Chapter 1


It is often assumed that lack of food security and poverty are major causes of environmental
degradation. Undoubtedly these are factors in the expansion of agricultural land into forest
areas, in deforestation in search of fuel and in soil erosion because of cultivation of
unsuitable land for cropping. In many cases it is food insecure families who cause this
degradation in their quest for a way of meeting their food needs. It is argued that the poor
have short time horizons and cannot afford to invest in soil conservation programmes./
Certainly, if these families could meet their basic needs in other ways, they would most
likely prefer to do so. There is little evidence that the poor are unaware of the impact they)
have on their environment.

However, there are other factors involved. There is the issue of ownership of the resources
involved. Often cultivation of virgin land is extended (or, in the case of fishing, stocks
exhausted) by the rich who are not acting to secure their food but to feed the developed
world, from the expansion of commercial agriculture, livestock rearing and fishing. Issues of
chemical run-off and pollution, of conflict over water use, are more prevalent in developed
economies.

Often the market system does not value resources properly. Farmers hesitate to invest in
land, because they have no way to recover that investment in the market place, or they have
 no way to enforce their property rights. Institutional structures may be inadequate.

 There are hopeful examples of projects which appear to have been successful. In a highly
 densely populated area of Kenya, against the received wisdom, farmers were successfully
 encouraged to interplant their crops with new economically profitable trees, thus reducing
 future soil erosion. There have been successful reforestation schemes in areas of India. Much
 depends on the institutional structure and the involvement of local communities.
 Technologies have to have a positive return to participants' time.

 In the long run, there is no conflict between the preservation of land and water resources and
 food security. Without adequate land and water, there is no food security. In the short run,
 there may be real conflict for poor families. Research must continue into developing
 conservation technologies which are attractive to resource-poor households and identifying
 and modifying institutional barriers to environmental protection.

 4. The Role of Increasing Food Production in Achieving Food Security

 4.1 Agriculture as an engine for poverty reduction

 In a study for the World Food Summit, FAO shows that, of 93 developing countries.
 classified by share of population living in rural areas, and per caput food supply (using 1990
 data), no country with over 75% of its population in rural areas had a per caput food supply
 greater than 22 500calories erday. All countries with over 3,000 calories per day per caput
 food supply ad less t an 60% of its population in rural areas. There was a strong negative
 correlation between the two variables.