Oluchi Chibuzor
A United Nation (UN) report has called for an urgent review of the global $470 billion agricultural support schemes that distort prices and threaten the achievement of environment and social goals.
The report also states that various supports within the agricultural industry, mainly to producers are inefficient, distort food prices, hurt people’s health, degrade the environment, and are often inequitable, putting big agri-business ahead of smallholder farmers, a large share of whom are women.
With this, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) estimate that 87 per cent of growing producer support is harmful to the 2030 agenda.
The UN’s report, titled, “A multi-billion-dollar opportunity: Repurposing agricultural support to transform food systems,” was launched by FAO, UNDP and UNEP.
Commenting, the Director-General of FAO, QU Dongyu, said: “This report, released on the eve of the UN Food Systems Summit, is a wake-up call for governments around the world to rethink agricultural support schemes to make them fit for purpose to transform our agri-food systems and contribute to the Four Betters: Better nutrition, better production, better environment and a better life.”
However, FAO noted that global support to producers in the agricultural sector amounts to $540 billion per year, making up 15 percent of total agricultural production value.
It also noted that by 2030, this is projected to soar up more than three times to $1.79 trillion.
FAO maintained that yet 87 per cent of this support, approximately $470 billion, was price distorting and environmentally and socially harmful.
It explained that these are findings of a new United Nations report calling for repurposing damaging incentives to achieve more of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and realize the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.
It also finds that current support to producers mostly consists of price incentives, such as import tariffs and export subsidies, as well as fiscal subsidies, which are tied to the production of a specific commodity or input.
“In 2020, up to 811 million people in the world faced chronic hunger and nearly one in three people in the world amounting to 2.37 billion did not have year-round access to adequate food.
In 2019, around 3 billion people, in every region of the world, could not afford a healthy diet, “it said.
According to the UN body, while the majority of agricultural support today has negative effects, about $110 billion supports infrastructure, research and development, and benefits the general food and agriculture sector.
“Reconfiguring agricultural producer support, rather than eliminating it, will help end poverty, eradicate hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture, foster sustainable consumption and production, mitigate the climate crisis, restore nature, limit pollution, and reduce inequalities.
“Agriculture is one of the main contributors to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions from different sources, including manure on pasture land, synthetic fertilizers, rice cultivation, burning crop residue, and land-use change. At the same time, agricultural producers are particularly vulnerable to impacts of the climate crisis, such as extreme heat, rising sea levels, drought, floods, and locust attacks, ”FAO said.
FAO warned that continuing with support-as-usual will worsen the triple planetary crisis and ultimately harm human well-being.
“Meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement requires shifting support especially in high-income countries for an outsized meat and dairy industry, which accounts for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“In lower-income countries, governments should consider repurposing their support for toxic pesticides and fertilizers or the growth of monocultures,” FAO urged.
Similarly, the Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, said, “Governments have an opportunity now to transform agriculture into a major driver of human well-being, and into a solution for the imminent threats of climate change, nature loss, and pollution.
“By shifting to more nature-positive, equitable and efficient agricultural support, we can improve livelihoods, and at the same time cut emissions, protect and restore ecosystems, and reduce the use of agrochemicals.”
The UN’s report highlighed cases where such a process began to include the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that adopted a policy of Zero Budget Natural Farming and the 2006 reform of agricultural policies in China that supports decreased use of mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides.
Although FAO explained that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for repurposing agricultural producer support, the report recommends a broad six-step approach for governments.
“Measuring the support provided, understanding its positive and negative impacts, identifying repurposing options, forecasting their impacts, refining the proposed strategy and detailing its implementation plan. Finally, monitoring the implemented strategy, “the report advised.
