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Participatory policy development for sustainable agriculture and rural development

Guidelines from the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development – Farming Systems Evolution Project

Year of publication 2005

Pages 60

Author Marcelino Avila; Frederic Deve; Paul Mundy

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development - Farming Systems Evolution project of FAO (GCP/INT/819/MUL) aims to strengthen the capacity of government and non-government stakeholders to improve policies and institutions to achieve sustainable agriculture and rural development. The project studied how selected farming systems in Honduras, Mali and the Philippines have evolved over the long term. Each case study identified the driving forces, current strengths and weaknesses of these farming systems, analyzed future scenarios, and identified policy priorities and actions for achieving sustainable agriculture and rural development. The project used participatory, bottom-up approaches and tools to ensure that the knowledge, priorities and views of stakeholders at all levels, including local rural communites and poor people, were taken into account. The case study integrates the cultural, social, economic and environmental dimensions in the analysis of sustainability at local, territorial and national levels. The SARD-FSE project, supported by the governments of France and Japan, was implemented with the Programme for Sustainable Agriculture on Sloping Lands of Central America (PASOLAC) in Honduras, the Institute of Rural Economics (IER) in Mali and the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) in the Philippines.

Language English

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    A principle of sustainability is that we pass on to the next generation a stock of resources that is at least as productive as the stock we have today. However, since it is neither necessary nor rational to strive to make every sub-system sustainable, this principle needs to be applied at the highest relevant system level. It is also not necessary and not even possible to pass on an enhanced stock of every type of resource. Substitution of resources will be possible as future generations substit ute resources that are relatively more abundant for those that have grown scarce. In agriculture, the substitution of human capital - in the shape of knowledge about improved technologies - for land and labour, has been important in the past and will be at least as important in the future. Policy objectives for SARD may be summed up as the pursuit of the goals of growth, equity, efficiency and sustainability. Growth is important to meet the food needs of growing populations with rising income s and to provide continued sustainable livelihoods for rural people in the future. Equity is important in terms of the relief of poverty and deprivation for this and future generations. Efficiency matters since we cannot afford to waste resources. Finally, sustainability is the objective that has come into increased prominence with the recognition of the significant threats that exist to future welfare and the environment. Sustainability has many dimensions and interpretations but, in the contex t of agriculture, embraces food security, responsibility in resource use and environmental management, and the resilience of production systems to shocks and challenges. There is interdependence between each of these four objectives, so that the pursuit of SARD requires an integrated approach to policy making in which all four aspects are considered.
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