>
> Q: If the amount of aid for agricultural research is boosted and  
> more is directed to grassroots efforts, how effectively will that be  
> used?
>
> A: One of the exciting things in India now is the role of civil  
> society. It's not yet able to bring about systemic changes but there  
> is no question it has moved in that direction. There's greater  
> freedom of information, more accountability at grassroots level and  
> in parliament. All that has happened because of strengthening of  
> civil society.
>
> If more of that happens in developing countries, they will be able  
> to solve their problems more effectively. If donors instead of  
> asking people to fill in forms really build capacity of local  
> people, as USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) and  
> the World Bank did in the 1960s and 1970s, then countries will be  
> able to solve their own problems.
>
> Q: What are the risks if your effort to boost agricultural  
> production through better research fails?
>
> A: We'll have many more poor people in the world than we do already.  
> The Millennium Development Goals on reducing hunger are already not  
> being met and if anything, more people have become food insecure,  
> according to the FAO. Competition for water is enormous already in  
> South Asia and that will become more acute.
>
> There is so much science and so many possibilities that we can bring  
> to bear to address these problems that it would be a pity if nothing  
> happens.
>
> Q; What do you hope to have come out of the upcoming meeting in  
> France?
>
> A: Not just promises, but delivery on promises, and not just by  
> governments of developing countries but also by donors. Also, better  
> partnerships than exist now, when many partnerships are just  
> rhetorical ones.
>
> - - - - -
>
> WHO WE ARE: Foodforethought is an information service that  
> encourages dialogue and exploration of innovative trends in the  
> global food system. The service is managed by James Kuhns of MetroAg  
> Alliance for Urban Agriculture in collaboration with Wayne Roberts  
> of the Toronto Food Policy Council. To subscribe, please contact editor at foodforethought.net 
> .
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