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LEISA’s Farm
A blog about sustainable family farming
Small farmers more to say?
by Mireille Vermeulen
Food prices will rise up again to 40% in the coming years and unlikely to ever fall back to levels before the 2007-2008 price spikes, say OECD and the FAO in their joint report Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019. Reasons for this price increase are the growing demands for food on emerging markets and the need for biofuels to meet governments’ international targets for non-fossil energy use . Wheat and coarse grains will probably rise to 15%, vegetable oils even to 40%, and dairy prices can be 20% to 45% higher. At the end of the next decade, developing countries will be leading in the production of rice, oily seeds, sugar, vegetables oils, and cattle and broider meat.
But here will be differences. Higher prices for livestock will only profit some segments of emerging economies, and not the millions of smallholders keeping animals in their mixed farming systems, the report predicts. Although FAO and OECD are optimistic about the potential to increase agricultural production in emerging economies, rising food prices have already caused hunger and food insecurity. One billion people in the world are now estimated to be undernourished, it says. A well functioning trading system should ensure fair competition and food surplus being transferred to where it’s most needed.
But it is always difficult to link theory and practice. Demand in developing countries grows faster than elsewhere and their impact on global markets will be more important, said FAO general director Jacques Diouf at the presentation of the report. Therefore he would like to see a true global debate and having the views of people in developing countries represented in global policymaking and decision taking. Nice thought, but even with the logic supported by economic theory, I wonder how this will be effectuated. How will FAO ensure the views and experience of small-scale family farmers being mainstreamed in policy discussions and decision making?
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