Crop Production
Agriculture is a source of livelihoods for an estimated 86 percent of rural people (WDR 2008). Crops provide over 84 per cent of the world’s food. The projected increases in the global human population together with an improved diet indicate that current production of agricultural products will need to increase substantially over the next few decades. There will be a need for increased grain production and horticultural crops - where wheat, rice and maize together supply about 60 per cent of the total carbohydrate and horticultural products contribute to an improved and balanced diet.
Low income rural groups are wage-earners, mostly casual and seasonal workers, small-holders engaging in subsistence or traditional cash crop cultivation, raising small livestock, undertaking a range of off-farm activities with low return, and often combining two or more of these activities. Crop production will hence remain critical for poverty reduction and the generation of rural employment and income.
Past increases in agricultural production have occurred as a result of both extensification and intensification. As available land and water resources dwindle in many developing countries, future growth in food production will have to come from further intensification of agriculture in both the high- and low-potential areas. Common problems associated with crop intensification include the excessive and inappropriate use of fertilizers and pesticides, which contributes to the deterioration of water quality and poses serious human health hazards for farm labourers and the rural population, while leading to resistance of pests to pesticides.
FAO’s work on sustainable production intensification and crop diversification uses the ecosystem management approach to enhance quantity and quality of food and feed produced and to enhance income for the improvement of livelihoods of the rural poor.
Crop production activities at FAO build on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) using the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach to train hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers in developing countries. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) means the careful consideration of all available pest control techniques and subsequent integration of appropriate measures that discourage the development of pest populations and keep pesticides and other interventions to levels that are economically justified and reduce or minimize risks to human health and the environment. IPM emphasizes the growth of a healthy crop with the least possible disruption to agro-ecosystems and encourages natural pest control mechanisms. The FFS approach is a discovery based method to empower individuals and communities, with a specific focus on women farmers, to work towards sustainable development of their own livelihoods through improved crop and pest management and decision making. Training modules on workers’ health and safety have been developed by some FFS programmes, for example in Burkina Faso with support from FAO’s Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division (ESW).
The crop intensification approach falls in line with the principles of the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). A GAP protocol can serve as a reference tool for deciding at each step in the production process (e.g. seed choice, soil preparation, weed control, etc), on practices and/or outcomes that are environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable, in order to produce safe and high quality crops in an economically sustainable manner. The implementation of GAP can contribute to improve social welfare by promoting fairer conditions of employment, including the choice of less hazardous agricultural technologies. FAO and ILO can jointly encourage public and private developers of GAP protocols to fully incorporate social welfare issues and the needs of farm labour into protocols and standards.
FAO’s work on pesticide risk reduction on farm includes the promotion of Integrated Pest Management to reduce the overall use of pesticides, the selection of less hazardous products when pesticide are used as a last resort, and application of precautionary measures to reduce risks on health and the environment. Regulatory control of pesticides is being improved by strengthening policies, regulatory systems and enforcement, and the implementation of the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticide. Practical, thematic Guidelines of the Code of Conduct cover pesticide equipment, pesticide policy, regulations and enforcement, pesticide dealers and traders, training and awareness, pesticide registration and more. Special attention is being paid to the phasing out of highly toxic pesticides. FAO provides the Secretariat for the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, which creates legally binding obligations covering the trade of pesticides and industrial chemicals that have been banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons. FAO also implements a Programme on the Prevention and Disposal of Obsolete Pesticides.
ILO and FAO have recently joined their efforts on the promotion of agriculture and decent work in Liberia. Liberia emerged from 14 years of a war that devastated its economy in 2005. With a guesstimate unemployment figure of about 85 per cent, the creation of jobs through labour intensive approaches, using appropriate methods to engage the large numbers of unskilled youth was a top priority for the Government of Liberia. Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, addressed the International Labour Conference in June 2006 to call for decent job creation for Liberians (see: press release on H.E. Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf). As a result, an overall employment strategy for decent work in Liberia has been formulated by the Government with ILO assistance, which was launched in July 2006. Agriculture was identified as a vital sector for a successful employment strategy, and the Government of Liberia developed an employment promotion sub-strategy focused on agriculture to increase agriculture’s capacity to generate revenue, employment and self-employment along the agricultural product value chain. Within this framework, in partnership with the FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture, the ILO conducted a study (i) to help identify the required technology and technical skills together with other measures to revive production and jobs in agriculture, particularly in rubber plantations, crop production (rice and cassava), horticulture and livestock; and (ii) to assess the capacity of agriculture (crops and livestock) in Liberia to generate revenue, employment and self-employment for youth, women and displaced persons, which represent the unemployed and underemployed, in the short, medium and long term.
In Mozambique, one of the pilot countries selected for the implementation of the UN “Delivering as One”, ILO and FAO have agreed to strengthen their collaboration on the Human Capital Pillar of UNDAF, the Cooperating Partners for Education, the Gender Coordination Group and the Gender Programme evolving within the framework of the MDG Achievement Funds (funded by Spain). Achievement of the joint FAO/ILO work are: the establishment of inter-sectoral linkages between Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Labour; the implementation of the WIND (Work Improvement in Neighbourhood Development) ILO’s methodology; the provision of training programmes on gender mainstreaming for government and UN officials; and sharing of training materials and research studies.
Contacts
FAO Focal Point: Anne Sophie Poisot, AGPP (AnneSophie.Poisot@fao.org)
